A fuzzy SERVQUAL based method for evaluated of service quality in the hotel industry

Quality affects the performance of the product or service as well as customer satisfaction. This fact is genuinely important when it comes to how the consumer interprets the satisfaction that service provides and the judgment of the buying process as a whole. Considering that, service quality is an abstract and elusive construct due to three characteristics of services: intangibility, heterogeneity, and inseparability of production and consumption. In that way, we define service quality as perceived by the customer. In addition, the perceived quality is the comparison between the perception and customer expectation. Customer expectations are the expected service, arising from needs. However, these can be more or less demanding than the real needs. Perceptions are how the customer perceives the service provided, assessing whether this was appropriate or not. Thus, for service providing organizations the interpretation of customer needs is critical. Superior performance in services strengthens competitiveness and establishes a relationship with the customer, consolidating the brand and communication with the market, etc. This paper aims to evaluate the quality of a large hotel through the fuzzy SERVQUAL and fuzzy AHP. The results showed that the services have many gaps to be improved. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.