Factors Affecting Customer Satisfaction Related to the Tourist Hotel Industry in Sri Lanka

Customer satisfaction has been defined by researchers based on the interaction and relationship between the customer’s pre-purchase expectations and post-purchase evaluation of the products and services that they have consumed. The customer satisfaction is an important concept in tourism marketing and the satisfied tourists talk favorably about their experiences with other parties. Further, they revisit and strongly recommend those places and products for others. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors and forces that have caused the satisfaction and dissatisfaction among the tourists who stayed in Sri Lankan tourist hotels. The study has reviewed 6,092 tourists’ comments related to 100 tourist hotels. The comments were analyzed qualitatively using the content analysis. Results revealed that the major portion of the tourists is satisfied with their stay in Sri Lankan hotels. The study summarized all the factors affecting the satisfaction among the tourists under the following headings, i.e., front office operations, hospitality, accommodations, quality of bath/wash rooms, food and beverages, recreation and entertainment, auxiliary services, safety and security, hotel staffs, hotel management, location, design and maintenance, price and payments, business support services, and responsible marketing. It is concluded that the adequacy of these factors has caused the satisfaction while inadequacy caused the dissatisfaction among the tourists. Managers need to take necessary actions to ensure the expected quality services by tourists during their stay in respective hotels.

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