Assessment of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction in Selected Hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis, Ogun State, Nigeria

This study was carried out to assess service quality on customer satisfaction in some selected hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis. A total of one hundred and fifteen (115) structured questionnaires was distributed, out which ninety seven (97) respondents representing 84.3% completed and returned the questionnaire. The results showed that the socioeconomic characteristics of respondents involved in hotel patronage were 81.4% (male) and 18.6% (female) with 58.7% of the total respondents rated unsatisfactory with mean value of ‘2.68’, 52% of respondents rated service experienced unsatisfactory with mean value of ‘2.62’, 71.1% of respondents consented to the various solutions offered . The chi-square showed there was significant relationship (x =789.537> x =9.488, p<0.05) between socio-economic characteristics of respondents and the level of their satisfaction with service qualities in the hotels. Also, there was significant relationship (x = 837.990> x=9.488, p<0.05) between the various service qualities and customer satisfaction. It was further confirmed that service quality delivery to customers was the major challenge of all the hotels in Abeokuta metropolis which is on how to deliver the service to customers in a way that will bring satisfaction to them. This study therefore recommended that hotels owners should constantly embark on staff training in ‘service quality delivery’ that will bring about customer satisfaction at all times. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v23i6.6 Copyright: Copyright © 2019 Ogungbayi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CCL), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dates: Received: 13 May 2019; Revised: 19 June 2019; Accepted 07 June 2019

Customer satisfaction is a critical success factor in service organizations. Hotel industries in developing countries also have to compete with others and have to satisfy local and international customers, because, today"s customers are more aware, educated and open to a lot of information through web sources, internet, bulletins, magazines, journals, articles, etc., (Armstrong, Mok et al. 1997;Padma and Rajendran 2010). Customer satisfaction is a key to building lasting relationships with consumers. Satisfied customers repurchase the service, recommend and encourage others to use the service, develop positive word of mouth toward the service and the organization, pay less attention to competitive brands and advertising, are less sensitive to price and buy other services (Zekiri, 2011). A dissatisfied consumer, on the other hand, responds differently. As a satisfied customer tells people about a good service experience, dissatisfied customer complains to even more people than a satisfied customer does. In the hotel industry, service quality received much attention from both researchers and practitioners because of its positive impact on financial performance, customer satisfaction, and retention (Akbaba, 2006;Ghobadian, et al, 1994;Gržini´c, 2007;MartinezCaro & Roemer, 2006;Tam, 2000). Ultimately, quality enhancement is a key determinant for the success of an organization in today's competitive market environment (Anderson et al, 1994). Therefore, marketers' in the service industry should pay close attention to the issue of service quality (Zeithaml et al, 1996). By studying the overall interest and the decision making process of buyers, service delivering organizations might help consumers to go through it. Hence, this study will focus on hotels so as to identify basic service quality attributes, service delivery and customer satisfaction among hotels.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
The Study Area: Abeokuta City was chosen as the study location, the state capital of Ogun State in Southwest Nigeria.
Source of Data: In order to get appropriate data, the study employed both primary and secondary sources of data. Primary data were collected through questionnaires from sample respondents of Hotels. Secondary sources of data were collected from relevant books, journals, publications and other online information.
Population of the Study: The population of the study is basically the customers who patronize the hotels in Abeokuta metropolis. There are One hundred and twenty Five (125) different hotels in Abeokuta metropolis.
Sampling procedure and Sample size: A systematic sampling technique known as multi-stage sampling was used as follows: Stage 1: This involved the stratification of Abeokuta into ten (10) zones with each zone having their number of hotels.
Stage 2: Thirty percent (30%) of the hotel population in each of the ten (10) zones was selected for representative sample.
Stage 3: The population of resident guests which was used as respondents in this study was affected in data through personal contacts with the management of the hotel which gave permission to obtain necessary information from guests' lodging records. Thus, the total average number of resident guests in the selected hotels was 569 per week while 20% (115) of this population was selected as sample size of respondents for the study as shown in the table below. The determination of population of resident guests was done through personal contacts with the management who gave permission to obtain necessary information from guests' lodging records.
Data Analysis: The method of analysis was mainly descriptive analysis. The data obtained by the close ended questionnaires on participants demographic and overall service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty detail were analyzed quantitatively using percentage, frequency, and mean. To do this, SPSS version 16 programs were employed to analyze the data.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Socio-economic characteristics of respondents: Table  1 below shows that majority of our respondents were male as they accounted for 81.4% of the selected population with female accounting for 18.6%. The implication of this is that the hotels in Abeokuta enjoy impressive patronage of male than female as indicated in Table 1. Majority of the respondents falls between the ages of 30-40 years as they accounted for about 47.4%, while 29.9% of ages 40-50years also patronize the hotels. This implied that hotels in Abeokuta enjoy the influx patronage of customers between the ages of 30-50years. Marital status is expected to influence respondents' level of their exposure to hospitality industry, financial buoyancy and satisfaction with the service qualities of the hotel which could have positive or negative influence on the performance of the hotel. Also, majority of the respondents are married as they accounted for 79.4% of the respondents in the study. This indicates that hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis have high records of patronage of married people (Table 1). It was pertinent to know that education was a vital point of note in enlightenment and tendency towards innovative in quality service. There was undoubted strong relationship between education and dimensions of service qualities in hotels. Table 1 below also indicated that 11.3% of the respondents had postgraduate qualification, 75.3% had first degree and higher diploma, 10.3% had diploma certificate while 03.1% had SSSCE/GCE/ qualifications. The reflection is that majority of the respondents are well educated people who made meaningful impact on this questionnaire. Most of the respondents had occupation. Table 2 also evidently revealed that 88 respondents which represent 90.7% sampled population were into various entrepreneurships while the remaining 9.3% were civil servants. The main occupation of the respondents could have seriously also affected regularity of their income. Those respondents that have regular big income source from businesses may have high susceptibility to hotel services when compared to a civil servant with irregular salary or farmers with seasonal variation in production The implication of the study findings is that the main occupation engaged in by the respondents predisposes them to hotel getting services from hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis.
This implied that the business class respondents mostly patronize and valued quality service delivery in hotels. It was also important that there were substantial number of respondents that have long years of hotel patronage. This represents 54.6% of the respondents that filled and returned the questionnaires.
However, all the respondents have hotel patronage experience. This made their contributions wellarticulated. The table also showed the frequency distribution that respondents are mostly Muslims and Christians which filled and returned the questionnaires. The distribution further indicates that Muslims have the larger percentage (59.8%), while Christians have 40.2%.
This further confirms that both Muslims and Christians enjoy hotel services and are the major patrons of hotels in Abeokuta metropolis. Identification of dimensions of service quality: The cases of whether tangible was one of the dimensions of service quality in practice in the hotels was assessed in the study, and 66 respondents which represent 68% agreed that facilities, equipment, physical appearance of both staff and buildings were actually on ground in the hotel while 31 respondents which represent 32% disagreed as shown in Table 2. It is pertinent to know that hotel users are usually eager to know and assess the facilities and other various equipment available for operations in the hotel for their personal satisfaction. In the course of doing that, some of them would decide whether to stay or not to stay in such hotel. However, the analysis of respondents' questionnaires showed that some of the hotels which represent about 85% actually have facilities, equipment, with welldressed staff. Reliability as a dimension of service quality in practice in the hotels as indicated in the Table 2 revealed 70.1% disagreed that performing service dependably and accurately reflected in the hotel staff behaviour, while 29.9% agreed. The implication of this is that there is a great challenge in the area of staff's ability to perform service dependably and accurately in the hotels. Also, with regard to responsiveness as a dimension of service quality is in practice in the hotels, 63 (65%) of respondents disagreed that willingness to help and respond to customer needs reflected in the hotel staff attitudes. The remaining 35% of respondents agreed. This implied that majority of hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis have staff attitudinal problems in the area of willingness to assist and respond to customer needs. Assurance as one of the dimensions also of service qualities is put in place in the hotels, 59.9% who returned their questionnaires disagreed that the ability of employees to inspire confidence and trust is actually in practice in the hotel. This also has to do with staff attitudinal skill challenge in the area of their ability to inspire confidence and trust in their customers. This is well pronounced in hotels in Abeokuta Metropolis. The response about empathy is also one of service qualities in practice in the hotels, as 66% of respondents disagreed that the staff of the hotel are involved in given individualized caring service. This obviously result that majority of the staff are not showing empathy to their customers. The table below clearly shows the various responses to 5 Likert Scale questions by the respondents, the sample Mean Χ, and the Standard deviation (δ) scored.

Examining
the relationships between Service Quality and Customer satisfaction: Customers' derived satisfaction from the facilities and equipment available in the hotel, revealed 34% of respondents rated satisfactory comments as against 66% unsatisfactory comments with the satisfaction derived from the facilities and equipment available in the hotel shown in Table 3 below. This means that the hotel is having challenge with facilities and equipment for their various operations. The responses on customers getting satisfaction from the foods and beverages provided in the restaurant, 53.7% of respondents rated the food and beverages served as unsatisfactory, while the other 46.3% rated satisfactory. The implication of this is that there was a little challenge in the area of food and beverages preparation, production and service. The item on customers deriving satisfaction from the hotel rooms, physical structure of the hotel and employees' appearance revealed that 55.6% of respondents rated hotel rooms, physical structure and employees' appearance as unsatisfactory, while other (44.4%) rated satisfactory. The implication of this was that there was a little challenge in the area of lodging, physical structure and employees' mode of dressing which requires urgent attention.  The implication that customer get satisfaction from the staff' ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably revealed that 58.8% of respondents rated staff ability to discharge service accurately and dependably unsatisfactory, while 41.2% rated it satisfactory. The implication of this was that the hotel was having little challenges as regard staff ability to discharge service accurately and reasonably. On the item of customers deriving satisfaction from the staff willingness to help them to provide meals, beverages, and other auxiliary services showed that 72.1% of respondents rated staff willingness to help provide meals, beverages, and other services to customers satisfactory. This was good enough when compared to 27.9% who rated them poor. The employees' displaying good behaviour, knowledge and courtesy to convey trust and confidence as indicated on the Table 3 revealed 54.6% of respondents appraising staff displaying good behaviour, knowledge and courtesy to convey trust and confidence unsatisfactorily. This shows that the hotel was having major challenge in this area. The issue of whether customers get satisfaction from the employees displaying caring and individualized attention revealed that 55.7% of respondents also appraised staff displaying caring and individualized attention to customers as unsatisfactory, while others were fairly satisfactory. This implied that the hotel was having challenge in this area since the feelings of customers patronizing the hotels are unpleasant. The table below clearly explains the various responses to 5 Likert Scale questions by the respondents, the sample Mean (X), and the Standard deviation (δ) score. Solutions to deficient service quality in the hotels: Procurement of standard equipment, enough quality facilities will give customer the necessary satisfaction revealed that 73.2% of respondents agreed that the procurement of standard equipment, enough quality facilities will give customer the necessary satisfaction, implying that if all these items are available and utilized as applicable, customers will get value for their money. Training of staff on physical appearance will give customer the deserving satisfaction, and thus 71.1% of respondents agreed that training of staff on physical appearance will give customer the deserving satisfaction. It is belief that appearance plays a significant role in quality service delivery to customers. This was because the way one looks usually determines the feelings of customers about the product/service being rendered. If staff appears grotesque, the customer may decide not to accept the food or drinks being offered. Also again, behavioural practices to convey trust and confidence to customers will give customers the necessary satisfaction and 68.1% of respondents agreed that training of staff on best behavioural practices to convey trust and confidence to customers gave customers the necessary satisfaction, and impressive repeat business.  This implies that, if customers are well trained in this area, the resultant effects on service will be well accepted. The query on if more efforts on efficiency of reservation and courtesy of receptionist will give customers the satisfaction they deserve revealed that 69.1% of respondents agreed that more efforts on efficiency of reservation and courtesy of receptionist will give customers the satisfaction they deserve, while 30% disagreed. The implication of this was that when customer is well received by receptionist of the hotel through provision of efficient reservation with courtesy and pleasantness, it will give customers the deserved satisfaction. The analysis indicates that few hotels are good in this area. As regard to if more efforts are given on cleanliness, quality, comfort and décor, and room maintenance would give customer the satisfaction they deserve only 75.2% of respondents agreed that more efforts would give customer the satisfaction they deserve. This implied that customers cherish cleanliness, comfort and good décor in their rooms and other areas of the hotel as a measure of satisfaction. Thus, more efforts in this area will make a difference. The question on whether more efforts on quality food and beverages will give customer the satisfaction they deserve revealed that 72.2% of respondents agreed that more efforts on quality food and beverages will give customer the satisfaction they deserve, while 27.8% disagreed. The implication of this was that majority of respondents appreciate quality foods and beverages at all times. Thus, providing them with this will go a long way in assuaging their dissatisfaction.
Relationship between respondents' socio-economic characteristics and satisfaction: Table 5 shows the relationship between socio-economic characteristics and satisfaction of the respondent. The results of the hypothesis test of relationship between selected socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents and their level of satisfaction with the service qualities in the hotel revealed that there was significant relationship (p < 0.05) between age, education, marital status, religion and occupation and their level of satisfaction using chi-square test.
This implied that age, sex, education, household size, main occupation except religion of the respondents are associated with their level of satisfaction with the hotel service qualities in the study area. The chi square value of 789.537 with a degree of freedom (df) 325, the chi-square value of 0.000; is less than the tabulated chi-square value of 0.05 hence the null hypothesis (Ho) is therefore rejected because there is no significant relationship between various service qualities and customer satisfaction while the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted because there is a significant relationship between various service qualities and customer satisfaction Table 6 shows the relationship between service qualities and customer satisfaction using chi square test. The chi square value of 839.999 with a degree of freedom (df) 325, the chi-square value of 0.000; is less than the tabulated chi-square value of 0.05 hence the null hypothesis (Ho) is therefore rejected because there is no significant relationship between various service qualities and customer satisfaction while the alternative hypothesis (H1) is accepted because there is a significant relationship between various service qualities and customer satisfaction.

Conclusion:
The study has revealed that service quality delivery by hotels to their various customers is very important to customer satisfaction as every hotel customer wants value for their money. Hotels would continue to enjoy impressive patronage of customers if the efficient service quality delivery that would make them feel happy and satisfied at all times was delivered. Therefore, it was pertinent to put every necessary machinery in place that would ensure that hotels are seen to constantly offer acceptable quality service to their numerous customers.