The Survey of the Service Quality. Application to a Hotel using the SERVQUAL Model

Quality is a subjective concept, which depends on the individual’s perceptions and expectations. These perceptions and expectations may be different one from the other and they may evolve in time. Quality is important for clients, for the personnel, it may contribute to reducing costs and may provide a better service for the same budget. The main results of the researches have taken shape into "conceptual models of the quality of the services" (Dotchin and Oakland, 1994; Juwaheer and Ross 2003; Eda Antilgan, et al., 2003). Some of these models can also be applied in tourism, but what is important for those working in this field is to know which these models are and how they can be used. I have chosen this field because lately people rely more and more, internationally, (49th UNWTO Commission for Europe) on the fact that tourism will be the surprise element which will help most countries to get out of the present crisis. The low quality of the services provided in the Romanian tourism is invoked wherever its evolution is being analyzed. As a consequence the hotels’ management should be permanently concerned by the quality of the services their hotels provide. This is why the present survey analyzes both the models to improve the quality of the tourist services, and what quality for the clients means, taking the example of a hotel in Bucharest and using the standard proceeding SERVQUAL. We found out from the survey that there are differences between the perceptions and the expectations of the clients, and that the most serious complaints of the clients of that hotel derive from responsiveness, seriousness and empathy. Knowing all this the managers can make future decisions, according to the requests of the clients.