Ù44/4/1

/* Republic of Tunisia

Ministry of Higher Education

and Scientific Research

INTERNSHIP MEMOIR
February, 1st to April, 30th 2023

At

THE EFFECTS OF HOTEL SERVICE QUALITY ON

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

CASE STUDY : AFRICA JAD HOTEL

Submitted by: Cyrine Rezgui

Academic supervisor: Sabeur Jamaoui

Professional supervisor: Moez Sassi

MAY, 2023
 Dedication

I am dedicating this thesis to my beloved people who have meant and continue to mean

so much to me. First, to my fiance. He has been my biggest supporter until my research

was completed. I love you khalil.

Next, my mother, she raised me loved me and taught me the real meaning of hard-

working. Thank you for being there for me throughout the entire master's program; you

have been my best cheerleader.

Last but not least, I am dedicating this to my father Hassib, gone forever away from our

loving eyes and who left a void never to be filled in our lives. I promise I will always

make you proud of your little child.

May Allah grant you Jannah Firdaws.

Amen.
 Acknowledgement

As my academics and internship experience are a success, I express my deepest appreciation

to all those who provided me the opportunity and guidance. First and foremost I would like to

express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of my teachers at “The Higher Institute of

Languages of Nabeul” for guiding me and sharing with me their profound knowledge.

Second, I would like to thank Dr. Sabeur Jamaoui for his cooperation with valuable guidance,

and supervision because without him this master’s thesis would not be materialized in this

f/*orm.

And I can not forget the crucial role of my professional supervisor Mr. Moez Sassi who has

given me his all effort and attention and especially his encouragement to maintain the

progress. I would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the vital role of the hotel

staff for providing data and valuable information for my master’s thesis.

I would also like to thank my entire family members for their helpful suggestions and

especially my mother Yamina for her continuous and unparalleled love, help, and support.

I am also grateful to the one and only ‘Khalil for being around during my preparation of the

field master thesis and I want him to know that he has my utmost respect and my deepest

gratitude. I can never forget to mention my sister and guardian, Ahlem, if it had not been her,

my education would have ended at the lower level, love you. At least, my sincere appreciation

goes to all individuals and institutions that helped me to bring out this master thesis.

Thank you all.

Africa Jade Hotel opened its doors to its guests in 2003 to a universe full of Mediterranean

hues entirely dedicated to their wellbeing. Since its opening, the hotel's concerns are only

about making clients think about visiting it again at the end of their staying. They believe that

quality assurance is the only factor behind customer’s satisfaction.

This study aims to study the importance of hotel service quality on customer satisfaction in

the tourism sector.

For that reason, the vice president of quality, the hygienist, the quality coordinator, and the

booking manager of Africa Jade Hotel participated respectively in qualitative research in the

form of an interview. About 30 loyal clients participated in a quantitative one in the form of a

questionnaire. This research led to an interesting finding. First, the hotel is implementing a

lot of quality standards to provide customers with the best service on the understanding that

they need their long-term loyalty. Such as ISO, 5S, SIX Sigma, and Lean management.

Second, an evaluation of the service quality by the managers using the reports that the quality

analyst provides, proves that the employees are not following the norms and standards of

quality in some departments. This harms directly their relationship with customers. Finally,

since the loyalty degree in this hotel is facing some challenges, the hotel managers need to

follow new strategies within the hotel and implement new standards to provide clients’

satisfaction and establish long-term relationships with customers that ensure sustainable

competitive advantages in the hotel industry environment.

Keywords: quality anssurance, , 6 sigma , lean managmenet, ISO , customer’s satisfaction

Aknowledgments

Abstract

Table of contents

List of figures

List of tables

Chapter 1. Introduction

1.1 The general context of the study ( qualité en generale

1.2 The research problem and its importance ( why)

1.3 Research questions

1.4 Hypothesis

1.5 Outline

Chapter 2. Background of the study

2.1 Literature review

2.2 The quality assurance in hotels

2.3 Quality standards and norms used in hotels

2.3.1 Evaluation of the service quality ( tools used : reports)

2.4.1 The relation between quality departmenet and customer’s satisfaction

Chapter 3 :

1. 1 the internship

2. Presentation of the hotel

2.1 Presentation of departmenets

2.2 Tasks performed

Chapter 4 :

4.1 Participants

4.1.1 Characteristics of the interview participants

4.1.2 Characteristics of the questionaire participants

4.1.2.1 Population

4.1.2.2 Sampling

4.2 Materials

4.2.1 The variables of the quality department evaluation part

4.2.2 The variables of the the satisfaction degree evaluation part

4.3 Procedures
Chapter 5. Findings

5.1 the effectivness of standards and norms in the hotel

5.2 Findings of the interview

5.3 Findins of the questionnaire

5.3.1 Conclusion of the questionnaire

Chapter 6 : Discussion

6.1 Explannation of major findings

6.2 Unexpected findings

6.3 Limitations of the study

6.4 Recommendations

Chapter 7. : Conclusion

List of Figures
Chapter I :

Introduction
This section aims to identify the research topic and formulate research questions. Thus, the chapter

begins with a general context of my study, the importance of quality service in hospitality, and the

reasons for researching this area.

The research questions and purpose of the study will follow. The delimitation and structure of the

report will end the chapter.

1.1 The general context of the study :

The tourism product developed and sold by the Tunisian government has historically been based on

coastal mass tourism, which is organised through large-scale package holidays. The government

initially experimeented with luxury accommodation in the 1960s, before shifting to meet the needs

of the dominating market segment of mass tourism (Cortes-Jiminez et al.,2011). Thanks to its

Mediterranean location, its mild climate and its breath-taking landscapes, Tunisia is one of the most

popular tourist destinations in Africa. Its main four traditional tourist markets are France, Germany,

Italy and the United Kingdom (Tourism in Tunisia 2020). Recently, Tunisia has decided to open its

tourism sector to other new markets which are mainly Russia and China (Jeffrey & Bleasdale 2017).

Tourism has been heavily concentrated in Nabeul, which in the 1990s held over 70% of hotel bed

capacity (Poirier, 1995).

The main factors behind this quickly growing industry are service quality and customer’s

satisfaction. Any hospitality industry will not survive if it is not oriented on its consumers to

meet their needs, requirements, and expectations, so its image will enhance. The hospitality

industry faces different difficulties than organizations that produce products because of the

difference between a service and a product. Service quality has been confirmed as a key factor

in the search for competitive advantage. Satisfying and retaining customers has been

recognized as a crucial factor in the hospitality industry.

that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs (Kotler et al., 2002, p. 831).

It is also related to the value of an offer, which could build satisfaction or dissatisfaction on

the other part.

Quality assurance refers to the processes that a company develops to maintain customer

satisfaction while staying within budget and on time. It entails keeping track of every aspect

of a facility or service. Audits, for example, are used by quality assurance professionals to

identify and correct irregularities or issues.

The goal of quality assurance is to provide customers with the best possible experience and to

win their confidence. Because if customers are not satisfied, they will not come back and will

not purchase the service for a second time.

All the things that the hotel does to increase service quality could be nothing if the customer

left the hotel without being satisfied. Nowadays, fulfilling consumers’ requests remains the

greatest challenge (Anwar &Surarchith, 2015).

In the hospitality industry, the consumer is not only part of the actual consumption process

but also has preset service and quality perspectives.

Research shows that it is five to 30 more valuable to keep customers than acquire new ones.

And you can not have loyal customers if they are not satisfied.

Several studies have also confirmed the significant effect of service quality and perceived

value on customer satisfaction. According to the studies, hotel service quality is viewed as an

important factor in competitiveness. Furthermore, perceived value is important for customer

satisfaction because customers are willing to pay less for higher-quality products.
One way to execute quality is through Quality Management Systems (QMS). For the quality

and safety in the hospitality industry, we find the implementation of ISO 9000: 2000, ISO

14000, O.H.S.A.S. 18001, Lean management and H.A.C.C.P. (Hazard Analysis Critical

Control Points) specified in the quality and safety of food.

The research problem and its importance :

The need for quality standards seems to be essential for forthcoming profitability. The

continuous growth of competition in the hospitality industry is one of the greatest problems

that the TUNISIAN economy faces. The quality of the services provided by the hosting

companies is a competitive advantage of both the hotel industry and the TUNISIAN economy

based on the hospitality industry. On the other hand, the quality of tourist services in our

hotels is varied and definitely low in certification. The applicability of quality standards and

norms in the hospitality industry seems to be anonymous. That is one of the ambitions of this

research. Exploring the implementation and the efficiency of quality standards in the

hospitality industry and their relation with customer satisfaction is the primary concern of this

research. This research investigates the degree of implementation of quality standards and

norms in the hospitality industry to measure the quality of hosting services.

A big part of the literature on quality in the hospitality industry discusses the quality of

service and its standards and norms only in industrial companies. It is hard to find research

investigating about implementing quality standards and norms in a Tunisian Hotel.

So, this was a good point for the focus of my research. Of great interest is the use of ISO and

other standards in Africa Jade Hotel.

Dealing with the topic of the importance of quality service and its relation to customer

satisfaction raises multiple questions. However, this research will work on answering the

following specific question which are :

 Do hotels follow quality standards in Tunisia?

 What is the role of service quality in a hotel?

 Are employees respecting standards in the work field?

 Is there any relationship between quality service and customer satisfaction?

The Hypothesis:

The knowledge of those quality standards, the degree of their implementation, and the

relationship between quality service and customer satisfaction in Africa Jade are the three

hypotheses of my research.

The Outline :

This study adopts the following outline. The first chapter is about the background of the study

which is composed of two major axes. First, the literature review aims to explain the concepts

related to the topic which are respectively; the service quality in hotels, the most famous

quality standards in the hospitality field, customer satisfaction and the impact of quality

assurance on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Second, my internship at Africa Jade Hotel has the goal of presenting the hotel, its

department and functions, and the tasks performed. The next chapter is about the method. It

provides the tools adopted to study the quality departments and their impacts on customer
satisfaction in Africa Jade Hotel. This chapter presents in detail the quantitative and

qualitative methods used to show the important role of quality service in customer

satisfaction. It also includes the sampling operation, participants, materials and procedures.

The next chapter is about the results. Subsequently, the findings are given for each method

apart to be discussed in the following chapter which is the discussion. It provides the main

findings and it is also the section where the research questions are answered and the

hypothesis is confirmed. Also, in this chapter, I am going to give some recommendations to

both master students and the hotel.

Finally, the last chapter is the conclusion. It summarizes all the study findings and it shows

their importance and implications in the real world.

Background of the

study
2.1 Literature review :

2.1.1 the service quality in hotels:

Service quality is a method of managing any hotel to provide good quality service to internal

and external customers while remaining competitive (Grinic', 2007; Narangajavana & Hu,

2008).

Also, service quality is:" the difference between customers' expectations for the service

encounter and the perception of the service received" (Pokue et al., 2013, p601). Lee ET, al

(2003, p.423) argued that «In the management of leading service firms, the quality department

represents the most sustainable basis for differentiation, leveraging customer satisfaction

and values, and developing a strategy"

2.1.2 Quality standards in hotels:

Although there are numerous definitions of quality, we can agree that it is frequently used to

denote the "excellence" of a product or service. The primary goal of quality is to meet the

needs of the customer, which can be accomplished by determining the extent to which a set of

inherent characteristics meets those needs. There are a lot of quality standards and norms for

implementing quality such as ISO 9000: 2000, ISO 14000, O.H.S.A.S. 18001, and H.A.C.C.P.

(Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points) specified in the quality and safety of food.
In an environment characterized by increasingly complex needs, hotel establishments must

ensure the quality of their services, which means taking into account customers' needs by

adapting the offer to their requirements. This is of paramount importance as much both for the

company and for the consumer. An establishment that adopts a better quality of service will

succeed in satisfying its customers and gaining their trust, which will strengthen its

competitive advantages and allow it to retain them. Indeed, without offering clients quality

service, the dissatisfied customer will not hesitate to change suppliers. Our research instilled

the importance of quality and its impact on customer satisfaction and was concretized at the

level of the Africa Jade Hotel. Our study essentially aims to assess the quality of the latter's

services and to know the satisfaction degree of tourists concerning the quality of the services

and its influence on their intention to renew their experience with the same establishment. The

results analyzed show that the hotel enjoys a favorable judgment about the various services

provided to customers. We have come to this conclusion by measuring customer satisfaction

and loyalty with the quality of the services offered. The excellence of the service rendered has

made it possible to create in customers the desire to renew their hotel experiences and to

positively transmit their perceptions to those around them.

Conclusion generale najemm nhoha felekher ( al qualité héya )

Améliorer la qualité revient à instaurer de nouvelles normes plus exhaustives et plus

strictes. C’est ce que vient à l’esprit des décideurs en premier lieu lorsqu’on parle qualité.

Bien que nécessaire pour garantir le Smig de la qualité des prestations par catégorie, la

démarche de classement  a besoin de la mobilisation de ressources suffisantes pour sa

mise en place. En effet, sans équipes de contrôleurs qualifiés en nombre et avec de

moyens de travail adéquats aucun référentiel de qualité, aussi idéal soit-il, ne peut

s’appliquer .Le déficit de ces moyens est tellement criant en Tunisie que la procédure de

classement a fini par devenir, pour les hôteliers, une démarche administrative
contraignante plutôt qu’un réel engagement  de respect de la qualité des prestations

qu’ils doivent offrir.