[01] Carol Anne Hargreaves, Business Analytics, Institute of Systems Science, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore.

A key to profitability in the hospitality industry is a clear understanding of what leads to satisfied loyal customers. A comparison of customer satisfaction based on Location, Sleep quality, Rooms, Service quality, Value for money and Cleanliness as perceived by travellers was done among five hotels. This main objective of this study is to compare the servicer quality of hotels understudy by drawing perceptual maps for five major hotels in the Singapore market. This study attempts to seek answers to the following questions: How customers rate the services offered by a hotel? Which factors should be considered for evaluating the experience of the customer? Do customers perceive any difference between services rendered by different hotels? This paper applies statistical techniques to compare how customers rate different hotels. Data from an online website, Trip Advisor, was used to analyse and compare customer ratings on five hotels. Based on principal component analysis (PCA) results, we plot perceptual maps to show and compare how the 5 hotels differ on the 6 attributes. Perceptual maps with a combination of up to two variables (attributes) were drawn to infer about the positioning of five different hotels. Two factors were confirmed as the key drivers of the landscape for the hotel industry, ‘Quality of Stay’ and ‘Accessibility and Environment’. Suggestions for management improvements were made based on the customer ratings and reviews. This study will help marketers of hotels and hotel managers to enhance the satisfaction levels of travellers and to better understand how the hotels differ and where improvements can be made.

Perceptual Mapping, Hotel Ratings, Hotel Reviews, Service Quality, Hotel Industry, Customer Satisfaction, Customer Reviews, Singapore

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