TH2303

The Service Setting

Servicescape (Cornell& Manzano, 2022)
The servicescape (service setting/environment) is the actual physical environment where the act of service is
performed, delivered, and consumed. It is the area where the service team and the guest interact, so a constant
examination of how it affects the organization is needed. An example of a servicescape is the hotel's front desk,
the entire grounds of a theme park, the client rooms of a spa, the dining room of a restaurant, and the cabins
in an airplane.
Planning the servicescape is critical as it contributes to the overall mood of the guests while they are
experiencing the product and service of a tourism organization.
Theme
Many companies use a theme to create a feeling that guests are somehow immersed in another place and time
to provide guests with extraordinary experiences. Theming refers to giving a specific ambiance or programming
to an organization's service setting. It uses an overarching concept to create a holistic and integrated
organization of the guest experience. It includes the use of one concept or a group of concepts, such as the
paints used on the walls of a travel agency, sounds played at the hotel lobby, dishes served in a restaurant, and
their design elements such as the lines, textures, forms, and colors used.
In theming, it is crucial to be consistent with the three (3) components of the guest experience (service product,
service setting, and service delivery system). For instance, when an environment serves an integral part of the
dining experience, the theme of the setting within which the meal is presented needs to be consistent with the
food served. An example is a Medieval-themed restaurant that transports guests to an eleventh-century feast
and tournament, where knights joust on horseback and dinner is eaten without utensils, creating a feeling
within the guest that every part of the restaurant's environment is an accurate representation of that historical
period.
The following are the advantages when applying a theme in a tourism and hospitality organization:
● It creates a first impression that sets the guest's expectations for its products and services.
● It gives the guests something to talk about after they have gone home.
● It is an opportunity for the organization to add "wow" to the experience by providing more than the
guests expect.
● It enhances the guest's experience and makes it memorable.
● It creates an emotional connection with the experience.
The details of the environment and employees should be carefully themed, organized, and presented around
a unifying idea to create the feeling within the guest that every part of the environment accurately represents
what the guest might expect with their experience.
Paying attention to a tourism and hospitality organization's servicescape is essential because it influences the
guest's expectations, creates and maintains a mood, and positively affects the employees. It also serves as an
indirect way of service given to the guests since this usually is a part of how their experience will become
memorable. One way of ensuring that guests' experiences will become noteworthy and positive is by following
the principles of designing tourism hospitality establishments.

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Principles of Design for Tourism Establishments (Ford et al., 2019)

The following are the principles on how to design establishments for both guests and employees effectively:
● Everything should have a purpose. All areas of the land and spaces that a company occupies should
be with function, including natural elements (water areas, plants), forces of nature (wind, sun, rain)
and structures (buildings, utility areas, walkways). Although each part is individual, no element can
function without each other. There should be relationships (each element is planned with one another)
in planning the servicescape for the guests and employees.
● The design should be for both employees and guests. It is essential to consider the physical strengths
and weaknesses of the site when planning allocations of the servicescape. One must consider checking
if the design is for the guest's wants and needs or what the organization thinks the guest needs. There
should be a balance between the personal (guest) and impersonal (establishment) needs. For example,
during the allocation of spaces for an airport, the area intended to be the airport lobby with a glass
roof must not be placed in the direction of the sun to avoid too much heat.
● Function and aesthetics should be present. Function refers to the technical aspects of the operation,
such as the height of a chair to a table during a travel consultation between an employee and client. It
also includes the quality of material used in making that chair and the comfort it gives to the guest or
employee. Aesthetics is defined as the concern for the appreciation of beauty (Britannica, 2023). For
instance, wooden chairs may be pleasant for outdoor dining, but these may not withstand the sun,
wind, and rain. Designing for guests and employees means considering functionality, beauty, and
appeal simultaneously. It means that guest satisfaction and operational profitability go hand in hand.
● Set up a substantial experience for the guests and employees. A service setting should have a holistic
view of what an organization wants guests to experience. It is usually done by answering the guests'
questions, "What is in store for me?" or "What is the reason I am here?" To set this up correctly, follow
up with the guests about their experiences with the products and services consumed, which is also a
way of directly determining what they want.
● Set up an appropriate experience for guests and employees. It answers the "Why is it there?" part of
the guest experience wherein the elements of the site should fulfill their specific use in the
environment and not just be there without any reason. Design elements must be appropriately
positioned in reference to the type of place (resort, hotel, travel agency, and leisure facility). It is done
by checking the physical characteristics of the site and its inventory to see whether the elements fit
where they are designed. For example, if a natural resource (beach, sand dunes, rock formations, and
trees) is present in the area, it should be highlighted. If the intended users of an eco-park are children,
then the surroundings should be secured, and safety precautions must be in place.
● Adhere to technical requirements. To function properly and serve its guests and employees, a facility
must adhere to local laws and obtain permits such as permits to operate, sanitary permits, and other
related permits. For designated protected sites and attractions, the Protected Area Management
Board (PAMB) oversees and monitors the activities and facilities within them.
● Comply with needs at the lowest possible cost. It means getting the lowest price for an amenity or
equipment that does the work and maximizing their use, resulting in a profitable tourism organization.
For site designers, this is considering the development and maintenance costs. It is essential to have a
"make-or-buy" decision for tourism and leisure establishments to check on the overall expenditures
that may incur. For instance, in a restaurant, a basic exhaust can be purchased at a lesser price than an
efficient hood designed to operate with less exhaust. However, a more efficient design would help
reduce energy costs for the building. Hence, in several years, energy savings would easily pay for the
more expensive hood.

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● Establish design with less supervision. A concept that minimizes supervision and costs states that
proper design can encourage good behavior while discouraging bad behavior. It means that when
designing, it is crucial to put in concepts that discourage users (guests and employees) from doing
wrong or untoward things. For example, planting moss ferns and vines on outdoor walls as a solution
to vandalism. Another example is removing walls and partitions in production areas to allow
supervisors to oversee the areas efficiently.
Implementing these principles together will lead to guests patronizing the tourism and leisure business longer.
The servicescape perceptions are essential in the decision process of a guest, which is why tourism companies
should create environments that encourage more extended visits, resulting in better profitability.

How the Service Environment Affects the Guests (Ford et al., 2019)
The guest relies on the tourism organization to create an environment that is safe and easy to use and
understand. The environmental features must be such that the guest can quickly and safely enter, experience,
and leave without getting lost, hurt, or disoriented. Figure 1 shows how environmental influences affect the
guest.

Figure 1. Guest Responses to Environmental Influences

Source: Managing hospitality organizations: Achieving excellence in the guest experience (2019), p. 97

The five (5) environmental components comprise the service setting guests perceive. Consciously and
subconsciously, each guest selects the combination of elements that comprises the servicescape. Each guest
will respond differently to the individual elements of that servicescape, depending on their characteristics. The
responses will not only be different, but they may be diverse within any or a combination of three (3) general
response types: physiological, cognitive, or emotional. Finally, the guest's overall response to the setting will
cause them to want to come and stay or avoid it.

Environment
Ambient conditions in the environment that affect the nature of the guest experience are ergonomic factors
such as temperature, humidity, air quality, smells, sounds, physical comfort, and light. The romantic feel of
dimly lit restaurants with soft music, comfortable chairs, and tempting smells is an example of considering
ambient conditions.
Use of Space refers to how the equipment and furnishings are arranged in a tourism and hospitality service
setting, the size and shape of those objects, their accessibility to the customers, and the spatial relationships
among them. Guests must feel they are moving effortlessly through the service setting, and employees must
have sufficient space, traffic routes, and short distances to travel to provide timely service to guests. For
example, a restaurant with too many tables and seats at the cost of a smaller kitchen will result in slower
service productivity since there will be less workforce involved due to the small space.

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Functional congruence refers to how well something with a functional purpose fits into the environment in
which it serves that purpose. The equipment's functioning, the building and service environment, and the
layout of the physical landscape must be congruent with what the guest expects to find in that environment.
Entrances should be where guests would expect them, function rooms should be large enough to house
expected meetings and seminars, and restrooms should be large enough to accommodate the expected
demand during food exhibits.
Signs, Symbols, and Artifacts. Signs are the explicit physical representations of information the organization
thinks guests might want, need, and expect to find. These must be easy to read, clear, and located in prominent
places where they can direct and teach people how to execute the service easily. Symbols are representational
icons that can replace any specific language. These are signs to convey messages and are important in the
tourism industry since guests come from many nations, cultures, and linguistic backgrounds. Artifacts are
physical objects representing something beyond their functional use. These are symbols mostly used by
themed restaurants to convey the theme.
Other people refer to other individuals within the environment with the guest, such as the employees, other
guests, or other creations that they think of as real people. Guests want to see other people within the
establishment to have a positive experience. Happiness and satisfaction are contagious, and guests of tourism
organizations expect to see other people also enjoying the experience since many service settings would feel
depressing and lonely without other guests and employees.
Servicescape
Perceived service environment is the general perception or whole picture that the guest draws from countless
individual environmental factors (temperature, smells, sounds, lights, signs, physical structures, furnishings,
and open space). Since each guest perceives different environmental elements, each of the guest's
servicescape is also different, making it difficult for tourism and hospitality organizations to satisfy each
consistently.
Individual Moderators
The guest's reaction to the perceived servicescape is affected by their moderating factors (mood, personality,
expectations, and demographic characteristics). Although tourism organizations usually provide the same
servicescape elements for everyone, they should never forget that guests are unique, and the factors that
moderate their responses will vary.
For example, a shy female who enters a bar by mistake will react differently from an accustomed male who
spends his evening there. They may also have different moods and expectations of the bar experience too.
When people are upset or angry, they may not be able to perceive any environment as positive (fun), and
regardless of how good the service is and how exciting and pleasant the environment are, the diner is likely to
leave as unhappy as when that person arrived.
Responses to the Servicescape
The guest will respond to a service setting in one or more of the following factors:
Physiological responses are the body's automatic reactions to different stimuli. It happens when people are
under stress or danger, whether real or imagined. It is how the body reacts to an emotion (Fritscher, 2020). For
instance, an individual excited to participate in a ride at a theme park typically gets a faster heart rate.
Cognitive responses refer to how an individual interprets emotions and thinks about the situation. Below are
the types of cognitive responses:
● Expectations and the servicescape. These depend on the knowledge the guest brings to the
experience. Guests enter every tourism experience with expectations based on what they have seen,

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heard, and done before. The human tendency is to seek points of similarity between what they have
done, seen, or experienced before and what they will encounter in the new situation. Suppose a
customer enters a buffet restaurant like the one they have visited. In that case, their behavior will be
scripted to perform the tasks necessary to eat by the familiar cues in the environment (arrangement
and uses of the plates and utensils; the food set up based on their appearance if they are an appetizer,
main entrée, dessert or beverage; and the beginning of each line based on the flow of the other diners
going to the next station).
● Nonverbal cues and communication. These are the aspects of the environmental setting that evoke a
cognitive response where the designers of the guest experience communicate what the experience is
and teach the guest how to enjoy it. Servicescape layout and content tell the guest what to expect from
the experience. If a guest sees an array of cues, such as white linen tablecloths in a hotel or restaurant,
they may link that information to the type of restaurant and price range.
Emotional responses refer to an individual's emotional tie or degree of familiarity with the servicescape. It has
two (2) distinct elements: the degree of arousal and the degree of pleasure. The emotional response that
tourism organizations seek to create should have these two elements to gain the guests' emotional interests
resulting in them being engaged and having a personal attachment to the environment. Guests would want to
spend time and money in pleasurable environments and those that create high levels of arousal.
Good tourism organizations should learn to use arousal cues effectively, such as during the morning, when
guests are flooding a theme park, they might hear upbeat music, and employees would greet guests in strong,
enthusiastic voices to sustain positive feelings and a high level of energy with which guests come into the park.
Outcomes
The three (3) response factors operate together to lead the guests to choose between becoming patrons (come
and stay) or looking for other businesses (stay away). Based on their experience of the service environment,
the guest will decide whether it is positive or negative. Servicescape perceptions can encourage the guest to
stay longer and come again or to go and stay away. Hospitality organizations must work hard to create
environments encouraging longer stays and repeat visits, which lead to increased revenues.
Each element in the service setting can have infinite variation, which can be combined in infinite ways. It means
that each guest's experience of the setting is unique to that guest and that particular time and place. Guests
change from one service encounter to another, and how they perceive at one time can also change. Hence, a
tourism and hospitality organization must be ready to adapt and consistently innovate the service
environment.

References:
Arenas, C. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Edric Publishing House.
Cornell, D. & Manzano, R. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Rex Bookstore.
Encyclopedia Britannica (2023, April 7). Aesthetics. Retrieved May 17, 2023, from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/aesthetics
Ford, R., Sturman, M., & Heaton, C. (2019). Managing hospitality organizations: Achieving excellence in the guest
experience. Sage Publications.
Fritscher, L. (2020, November 1). Are phobias triggering a physiological response? In Very Well Mind. Retrieved May 17,
2023, from https://www.verywellmind.com/physiological-response-2671635
Goetsch, D. & Davis, S. (2022). Quality management for organizational excellence. Pearson
Goldstein, S. & Schroeder, R. (2021). Operations management in the supply chain (8th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill
Education.

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