International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318

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International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhm

Guest satisfaction & dissatisfaction in luxury hotels: An application of big T

data
Panchapakesan Padma, Jiseon Ahn
⁎

School of Tourism, Hospitality, and Events, Taylor's University Lakeside Campus, Subang Jaya, Selangor Darul Ehsan, 47500, Malaysia

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: In order to understand the pivotal attributes of luxury hotel service in Malaysia, this study analyses big data in
Luxury hotel service the form of online reviews, as available in TripAdvisor. The content analysis, which was performed using the
Online review word frequency analysis has revealed that the main themes of luxury hotel service quality include hotel-related
Service quality attributes, room-related attributes, staff-related attributes, travel-related attributes, and possible outcomes. The
Satisfaction
critical incident technique has also been performed to examine the antecedents and outcomes of hotel guests’
Dissatisfaction
Post-purchase behavior
satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In this study, quality of rooms and interaction with employees have been de-
termined as major drivers of customers’ word of mouth and revisit intentions. This study contributes with an
empirical analysis of particular features of textual context and discussion of the concept of luxury service in the
developing countries has been largely neglected so far.

1. Introduction
In the era of post-crisis, luxury spending has been growing steadily
due to consumer demand. The global luxury market is currently esti-
mated to be 1.2 trillion euros, and 80 percent of this growth has been
contributed by luxury products and luxury services (Bain and Company,
2017). In the tourism and hospitality industry, the concept of luxury is
gaining attention. For instance, luxury travel accounts for 20% of global
travel spending and is expected to grow to $1,154 billion by 2022 (ITB,
2017/ 2018). In the developed countries such as the United States and
the United Kingdom, understanding customers’ behavior in the luxury
industry is important because of its impact on the national and global
economy (Audita and Marck, 2017). Recently, also in the non-western
countries, luxury markets have been gaining importance due to their
supply chain dominance, technological innovation and international
investment (Deloitte, 2018).
Asia has emerged as the new luxury market for hotels and tourism,
especially for the millennials who demand affordable luxury services
(TopHotel, 2017). In Asia, Malaysia has experienced active growth in
its tourist arrival number each year since 2009. This growth has been
spurred by the growth in international tourism and Malaysia’s Ministry
of Tourism initiatives such as F1 Petronas Grand Prix at Sepang, Colours
of Malaysia cultural performance and, the Floral Festival in Putrajaya.
The country’s tourism campaign, “Malaysia – truly Asia” has been
promoted not only in other Asian countries but also in the Middle East
and the West (Al-Alak, 2014). Malaysia is also focused on increasing the
average length of international tourist stay from 6.4 days to 8 days and
this has driven the growth in the luxury hotel segment.
Although researchers and practitioners agree on the importance of
understanding the luxury service sector, there are limited studies on
methodologies to predict customers’ future behavior. Specifically, the
author identified three gaps in the previous literature. First, customers’
behavior is different across the types of hotels. For instance, compared
to economy hotel consumers, luxury hotel consumers tend to care more
about location and service quality rather than monetary value (Zhang
et al., 2011). Second, service quality has gained focus in luxury hotels
recently, but there has been limited research in understanding the
service quality as sources of guest satisfaction and dissatisfaction (Chu
et al., 2016). Third, there is a dearth of studies on luxury service in the
developing countries (Gilbert and Horsnell, 1998; Knutson et al., 1993;
Nebel et al., 1994; Wu and Liang, 2009). In the context of Malaysia,
Ministry of Tourism has classified four-star and five-star hotels as
luxury hotels. However, it is not evident from the literature if this
classification system takes into consideration the quality expectations of
hotel guests. Considering the economic impact of tourism and hospi-
tality sector for a developing country, providing guidelines to service
providers and policy makers is critical to augment its benefit on the
economy (Dwyer and Forsyth, 1993).
Thus, the main objective of this research is to understand the luxury
hotel attributes which contribute to Malaysian guests’ satisfaction and

⁎
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Padma.Panchapakesan@taylors.edu.my (P. Padma), Jiseon.Ahn@taylors.edu.my (J. Ahn).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102318
Received 15 February 2019; Received in revised form 4 June 2019; Accepted 6 June 2019
Available online 13 June 2019
0278-4319/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
P. Padma and J. Ahn
their dissatisfaction by using big data. In order to achieve the objec-
tives, the authors used qualitative content analysis and revealed the
important attributes of luxury hotel customers’ satisfaction and dis-
satisfaction. The proposed approach also provides useful guidelines for
the effective use of social media. The major contribution of the present
study is related to understanding the changing nature of hospitality and
tourism industry in the developing countries. The paper provides a
comprehensive review of customers’ behavior in the luxury hotel con-
text, along with reviews of literature in this domain. Regarding key
concepts and attributes related to service quality of luxury that intend
to shape future research directions. Some managerial implications for
luxury service providers to understand how online reviews can help
luxury hotel brands to attain positive word of mouth behavior, are also
provided.
2. Literature review
2.1. Service quality and customers’ satisfaction in the hotel context
One of the earliest works in service quality, proposed by
Parasuraman et al. (1985,1988) measures customer satisfaction as the
gap between expected service and perceived service. The concept of
service quality has been popular and considerable subject by both
practitioners and researchers more than two decades. In the previous
studies, the researchers have demonstrated the impact of service quality
on customers’ decision-making process (Zeithaml et al., 1996). In line
with this, service quality is critical in the hospitality and tourism in-
dustry (Rauch et al., 2015). For instance, in the hotel industry, the
exploratory study by Akan (1995), which examined the relevance of
Service Quality (SERVQUAL) in Turkish hotels was an early work. The
study identified new dimensions (viz., the accuracy of speed of service,
solutions to problems, communication, and transactions, etc.) of service
quality and determined their importance to the customers. Also, in the
previous studies, researchers have suggested that service quality ex-
pectations may vary depending on individual needs. Poria et al. (2011),
in their study on Israeli hotel guests with a disability, found that the
guests encountered challenges in terms of both physical environment
and service interactions. Wong et al. (2018) revealed that a well-de-
signed mobile website was essential to satisfy hotel guests’ needs and
both usability and functionality dimensions influenced the guests’
perceptions of the hotel. However, the concept of quality has evaded
the domain of luxury hospitality, e.g., star hotels, fine-dining restau-
rants, resorts, and spas, for a long time.
Recently, service quality has gained focus on luxury hotels in the
developing countries. For instance, Mohsin et al. (2011) examined the
quality of service in Pakistani hotels. They concluded that room service,
cleanliness and comfort and complaints handling were the most im-
portant areas to focus, given the importance ratings of guests. Rhee and
Yang (2015) compared guests’ expectations and their actual experience
in luxury hotels. Through conjoint analysis, they found that the im-
portance of hotel attributes varied based on the classification of hotels.
While “rooms” was the most important attribute to hotel guests, “lo-
cations” was the least important attribute. Allan (2016) in a study on
Ghanian luxury hotels found that even though all the dimensions of
SERVQUAL influenced customer retention, tangibles and reliability
were the most crucial drivers of retention. Cetin and Walls (2016) in-
vestigated luxury hotel experiences of guests in Turkey. They found that
amenities, design, and symbols were the most important attributes of
the physical environment, meanwhile, staff professionalism, attentive-
ness and attitude towards guests as well as interactions with other
guests were the most pivotal attributes of social interactions which
influenced guests’ experience.
It is observed that research on service quality in luxury hotels in the
developing countries is limited, especially, the link between service
quality and customers’ satisfaction/dissatisfaction. Thus, the current
literature on service quality in luxury hotels has only employed
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318
SERVQUAL model and has not attempted to test the dimensions of
service quality from competing models. There is also a lack of studies
validating the perceptions of guests and employing other methods of
data collection such as content analysis, observation or ethnography.
2.2. Luxury hotel industry in Malaysia
Several studies have been conducted in Malaysia to understand
customers’ behavior in the luxury hotel context. Lau et al. (2005), in
their study on Malaysian hotels, revealed that tangibility was the most
important factor impacting overall satisfaction of customers, in both 4-
star and 5-star hotels. Hence, these hotels should emphasize tangibles in
their marketing strategies. Al-alak (2014) reported significant differ-
ences between luxury hotel guests’ expectations and their actual ex-
perience and it was essential to improve the courtesy aspect of service.
Furthermore, improving perceived value was also essential from the
perceptions of luxury hotel guests. Amin et al. (2013) confirmed the
significant association between service quality and guest satisfaction in
the Malaysian hotel industry, while Liat et al. (2014) revealed that
service quality, image and guest satisfaction were significantly related
to guest loyalty, which was essential for long-term profitability and
business sustainability.
Khoo-Lattimore and Ekiz (2014) studied the quality of five-star
hotels through online reviews and revealed that guest compliments fell
into five major categories, namely, rooms, staff, food, services, and
location. The research also indicated that the guests appreciated room
upgrades, late checkouts, limousine pick-ups and free shuttle service to
the airport as of the features of service which resulted in guest delight.
Ali (2015), in a study on Malaysian resort hotels, determined that better
perceptions of hotel ambiance and staff courtesy, food and beverage
products, staff performance and knowledge, reservation services and
financial value were more likely to develop customer satisfaction. The
current research addresses the above-identified gaps by analyzing guest
satisfaction/ dissatisfaction in luxury hotels by making use of big data
on online customer reviews.
3. Methods
3.1. Utilizing online reviews to understand luxury hotel guests’ behavior
One of the best ways to understand guests’ preferences is to analyze
their feedback (Pullman et al., 2005). An analysis of guest comments
has been utilized to improve the service and also to make use of hotel
resources effectively (Kreck, 1998). In this regard, many researchers
have evaluated the quality of online hotel channels and hotel websites
(e.g. Law and Cheung, 2006; O’Connor, 2008). Research has also been
carried out in terms of hotel reviews and guests’ purchase decisions.
O’Connor (2008) found that room-related attributes such as the size of
the room, bathroom, bed, and shower were of the utmost concern for
hotel guests in London. Li and Hitt (2010) indicated the negative impact
of price on online hotel reviews, which indicate satisfaction. Jang and
Moutinho (2019) concurred with this result and further affirmed that
luxury hotel guests perceived large price discounts negatively as it did
not corroborate their status identity and conspicuousness.
In line with the previous studies, in order to analyze the luxury hotel
service attributes associated with guests’ satisfaction and dissatisfac-
tion, this study used both content analysis and critical incident tech-
nique. Content analysis is defined as qualitative research mothed to
interpret the content of text data using a systematic classification pro-
cess including coding and identifying themes or patterns (Hsieh and
Shannon, 2005). In the hospitality and tourism literature, content
analysis has been widely used because it provides a knowledge and
understanding of the phenomenon (Ahn and Back, 2018; Leung et al.,
2017; Mohammed et al., 2015; Xiang et al., 2015a,b). Although the
content analysis is useful to describe the content and social relations, it
cannot explain multiple meaning. In order to overcome this
P. Padma and J. Ahn
Fig. 1. Research progress.
disadvantage, the critical incident technique was employed. The critical
incident technique refers to as a set of procedures for systematically
identifying behaviors about a particular phenomenon to gain insights
(Smith, 2006). In recent times, the researchers used qualitative data
analysis using user-generated content. For instance, many research
studies have been performed using online reviews on platforms such as
FaceBook, Airbnb, TripAdvisor, etc (e.g. Bridges and Vásquez, 2018;
Villamediana-Pedrosa et al., 2018). The procedure used for data ana-
lysis is explained in Fig. 1.
3.2. Data collection
The importance of understanding online reviews in online travel
agencies was suggested in the previous tourism and hospitality studies
(Ahn et al., 2019; Torres et al., 2015; Xie et al., 2014). Especially,
TripAdvisor has been considered as one of the most prominent online
review sites for hotels (Torres et al., 2015). TripAdvisor (2013) allows
customers to share their experiences and this information takes into
account the rankings. From TripAdvisor which is the world’s largest and
most popular travel site, the authors obtained customers’ reviews (Levy
et al., 2013). The online reviews along with numeric ratings in Tri-
pAdvisor was collected in 2019. Four hotels with 5-star rating were
selected based on the number of reviews. 800 customers’ reviews were
randomly picked for the content analysis. The two authors of this study
read these reviews to ensure whether the content of those reviews was
relevant to the customers’ experiences with luxury hotels. The results of
the internal validity came out customers’ revised were divided into two
categories, satisfaction, and dissatisfaction. Fig. 2 displays a screenshot
of customers’ review page from TripAdvisor, where customers can ex-
press their experience using star ratings (anchored from 1 to 5) and
comments.
Xiang et al.’s (2015a,b) process of word frequency analysis was
applied. By using the word frequency analysis, the authors classified
service quality related attributes from online reviews and synthesizing
previous research on service quality of luxury hotel brands. An addi-
tional analysis was conducted to determine whether categories of ser-
vice quality differed between complaints reviews (rating 1–2) and
complement reviews (rating 4 and 5). After the authors complete the
word frequency analysis, the authors conducted the critical incident
technique to discuss the findings and provide the insight and oppor-
tunities of managing service quality in luxury hotel brands using online
reviews.
3.3. Results
Table 1 provides the list of the 40 service quality-related words
using word-frequency in the first phase of the analysis that was used to
explain customers’ experience and their total frequency. By using text-
mining software (KH Coder), the author extracted frequently used
words representing important aspects of customers’ experiences. These
words were categorized into service quality themes including (1) hotel-
related attributes such as “restaurant “, breakfast “, “food “, “pool”,
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318
“booking”, “buffet”, “lounge”, “bar”, and “check-in”, (2) room-related
attributes such as “floor”, “view”, “clean”, “bed”, “table”, “comfor-
table”, and “bathroom”, (3) staff-related attributes such as “staff”,
“manager”, “friendly” and “polite”, (4) travel-related attributes such as
“Tower”, “KL”, “KLCC”, “walk”, “taxi”, and “business”, and (5) possible
consequences such as “recommend”. Table 2 shows the results of the
categorization of the frequently used words in luxury hotel customers’
online reviews via TripAdvisor.
Then the critical incident technique was used to identify customers’
critical behaviors such as satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The two au-
thors of this study reviewed reviews to identify important attributes of
customers’ evaluation of experiences with luxury hotel. The results
showed that room-related attributes and staff-related attributes were
the most important determinants of guest satisfaction/ dissatisfaction.
When guests experienced satisfaction with the guestroom (e.g., clean-
liness, view, aesthetics, and size), they provided positive feedback
through online travel platform. Further, guests’ positive experience
with service employees also influenced their positive evaluation. On the
other hand, when guests’ expectations towards the room-related attri-
butes and service delivery were not met, they evaluated their luxury
hotel experiences with negative comments. During the second phase of
the data analysis, critical incident technique was used in order to sup-
port the results of word frequency analysis. The critical incident tech-
nique is useful in identifying and analyzing user-generated online
comments (Lee et al., 2018). Thus, the authors used the critical incident
technique to classify the observations as incidents of success or failure
of delivering service quality in the luxury hotel setting. As seen in
Table 3, customers felt satisfied when luxury hotels provided spacious,
comfortable, clean, quiet rooms with a pleasant view in the words of a
guest:
“Room was large, spacious and comfortable, our room was on the
14th floor so quite low down this large hotel but it worked ok for us.
The hairdryer in the room had a fault but they very quickly resolved
this.”
Furthermore, positive interactions of guests with luxury hotel staff
resulted in guests’ positive evaluation of the service One of the guests
stated the experience as follows.
“The hotel staff were extremely helpful and welcoming, something
that makes a big difference.”
Hotel-related attributes such as the variety of facilities and check-in
service and travel related issues such as location also influenced guest
satisfaction. Most importantly, the authors found the positive con-
sequence of guest satisfaction with the luxury hotel experiences such as
positive word of mouth intention and revisit intention.
“We were only here for a stopover night, but we thoroughly enjoyed
it and would recommend it as a great place to stay. “
In contrast, guests left negative comments when luxury hotels failed
to meet their expectations. For instance, low quality of guestrooms such
as very cold temperature and poor lighting in the room led to guest
dissatisfaction. One of the negative reviews was:
“Lighting in the room is very poor.”
In addition, the negative attitude of employees such as lack of
knowledge and professionalism, rudeness and unfairness, was asso-
ciated with guest dissatisfaction. Maintaining-low quality facilities and
providing mediocre hotel service also influenced guest dissatisfaction.
One of the guests commented as:
“Disappointing experience. The duty manager wasn't properly
trained as well - there is no excuse in getting the name of your guest
wrongly, particularly when you are writing a note to apologize for /
explain an earlier incident. Everyone deserves a second chance but
unfortunately these two front desk employees that I interacted with
P. Padma and J. Ahn International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318

Fig. 2. Screenshot of TripAdvisor website page.

Table 1 squandered both chances that were given. Arthur's bar was so-so,
Top 40 words in on luxury hotel reviews. and room service was average. This is the first terrible rating I have
Word Fre. Word Fre. Word Fre. Word Fre.
provide on TripAdvisor.”
The authors found that negative experiences of guests’ luxury hotel
hotel 1399 club 182 pay 138 bed 108
room 1306 guest 182 bar 137 drink 108 experiences resulted in their negative word of mouth as seen below.
service 550 lounge 181 excellent 132 people 104
“I would like to warn other people about this hotel - if your not
view 381 experience 171 friendly 130 comfortable 98
breakfast 370 location 168 recommend 126 enjoy 97 careful and remember everything you consume of extras in the
KL 296 tower 161 KLCC 123 business 93 hotel, they might just charge your credit card the amount they be-
floor 268 amazing 143 lobby 123 buffet 90 lieve you owe them after you have checked out and you are long
food 262 clean 140 manager 121 bathroom 88
gone. “
pool 222 restaurant 140 walk 113 price 85
booking 194 place 139 wait 111 quality 82 Important antecedents and consequences of service quality in the
luxury hotel setting were identified by integrating content analysis and
critical incident technique. Table 4 displays examples of negative
Table 2 comments.
Theme of frequently used words.
Findings of this study are differentiated with the existing study on
Hotel-related Room-related Staff-related Travel- Possible luxury hotels in terms of examining possible antecedents and con-
attributes attributes attributes related outcomes sequences of customers’ behavior (Table 5). For instance, while both
attributes
the current research and study of Chen and Peng (2014) examine guest
Restaurant Floor Service KL Recommend loyalty, this study focuses on the positive/ negative word of mouth
Breakfast View Manager Tower behaviour of guests and not their staying behaviour. In contrast to
Food Clean Friendly KLCC Khoo-Lattimore and Ekiz (2015)’ study, the current research found that
Pool Bed People Walk
offering free shuttle service and luxury amenities in the guestroom may
Booking Comfortable Wait Business
Buffet Bathroom not lead luxury hotel customers’ satisfaction in Malaysia.
Lounge
Bar 4. Discussion
Drink
Lobby
Price
The user-generated online review has become an important source
of understanding customers’ experience and predict their future beha-
vior. Especially, in the tourism and hospitality industry, customers’
online reviews about their previous experiences have been widely used
to understand the influential factors in customers’ evaluation of service
experience. This study attempted to fill a gap in luxury service literature

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P. Padma and J. Ahn International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318

Table 3
Examples of customers’ positive reviews.
Themes Comments

Hotel-related attributes • The breakfast is delicious, offering a vast selection which caters to all dietary needs and tastes.
• Skybar had a Halloween themed night and it was great to see people getting into the spirit of the event with some amazing costumes.
• Check in is at reception on level 5, it was efficient, as was checkout and the final bill was accurate.
Room-related attributes • The room was spacious and comfortable and the bathroom had a separate tub/shower which I always appreciate.
• Chose a room with a view of the Petronas Towers and we were not disappointed as it had a great view.
• Room felt bigger than it was, bed was comfy, enjoyed the couch and seat.
Staff-related attributes • The hotel staff were extremely helpful and welcoming, something that makes a big difference.
• Service was good, everyone was friendly and willing to answer any questions I had. Special shout out to the maid staff as I'm a slob and they did a
great job, replenished towels and water every day.
• Staff was very polite and helpful and I was given some lovely chocolates and a bouquet upon arrival which helped to add a feeling of being personally
looked after by the hotel staff.
Travel-related attributes • Location is good, a bit quiet in the area but you can walk to KLCC and Pavilion covered the whole way which was convenient when it was raining.
• Good hotel in great location, also it’s worth finding the Bukit Bintang walkway if you want to go and visit another retail mail away from Petronas
towers and the mall there.
• Convenient for the hop on hop off bus also for the city tour as it's connected to the convention centre where the bus stops at.
Possible outcomes • We were only here for a stopover night but we thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it as a great place to stay.
• I would definitely look to stay at Traders again in the future if the price was right.
• On the whole, it was still a positive experience, and we will likely consider returning to Traders the next time we are back in KL.

by identifying service quality related attributes using luxury hotel
customers’ online reviews in Malaysia.
First, the major finding of the study is the identification of four types
of service attributes such as hotel-related, room-related, staff-related,
and travel-related attributes, which help us in understanding customers’
reviews as critical incidents in predicting their future behavior. Second,
it is observed from the results of this research that luxury hotel guests
have much higher expectations than non-luxury hotel guests. The
guests from luxury hotels expect consistent superior quality across the
experience journey across their “moments of truth”. In the context of
luxury hotels, service excellence has to be delivered to delight the
guests as indicated by the existing literature (e.g. Padma and
Wagenseil, 2018). Service excellence is characterized by going the extra
mile, delivering the promise, dealing with the problems, and persona-
lization (Johnston, 2007). Thus, the present research has shown
through critical incident technique that when luxury hotel guests find
these elements missing, they become dissatisfied and spread negative
word of mouth.
Third, the current research also throws light on the differences in
perceptions between luxury hotel guests and the budget hotel guests.
The luxury hotel guests seem to have specific expectations related to
their rooms, with respect to the size, cleanliness, view from the balcony,
etc. This finding is similar to that of Rhee and Yang (2015) who men-
tioned that US guests’ expectations rose higher with an increase in room
price and the budget hotel guests only expected the rooms to be of good
quality. Unlike budget hotel guests, luxury hotel guests do not seem to
be bothered about sleep quality (except for one negative review re-
garding sleep). In addition, from the current research, it is evident that
guests in luxury hotels tend to focus on comfortable and spacious
rooms, a pleasant view from the room, warm welcome, etc. Thus,
luxury hotel guests expect delight attributes, while those staying in
budget hotels would concentrate on basic attributes such as value, lo-
cation and clean rooms (Shanahan and Hyman, 2007).
Fourth, guests’ interaction with the luxury hotel employees also
influenced their word of mouth behavior. Luxury hotel guests appeared
to value both room-related and staff-related attributes when they
evaluate the experience. This finding is different from that of research
on hotels with lower star ratings or budget hotels where guests look for
a discount price or service value (e.g. Knutson et al., 1993). Service
quality of the luxury hotel influenced customers’ both positive and
negative post-purchase behavior. Once guests are satisfied with the
service quality of the luxury hotel, they tend to reuse the same service
providers and recommend to families and friends. On the other hand, if
luxury hotels fail to deliver a high quality of service, guests are less
likely to revisit the same hotel and spread the negative word via online
travel websites. This finding is similar to the results in the existing
literature (Stringam and Gerdes, 2010; Khoo-Lattimore and Ekiz, 2014).
Through these findings, this study has provided the procedure to use

Table 4
Examples of customers’ negative reviews.
Themes Comments

Hotel-related attributes • The keycards were barely functional and had to be reset repeatedly for the lift and the room.
• The pool area was terrible. The pool is right next to the bar, with cones around it. My first impression was that it was out of order. There is yellow and
black tape haphazardly stuck to the wooden rim that goes along beside the pool. Also the metal work of the sides of the pool were in view rather than
having a neat 5* finish.
• Disinterested Concierge had no ideas about their own city.
Room-related attributes • Lighting in the room is very poor.
• Housekeeping does not keep the room tidy. He/she just made the bed and that's about it.
• The room itself was unremarkable with "views" of the building next door and a so-so bed.
Staff-related attributes • The hotel was good, but chatting to the staff disappointed in the way they are treated, with excessive enforced overtime and postponed/ cancelled off
days. Seriously if you are that busy get more staff!
• I am very unsatisfied with Trader's hotel staff. The hotel staff treat different customers differently. This is a very bad customer service standards.
• Staff have no clue what service is all about. Luggage took over an hour to arrive in room.
Travel-related attributes • There aren't many options for dinner that you can walk to.
• Traffic can be really bad there so we often had to find walking options.
Possible outcomes • I wouldn't stay here again as there are plenty of other hotels to choose from which provide the exceptional hospitality standards that I have
experienced in Malaysia. I have given this a low rating because I expected a lot more given that it was one of the more expensive hotels.
• Due to the attitude of this staff I wouldn't consider coming back again to this hotel, especially that we come to KL very often.
• I would like to warn other people about this hotel - if you are not careful and remember everything you consume of extras in the hotel, they might just
charge your credit card the amount they believe you owe them after you have checked out and you are long gone.

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P. Padma and J. Ahn International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318

Table 5
Examples of previous service quality studies in hotel context.
Authors Place Findings Comparison with the current study

Israeli et al (2010) India The study analyses crisis management perceptions of hotel The objective of the current research is to determine the attributes
managers in India. of guest satisfaction and dissatisfaction with luxury hotels through
online guest reviews.
Mohsin and Lockyer India It was found that luxury hotels had to improve their performance This study concurs with the findings of Mohsin and Lockyer (2010).
(2010) in every aspect right from the first moment of contact to check out
efficiency.
Mohsin et al (2011) Pakistan It was found that luxury hotels had to improve their performance This study concurs with the findings of Mohsin et al. (2011).
in almost every service attribute.
Al-Alak (2014) Malaysia The author revealed significant differences between guests' The current study does not investigate the service quality levels of
expectations and actual service they received. The luxury hotels in luxury hotels by comparing guests' expectations with their
Malaysia need to focus on enhancing their staff's courtesy to deliver perceptions. However, both studies conclude that luxury hotels in
quality service. Malaysia have a long way to go in terms of fulfilling guests' needs.
Chen and Peng (2014) China Symbolic and experiential values influence the hotel staying While both studies examine guest loyalty, this study focuses on the
behavior of Chinese consumers favorably. positive/ negative word of mouth behavior of guests and not their
staying behavior.
Heo and Hyun (2015) Hong Kong The main finding is luxury hotel amenities which are considered Though the current study examines the important luxury hotel
useful by guests, influence their willingness to pay positively. attributes which influence the satisfaction/ dissatisfaction of guests,
it does not examine their willingness to pay (more).
Khoo-Lattimore and Malaysia Going the extra mile in terms of services by offering room Both studies agree that failing to deliver a high quality of service
Ekiz (2015) upgrades, providing umbrellas, in-room massage, butler service will result in the guests' negative word of mouth. However, the
and free shuttle service are the attributes which guests compliment current study argues that offering free shuttle service and luxury
the hotels for. amenities in the guestroom might not be enough to increase guest
satisfaction. Hotel service providers should provide a better quality
of service during the entire customers’ stay including fast check-in,
clean and spacious guestroom, arranging for local travel, etc.
Rhee and Yang (2015) USA The study found that hotel attribute ratings varied with star The objective of the current research is to determine the attributes
classification. The guests valued service and cleanliness as of guest satisfaction and dissatisfaction with luxury hotels through
important attributes. online guest reviews.
Cetin and Walls (2016) Turkey The two main factors of guest experience are physical environment The main aim of the current study is to determine the factors
and social interactions. influencing guest satisfaction as well as their dissatisfaction.
Martin-Fuentez (2016) Global The author determined that the customer rating of hotels improved The present research examined the sources of guest satisfaction/
with the increase in number of stars. dissatisfaction in luxury hotels.
Hung (2017) Taiwan The study analysed online-offline positioning consistency and The main objective of this research is not positioning but examining
found that hotel website quality plays a significant role in online the attributes influencing guest satisfaction/ dissatisfaction with
positioning. However, the consistency between online website luxury hotels.
quality and offline star rating should not be neglected to acquire
and maintain customers in the long run.
Liu et al (2017) Macau Brand attitude mediates between brand awareness and purchase The current study does not investigate the relationship between
intention. brand awareness and purchase intention.

online reviews to understand guests’ experience and predict their future
behavior. The luxury hotels in Malaysia do not pay adequate attention
to the user-generated online reviews and not many of have them strong
social media presence. Thus, it is essential for the hotels to monitor
online reviews to keep up with changing guest needs and preferences.
Lastly, the findings of this study are differentiated with the previous
studies in customers’ behavior in the luxury hotel setting. For instance,
this study concurs with the findings of Mohsin and Loakyer (2010),
Mohsin et al. (2011) and Al-Alak (2014), i.e., luxury hotels in Malaysia
have to improve on their service to avoid gust dissatisfaction which
may lead to their negative word of mouth. The current study also agrees
with the research of Khoo-lattimore and Ekiz (2015) and reveals that
failing to deliver a high quality of service is more likely to result in the
guests' negative word of mouth. However, unlike the study of Khoo-
lattimore and Ekiz (2015), the current research argues that offering free
shuttle service and luxury amenities in the guestroom might not be
enough to increase customers’ satisfaction. Hotel service providers
should attempt to provide a better quality of service during the entire
journey of guests with the hotel at each moment of truth starting from
easy reservation, fast check-in, and including convenient concierge,
clean and spacious guestroom, welcoming staff members, and arranging
for local travel.
4.1. Theoretical implications
From a theoretical point of view, the findings of the present study
have expanded our understanding of the role played by service quality
in the luxury hotel setting. In particular, the proposed themes include
possible antecedents and outcomes which have not been so far reported
in the literature pertaining to luxury hotel service. The current study
agrees with the findings of other authors, Mohsin and Lockyer (2010);
Mohsin et al. (2011); Al-Alak (2014) and Khoo-Lattimore and Ekiz
(2015). In this regard, there are two major theoretical implications
provided by the current study, while these studies have failed to explore
the reasons behind the luxury hotel guests’ behaviour in Malaysia. First,
the hotel guests want customised services such as arranging for local
sightseeing, greetings and welcoming messages from staff, etc. They
also want the hotel staff to go extra mile and fulfil their needs. Ac-
cording to Johnston (2007), going extra mile and personalization are
dimensions of service excellence. Thus, luxury hotel guests in Malaysia
expect the hotels to go beyond delivering quality service and delight
them by offering excellent service.
Second, according to Hofstede (1998), Malaysian culture is char-
acterised by high power distance and low uncertainty avoidance. High
power distance at work indicates that employees are not empowered to
take decisions. In luxury hotel settings, when guests demand persona-
lised services, lack of authority to make decisions results in delay in
delivering service and influences the service perceptions adversely,
which, in turn, results in guest dissatisfaction and negative word of
mouth. Low uncertainty avoidance means people are more relaxed and
do not give importance to rules and protocols, which can introduce high
levels of ambiguity in service standards, especially with respect to
providing the right information and establishing transparent commu-
nication with guests. For example, some guests have complained that
the hotel staff treats different guests differently. Thus, high ambiguity
and not adhering to procedures can lead to guest dissatisfaction and

6
P. Padma and J. Ahn
result in negative online feedback.
Many studies in the existing literature using content analysis studies
have focused on quantifying the big data, and there is a lack of studies
which have applied the critical incident technique to understand cus-
tomers’ behavior. In the present study, the authors have used both
content analysis (i.e., word frequency analysis) and the critical incident
technique to understand customers’ online review behavior, post-pur-
chase. While the content analysis helped to uncover the major themes
related to luxury hotel service, critical incident technique identified the
specific service attributes which contributed to guest satisfaction and
dissatisfaction. The service quality research literature is replete with
factors influencing customer satisfaction/ dissatisfaction at a macro-
level and this study provides a holistic view by drilling down the micro-
level attributes which impact the guest satisfaction/dissatisfaction and
also their post-purchase behavior.
4.2. Managerial implications
The results of this study also have important implications for luxury
service providers. The results emphasize that importance of room-re-
lated quality such as cleanliness, pleasant view, comfort, quietness, and
amenities on guests’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction with the experi-
ence. Thus, in contrast to hotel service guests, luxury hotel guests have
specific expectations about room size and an associated view from a
balcony. They also expect a warm welcome message from the reception
while checking in. Therefore, the luxury hotel brand managers should
pay a lot of attention to personalizing the guest experience.
Service providers need to monitor current guests’ satisfaction across
various contact points. In contrast to the study of Khoo-Lattimore and
Ekiz (2014), the current study vies that offering free shuttle service and
luxury amenities in the guestroom might not be enough to increase
customers’ satisfaction. Instead, luxury hotel service providers should
attempt to provide a better quality of service during the entire custo-
mers’ stay including fast check-in, convenient concierge, clean and
spacious guestroom, welcoming staff members, and arranging for local
travel. This finding shows that luxury hotels have to go the extra mile to
fulfill their guests’ expectations. For example, luxury guests may expect
a private luxury car with a driver to drive them around the city based
on their needs. This finding shows that luxury hotels have to offer
personalized experiences to fulfil their guests’ expectations.
From the managerial side, hotel managers can use online reviews to
better understand customers’ experience. Online reviews are powerful
influencers of customers’ post-purchase behavior. Thus, managers
should use this user-generated platform to improve their service quality
and avoid possible service failure. The most frequently used words via
online reviews indicate important service attributes, which luxury
guests use for their evaluation. Not only current customers’ behavior,
but also online reviews influence potential customers’ decision-making
process. As Rhee and Yang (2015)’ suggested, guests are truthful in
their opinions while providing reviews online. Thus, as more and more
customers use the online travel platform, understanding and mon-
itoring online reviews becomes important. In this regard, it would be
essential for hotels to invest in staff training and online brand building
activities. The initial step towards such a goal would be to build trust
with the existing guests and receive positive online feedback. Further,
the luxury hotel staff in developing countries need to be trained in
cultivating the right attitude towards personalising guest experience
and going the extra mile to delight the guests. They also need to be
trained in cross-cultural communication and awareness. It is also es-
sential to monitor the online feedback of hotel guests to be updated
about their preferences.
4.3. Limitations and future research
Although the findings provide valuable information in the luxury
service setting, the present study has a number of limitations. The
7
International Journal of Hospitality Management 84 (2020) 102318
sample was composed mainly of guests who stayed at the luxury hotels
in Malaysia. Thus, in order to increase the understanding of general
luxury hotel customers’, the future study needs to widen the geographic
scope. Despite the strength of qualitative study for consumer research,
future studies can apply the quantitative method to examine the link
between service quality, satisfaction, and positive word of mouth in the
luxury hotel context. In-depth interviews with hotel managers can also
shed light on addressing the attributes of dissatisfaction. Examining the
differences between domestic and international guest satisfaction/
dissatisfaction is also an avenue for potential research.
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