Quality management for improved performance in the hospitality industry a case study at promising stars hotel in Kumasi

Abstract

The quality of service in the hotel industry is an important factor for an organization to remain competitive and profitable. This study set out to investigate how management of Promising Stars Hotel Ltd. located in the Kumasi Metropolis is ensuring efficient and effective quality assurance to provide satisfaction to their customers. The objectives of the research were to establish the quality management practices of Promising Stars Hotel, to find out the extent to which these quality management practices impact on the hotel’s performance and to identify the link between quality and customer satisfaction in the hotel. A sample of 60 respondents was selected, 20 from the management and staff of the hotel and 40 customers of the hotel using random and stratified sampling techniques. Data was collected using questionnaire and semi structured interview. The data analysis was done using descriptive statistics such as simple frequencies, means and percentages. The study revealed that the hotel implemented several quality management approaches such as ISO 9000, SERVQual and TQM with TQM being the dominant quality management approach. It was also seen that the adherence to quality management had a positive performance on the hotel’s performance with 50% of respondents indicating that the quality management approach adopted by the hotel led to an increased growth rate amongst earning a positive word of mouth from customers and gaining international recognition. It was further revealed that guest satisfaction was impacted in a positive way to a very large extent through the adherence to quality management practices. The research concluded that the long-term benefits of implementing quality management far outweighs the initial high cost of quality making it worth the while for management of hospitality organisations. The study recommended that management should improve the customer-employee relations since it was observed that the relationship was there but not so strong.