Importance-Performance Evaluation Essay Example for Free

Importance-Performance Evaluation Essay 1. 0 Introduction Patronage of any product or service is a function of the satisfaction a consumer derives from its usage. In the case of hotels, patrons tend to equate good service to the facilities and amenities which make their stay as pleasurable and comfortable as can be desired for their money’s worth. It is, therefore, imperative that the hotel management carefully considers customer feedback in addressing hotel improvement initiatives. The purpose of this report is to undertake an Importance-Performance Evaluation of the City Hotel as commissioned by the Griffith University Hotel based from the ratings given by selected business and pleasure travelers on how important the existing hotel facilities were to them and the performance of these facilities in meeting their needs. Preliminary calculations were performed to find the means and standard deviations for each facility which aided in the identification of the five highest and five least most important facilities, as well as the facilities which garnered the five highest and five lowest performance ratings. A scatter plot was then drawn with benchmarks set to indicate acceptable levels of importance and performance. Statistical analysis using the t-test was also conducted to identify significant differences on the respondents’ perceived importance of each hotel facility. Findings revealed that the over-all mean of the importance and performance rating are 2. 83 and 3. 15, respectively. Facilities with the highest importance and performance ratings are in-room cable television and family restaurant, respectively. The two types of travelers differed significantly in their perception of the importance in eight of the 17 facilities evaluated. 2. 0 Research methods This paper made use of Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to identify hotel facilities which are performing well and those that need particular attention from management for improvement and to detect significant differences in the perceived importance of each facility. Utility of the IPA for use in this paper stems from the fact that results may be graphically displayed and interpreted on a two-dimensional grid, simultaneously indicating importance and performance dimensions of the hotel facilities being evaluated. The IPA method of assessment makes use of four sets of data, namely the means, standard deviations, scatter plot and the t-statistic. The t-test was performed using a 0. 05 level of significance. 3. 0 Results Figure 1. Importance – Performance Mean and SD and t-test Results Figure 1 displays the mean and standard deviation of each of the 17 facilities of the City Hotel as evaluated by its patrons, as well as the results of the t-test performed on the importance ratings given by the two types of travellers. As shown in Figure 1, the five most important hotel facilities are the in-room cable television, in-room broadband connection, a-la-carte restaurant, express check-out and the free daily newspaper; while the five least important facilities are the express check-in, valet parking, wireless broadband connection throughout hotel, mini-bar, and tennis courts. The over-all mean of the importance ratings is 2. 83. The facilities with the five highest performance ratings are the family restaurant, express check-out, tennis court, in-room broadband, and in-room pay movies. The five lowest performance ratings were given on the following facilities : wireless broadband connection throughout hotel, valet parking, in-room cable television, mini-bar and tour booking service. The over-all mean of the performance ratings is 3. 15. As expected of an IPA, the scatter plot in Figure 2 presents a visual of the importance and performance ratings. The plot also shows established benchmark standards indicative of acceptable levels of importance and performance. The sector defined by the quadrant at the top right indicates high importance and performance, where facilities are said to be performing well. Hotel facilities identified to be performing well include in-room broad connection, a-la-carte restaurant, swimming pool, express check-out, free daily newspaper and games room. On the other hand, the area covered by the quadrant at the top left portion of the plot signifies facilities of low importance but high performance, and are probably facilities which are being over-resourced like room service, family restaurant, tennis courts and in-room pay movies. Meanwhile, the quadrant at the bottom right portion represents facilities which are of high importance but were given low performance ratings. Such facilities are those that need attention from the management, namely the gymnasium and the in-room cable television. Finally, the quadrant at the bottom left portion of the plot contains the facilities with low importance and performance such as the wireless broadband connection throughout the hotel, mini-bar, express check-in, valet parking and tour booking service. These are the facilities with no real issue to focus attention on. Figure 2. Importance-Performance Scatter Plot Figure 3 next page represents the results of the t-test performed between business travelers and pleasure travelers to ascertain any significant differences in the means of their ratings on the perceived importance of each facility at 0. 05 level of significance. Results of the t-test revealed that there were significant differences in the importance ratings between the business and pleasure travelers in terms of the following facilities: in-room broadband connection, family restaurant, gymnasium, in-room pay movies, express check-in, free daily newspaper, games room and tour booking service. Variable Group P-value Significance (P0. 05) Business Pleasure in-room broadband connection 3. 29 3. 21 0. 01 Yes wireless broadband connection throughout hotel 2. 26 2. 23 0. 09 No room service 2. 64 2. 61 0. 07 No a-la-carte restaurant 2. 97 2. 93 0. 1 No family restaurant 2. 86 2. 88 0 Yes mini-bar 2. 2 2. 18 0. 42 No swimming pool 2. 92 2. 91 0. 22 No gymnasium 3. 01 2. 99 0. 02 Yes tennis courts 1. 94 1. 94 0. 15 No in-room pay movies 2. 95 2. 98 0 Yes in-room cable television (foxtel) 3. 8 3. 8 0. 46 No express check-in 2. 8 2. 84 0. 01 Yes express check-out 2. 86 2. 81 0. 05 No valet parking 2. 53 2. 49 0. 19 No free daily newspaper 2. 74 2. 69 0 Yes games room 2. 95 2. 99 0 Yes tour booking service 2. 84 2. 9 0. 02 Yes 4. 0 Conclusions In summary, the evaluation of the facilities of the City Hotel using IPA indicated that the three facilities with the highest importance and performance ratings and are considered as the strongest areas of service in the hotel are in-room broadband connection, a-la-carte restaurant and express-check-out. Management should see to it that these strengths should be well maintained and upgraded whenever possible. Meanwhile the weakest areas are the tour booking service and valet parking. Future improvement plans should include strategies to revitalize the said facilities in order to ensure continued patronage and possibly improve City Hotel’s share of the market. 5. 0 Recommendations Based from the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are being forwarded : (1) Institute a check-out survey among the hotel guests on how the hotel can be of better service to its patrons particularly in the areas of tour booking service and valet parking. This way, management will be appraised of what measures to undertake to enhance customer satisfaction; (2) Review how the other hotels are delivering their tour booking and valet-parking services and take on initiatives which will make City Hotel’s facilities comparable or the best among its class; (3) Undertake an environmental scan on all facilities being offered by the City Hotel in order to single out problem areas, apply potent solutions and improve service on all facilities, prioritizing areas that need attention like the gymnasium and the in-room cable.