Service quality evaluation in the tourist apartments industry: a segmented and weighted importancesatisfaction analysis

Abstract

Hospitality industry is highly competitive and meeting customer needs and expectations is essential today for consumer loyalty and business sustainability. This paper aims to develop an analytical framework to assist a sample of four complexes of tourist apartments in identifying and setting improvement priorities on their direct quality-based strategies. A synthetic service quality indicator adjusted by resources (SQIabr) through a weighted importance-satisfaction matrix has been created in order to analyze and rank the performance of each establishment. Data were obtained from 164 customer reviews for 47 service quality attributes and from two different segments: repeat and first-time tourists. Through segmentation, this study allows managers to identify differences between both user groups and implement more accurate planning and decision making strategies to enhance the quality of their services and, consequently, to improve their long-term success.