Customer Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry: A Case Study from Sicily

In order to be successful in the market it is not sufficient to attract new customers managers must concentrate onretaining existing customers implementing effective policies of customer satisfaction and loyalty. In hotelindustry customer satisfaction is largely hooked upon quality of service. A management approach focused oncustomer satisfaction can improve customer loyalty, thus increasing the positive image of the touristicdestination. Hence, exploring the importance for customers of hotel attributes in hotel selection is indispensable.Research on the topic of guest satisfaction, which translates into the consideration of whether or not customerswill return to a hotel or advise it to other tourists, is pivotal to the success of the hospitality business. Neglectingto pay attention to those hotel attributes considered most important by guests, may lead to negative evaluation ofthe hotel, thus restricting the chance of repeat patronage. We perform a qualitative analysis of a large hotel inSicily (IT), the Sporting Club Hotel in the town Cefalù, using the Critical Incident Approach (Hayes, 2008).Through the analysis of this case we evaluate the overall customer satisfaction level for the hotel and for eachservice supplied. We conclude discussing the result and proposing improvement in customer satisfactionmanagement of the hotel.