Description
The capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract.
Factors Influencing the Satisfaction of Clients towards Guest Houses: A Study on Khagrachari District of Bangladesh
Abstract This study aims at identifying the factors that are considered to be important for the satisfaction of the guests staying at the different guest houses located in Khagrachari. Two hundred and seven guests were selected by convenience sampling procedure for the study. Reliability analysis showed that the data were reliable. Multivariate analysis such as factor analysis was used in this research. Factor analysis was done to identify the guest satisfaction related factors. The results showed that Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System are the most important factors determining the satisfaction of the guests living in the guest houses of Khagrachari. It is recommended that facilities of the guest house be improved in terms of Hot and Cold water, air conditioned restaurants etc. Apart from that the reservation system could be made online. In addition, well trained staffs should be employed to solve the clients' problems promptly. This would improve the satisfaction of the tourists who come to the guest house. Key Words: guest house, factor analysis, tourism 1. INTRODUCTION Tourism and hospitality is now recognised as the world's largest and fastest growing global industry. In many countries, it is the sector with the highest contribution to foreign exchange earnings. As an international industry, it contributed 10.7 percent to world-wide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2001 (Goeldner & Ritchie 2003). Tourism has been growing steadily in Bangladesh in the past decade. In fact, Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest in the world and Cox's Bazaar, the longest sea beach in the world, had competed for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World in Top 77 list. This has improved the image of Bangladesh as a tourist destination. Apart from that Khagrachari and Bandarban are also popular tourist destinations of the country. The number of foreign tourists has increased by 34% in the period 2000-2009 (www.parjatan.gov.bd/tourism_2009). Khagrachari is a district in south-eastern Bangladesh which is a part of the Chittagong Division and also in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area. Khagrachari is also known as Phalang Htaung or the Mong Circle and the local name is "Chengmi" (Wikipedia, 2013; Bangladesh Talks,2013). Khagrachhari District with an area of 2,699.55 km square, bounded by the Indian state of Tripura in the north, Rangamati and Chittagong districts in the south, Rangamati district of Chittagong in the east and the Indian state of Tripura in the west(Bangladesh Travel Tour, 2013). Khagrachari is a valley consisting of three rivers namely Chengi, Kasalong and Maini. Chengi is the longest river in Khagrachari. Most of the land of Khagrachari are hilly areas (Wikipedia, 2013; Bangladesh Talks,2013). Khagrachari is a wonderful place with luscious and green countryside and a lot of variety of local fauna and flora. Places to see are Alutila Mysterious Cave, Richhang Waterfall, Nunchhori Debota Pond, Buddhist Monastery, Shajek and Marissa Vally, Ramgarh Hills & Tilas and so on (Wikipedia, 2013). Many people come to visit Khagrachari from home and abroad. People also come from different places of the world as this is a holy place for the Buddhists. To serve these people, a number of guest houses have developed in the area. As a source of revenue for many of the local people, the satisfaction of customers staying at the guest houses1 have became a increasingly important both for the guests2 as well as for the service providers (Habib and Islam, 2009). 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Guest house is a form of accommodation that "can be an existing home, a renovated home or a building that has been specifically designed to provide overnight accommodation. A guest house is a commercial operation
1
A small house near a main house, for lodging visitors. A private house offering accommodation to paying guests; a boarding house; a bed and breakfast. 2 A Guest is a person that is currently registered to stay at a property and/or has stayed at a property.
enterprise and as such the owner or manager may live on the property" (Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, 2009). According to Middleton and Clarke (1999), accommodation plays a functional role by providing the facilities that make travel convenient and comfortable. In a conceptual model of tourism, Hall (1995) regarded accommodation as one of the more critical components on the demand side-because accommodation has a major influence on the type of visitors who come to a destination. Customer Satisfaction is the extent to which a firm fulfills a customer's needs, desires and expectations. Customers find it desirable to permit businesses to cater to them and even to stimulate wants (Perreault, Jr. & McCarthy, 1999). Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert and Wan hill (1996) suggested that accommodation provides an essential support service to satisfy the wider motivation that brought the visitor to the destination. Guest Houses must therefore ensure that they provide the kind of services that will satisfy current customers and motivate the new ones. In order to determine the factors that contribute to a customer's satisfaction, it is necessary to examine the different needs, expectations and behavior of the customers. The services offered should be analysed as part of the marketing strategy that would help to attract the customers to a particular guest house. In assessing the services offered, management should consider that there could be service quality gaps between the expectations of the guests and the actual services being offered (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003). Therefore, one has to identify the key elements that require systematic management action (Candido & Morris, 2000). Radder and Wang (2006) determined similarities and differences in business travellers' expectations and managers' perceptions of the service provided by the guest houses. Business travellers considered secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house managers thought it would be the friendliness of front desk staffs and efficient handling of complaints. Both groups indicated that the cleanliness of rooms and adequate services performed by staff the first time, were of particular importance. The importance rating of the different service dimensions was not significantly influenced by the business travellers' gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. Managers mostly overestimated guests' expectations. Crotts et al (2009) tried to measure guest satisfaction and delight. They proposed stance-shift analysis and demonstrated on data composed of Internet blog narratives. They argued that the method provides both an efficient and effective means to determine a firm's competitive position in producing satisfied guests who will not only be repeat customers but also recommend the firm to others. Specifically, the method produced relatively detailed evaluations such as satisfaction level of guests and their experiences. So the study has been undertaken with the main objective of identifying the factors that affect the satisfaction of the guests staying at the guest houses located in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. 3. METHODOLOGY A questionnaire was developed to identify the factors that affect the satisfaction of the clients of the guest houses. For each item in the questionnaire, 'Likert Scale' type questions were used for measuring the attitude of the respondents. Initially, a draft questionnaire was prepared. A pilot test was carried out on 5 respondents and two questions were identified as ambiguous. Corrections were made before finalizing the questionnaire. The convenience sampling technique, one of the most commonly used techniques of non- probability sampling (Fink, 1995), was employed to obtain information from the tourists who had come to the guest house. The sample for this study consisted of 207 respondents who were the tourists and clients of the guest house. The study was conducted during the period of August 2012 to September 2012. For the study, the entire analysis was performed by personal computer (PC) using statistical package SPSS. 4. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 4.1 Socio-economic Background of Tourists Appendix A shows that most of the respondents (62.8%) in the survey were male. 33.8% of them were in the age categories of 36-45 years. A significant proportion (48.8%) of the respondents was involved with business. The majority (53.2%) of the tourists had a monthly income in the range of Tk 10,001 and Tk 30,000. Moreover, most of the tourists (63.8%) traveled in a group of 3 to 4 people and stayed for less than 7 days (39.6%). Apart from that, the vast majority of the tourists (84.5%) was locals and visited Khagrachari mostly for religious purpose (33.8%).
4.2 Reliability Analysis of Observed Variables The reliability of each variable was first measured with Cronbach's alpha. Table 4.2 demonstrates high internal consistency of the constructs and their stability (Nunnally and Bernstein 1994). In each case,
Cronbach's alpha far exceeded Nunnally and Bernstein's (1994) recommendation of 0.7 and Bagozzi and Yi's (1988) of 0.6. Thus, the scales are sufficiently reliable for data analysis.
Table 4.2: Reliability analysis of different Observed Variables Running Hot and Cold Water 24 hours Room Service Air Conditioner Restaurant Specialty Lobby Conference Hall Cable Television Intercom Telephone Elevator Stand by Generator Safe Deposit Lockers1 Internet Service Rent A Car Car Parking In House Laundry2 Guide Service Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Quick Response to Guest Problems Security and Safety of Room Cleanliness of Room Comfortable Mattress and Pillow Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities Reasonable Room Rate User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out Convenient Location Overall observed variables Cronbach's Alpha (?) 0.9840 0.9836 0.9839 0.9838 0.9848 0.9834 0.9835 0.9836 0.9837 0.9838 0.9835 0.9840 0.9839 0.9845 0.9842 0.9842 0.9857 0.9842 0.9848 0.9846 0.9840 0.9843 0.9857 0.9853 0.9842 0.9848
4.3 Results of Factor Analysis Principal Component Factor Analysis with rotated factor loadings was performed on the survey data. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a commonly used method for grouping the variables under few unrelated factors. Variables with a factor loading of higher than 0.5 are grouped under a factor. A factor loading is the correlation between the original variable with the specific factor and the key to understanding the nature of that particular factor (Debasish 2004). Table 4.3.3 illustrates the rotated factor loadings against the twenty five variables. Moreover, factor analysis using Varimax rotation found three derived factors. The results from the survey were coded and entered for statistical analysis. The data obtained for the study were analyzed by using "Factor Analysis" for identification of the 'key factors' preferred by the respondents. Factor analysis identifies common dimensions of factors from the observed variables that have a high correlation with the observed and seemingly unrelated variables but no correlation among the factors. The communalities of the variables show that the values are very high indicating the higher level of association among them (Table 4.3.1).
1
Individual boxes provided for the safekeeping of guest valuables. location or in individual guest rooms.
2
Located either in a central, secure, and supervised
This provides a washing machine for use by guests and ironing facilities. A dryer is optional. Note that there may be a charge for use of these facilities where the laundry is shared by multiple groups of guests.
Table 4.3.1: Communalities of the Observed Variables
Observed Variables Running Hot and Cold Water 24 hours Room Service1 Air Conditioner Restaurant Specialty Lobby Conference Hall Cable Television Intercom Telephone Elevator Stand by Generator Safe Deposit Lockers Internet Service Rent A Car Car Parking In House Laundry Guide Service Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Quick Response to Guest Problems Security and Safety of Room Cleanliness of Room Comfortable Mattress and Pillow
Initial Extraction 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 .899 .935 .941 .849 .958 .971.91 7 .969.9 67 .775 .983.97 9 .976.9 66 .979 .979.97 8 .979.8 84 .958 .958.80 8 .983.9 01 .934
Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities 1.000 Reasonable Room Rate User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out Convenient Location 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Factors analysis identified three factors important to the guests of the guest houses of Khagrachari of Bangladesh (Table 4.3.2). The factors identified through factor analysis are Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System. The three factors collectively influences 93.7% of the customer's satisfaction. Of them, Services, has the highest Eigen value (20.205) and the variance (80.82%) indicates that this factor is the most important. The second important factor is Value Added Services (1.943) and last factor is Reservation System (1.277).
1
Food and beverage delivered and served in a guest room.
Table 4.3.2: Total Variance Explained by the Factors Initial Eigen values Fa cto r Total % of Variance Cumulative % Services Value Added Services Reservation System 20.205 1 .943 1 .277 80.820 7 .770 5.110 80.820 88.590 93.700
Table 4.3.3 shows that factor structure. The variables such running hot and cold water (0.929), air conditioned restaurant (0.911), specialty lobby (0.899), rent a car (0.844), in-house laundry (0.836), elevator (0.834), conference hall (0.831), stand-by generator (0.802), car parking (0.801), safe deposit lockers (0.801), internet service (0.801), intercom telephone (0.801), cable television (0.736) and 24 hours room service (0.726) constituted the factor called Services. The second factor was constructed by quick response to guest problems (0.872), cleanliness of room (0.865), reasonable room rate (0.818), comfortable mattress and pillow (0.785), security and safety of room (0.717), guide service (0.676), convenient location (0.676), friendliness and courtesy of staff (0.676), quality of bathroom and shower facilities (0.657). Reservation System was constituted by the variables like user friendly reservation system (0.926) and quick check-in and check-out (0.712).
Table 4 .3.3: Observed Variables
Varimax Rotated Factor Matrix Fa cto r 1 2 3
Running Hot and Cold Water Air Conditioned Specialty Lobby Rent A Car In House Laundry Elevator Conference Hall Stand by Generator Car Parking Safe Deposit Lockers Internet Service Intercom Telephone Cable Television 24 hours Room Service Quick Response to Guest Problems Cleanliness of Room Reasonable Room Rate Comfortable Mattress and Pillow Security and Safety of Room Guide Service Convenient Location Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Restaurant
.9 2 9 .2 8 6 .1 6 0 .911 .367 .063 .8 9 9 .2 7 1 .2 9 4 .8 8 4 .3 8 6 .2 1 8 .8 3 6 .2 0 0 .3 8 2 .8 3 4 .3 7 1 .3 7 7 .8 3 1 .2 7 5 .0 9 1
.8 0 2 .4 0 4 .3 9 9 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .7 3 6 .5 3 6 .3 9 3 .7 2 6 .5 5 5 .2 8 5 .210 .872 -.066 .3 7 7 .8 6 5 .1 0 2 .4 0 1 .8 1 8 .3 2 3 .2 1 6 .7 8 5 .5 2 1 .3 6 4 .7 1 7 .5 8 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0
Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities .487 .657 .480 User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out .2 4 4 .1 5 5 .9 2 6 .5 3 2 .2 4 4 .7 1 2
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation converged in 5 iterations. Therefore, under the construct service, we may consider Running Hot and Cold Water, Air Conditioned Restaurant, Specialty Lobby and Rent-A-Car to be most important variables that would help to satisfy the customers. Among the construct Value Added Services, Quick Response to Guest Problems and Cleanliness of Room may be considered to be the most important for the customer's satisfaction. Finally, User Friendly Reservation System reservation system may considered important under the Reservation System construct. Therefore, improvement to the facilities of the Guest House is considered to be vital to ensure the satisfaction of the customers.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the analysis, it is clear that the factor constructs, Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System are the most important factors for the satisfaction of the guests living in the guest houses in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. These are the important factors for measuring the satisfaction level of the guests. The factors identified through factor analysis can be used as a guideline for the concerned service providers to satisfy their guests. Among the three factors, Services provided by the guest house is the most important factor for ensuring guests' satisfaction. Therefore, in order to improve their competitiveness, these guest houses should investment more on improving the physical evidence such as providing Hot and Cold Water, Air conditioned restaurants and Specialty lobby. The specialty lobby provides privacy to the guests during meeting with colleagues. Apart from that, the Guest House should have arrangement with rent-a-car businesses so that the guests have convenience in transportation. In addition, the reservation system could be made online in order to increase the convenience of the tourists regarding the booking of Guest House. The Guest House should also try to improve the professionalism of the employees so that they can respond quickly to guests' problems. In addition, attention to cleanliness of the room is very significant to ensure the customers' satisfaction. So, the Guest House should recruit efficient employees as well as train them to be competent. In fact, we can see from Table 4.3.3, the guests expect the services to be provided efficiently the first time more than being friendly and courteous from the employees. Therefore, the guest house should simplify the process of the services. Supervisors should also regularly monitor the performance of the staffs. Customer Satisfaction has an important role in the hospitality industry. It has a direct influence on the survival and success of the service providers in this sector. In addition, the success of the hospitality industry has an impact on an economy. As most of the guest of the Guest House in Khagrachari are local tourists, they should try to attract the foreign tourists as well to earn more foreign currency for the country. Appendix A Table 4.1.1: Gender Gender Frequency Percent Female 77 130 207 37 .2 Male 62 .8 Total 10 0.0
182
Table 4.1.2: Age of the Respondents Age Below 25 Years 25 to 35 Years 36 to 45 Years 46 to 50 Years Over 50 Years Missing Total Frequency Percent 30 40 70 31 33 3 207 14 .519.3 33 .815.0 15 .9 1 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.3: Occupation of the Respondents Occupation Service Holders Businessman House Wife Student Retired Missing Total Frequency Percent 20 101 31 29 21 5 207 9 .7 48 .815.0 14 .010.1 2 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.4: Income Group Monthly Income(Tk.) Frequency Percent Less than 10,000 10,001 to 20,000 20,001 to 30,000 More than 30,000 Missing Total 20 20 90 71 6 207 9 .7 9 .7 43 .534.3 2 .9 10 0.0
Table 4.1.5: Size of Travelling Group Size of Travelling Group(Persons) Frequency Percent 1 to 2 3 to 4 More than 4 Missing Total 30 132 41 4 207 14 .563 .819.8 1 .9 10 0.0
183
Table 4.1.6: Length of Stay Length of Stay (Days) Frequency Percent Less than 7 days 7 days 14 days 21 days Over 21 days Missing Total 82 81 20 9 12 3 207 39 .639.1 9 .7 4 .3 5 .8 1 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.7: Nationality of the Tourists Nationality Frequency Percent Locals Foreigners Total 175 32 207 84 .5 15 .5 10 0.0
Table 4.1.8: Purpose of Visit Purpose of Visit Tribal Culture Religious Meeting with Relatives or Friends Vacation Missing Total Frequency Percent 48 70 30 55 4 207 23 .233 .814.52 6 .6 1 .9 10 0.0
184
doc_110205072.docx
The capacity or power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on the actions, behavior, opinions, etc., of others: He used family influence to get the contract.
Factors Influencing the Satisfaction of Clients towards Guest Houses: A Study on Khagrachari District of Bangladesh
Abstract This study aims at identifying the factors that are considered to be important for the satisfaction of the guests staying at the different guest houses located in Khagrachari. Two hundred and seven guests were selected by convenience sampling procedure for the study. Reliability analysis showed that the data were reliable. Multivariate analysis such as factor analysis was used in this research. Factor analysis was done to identify the guest satisfaction related factors. The results showed that Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System are the most important factors determining the satisfaction of the guests living in the guest houses of Khagrachari. It is recommended that facilities of the guest house be improved in terms of Hot and Cold water, air conditioned restaurants etc. Apart from that the reservation system could be made online. In addition, well trained staffs should be employed to solve the clients' problems promptly. This would improve the satisfaction of the tourists who come to the guest house. Key Words: guest house, factor analysis, tourism 1. INTRODUCTION Tourism and hospitality is now recognised as the world's largest and fastest growing global industry. In many countries, it is the sector with the highest contribution to foreign exchange earnings. As an international industry, it contributed 10.7 percent to world-wide Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2001 (Goeldner & Ritchie 2003). Tourism has been growing steadily in Bangladesh in the past decade. In fact, Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest in the world and Cox's Bazaar, the longest sea beach in the world, had competed for the Seven Natural Wonders of the World in Top 77 list. This has improved the image of Bangladesh as a tourist destination. Apart from that Khagrachari and Bandarban are also popular tourist destinations of the country. The number of foreign tourists has increased by 34% in the period 2000-2009 (www.parjatan.gov.bd/tourism_2009). Khagrachari is a district in south-eastern Bangladesh which is a part of the Chittagong Division and also in the Chittagong Hill Tracts area. Khagrachari is also known as Phalang Htaung or the Mong Circle and the local name is "Chengmi" (Wikipedia, 2013; Bangladesh Talks,2013). Khagrachhari District with an area of 2,699.55 km square, bounded by the Indian state of Tripura in the north, Rangamati and Chittagong districts in the south, Rangamati district of Chittagong in the east and the Indian state of Tripura in the west(Bangladesh Travel Tour, 2013). Khagrachari is a valley consisting of three rivers namely Chengi, Kasalong and Maini. Chengi is the longest river in Khagrachari. Most of the land of Khagrachari are hilly areas (Wikipedia, 2013; Bangladesh Talks,2013). Khagrachari is a wonderful place with luscious and green countryside and a lot of variety of local fauna and flora. Places to see are Alutila Mysterious Cave, Richhang Waterfall, Nunchhori Debota Pond, Buddhist Monastery, Shajek and Marissa Vally, Ramgarh Hills & Tilas and so on (Wikipedia, 2013). Many people come to visit Khagrachari from home and abroad. People also come from different places of the world as this is a holy place for the Buddhists. To serve these people, a number of guest houses have developed in the area. As a source of revenue for many of the local people, the satisfaction of customers staying at the guest houses1 have became a increasingly important both for the guests2 as well as for the service providers (Habib and Islam, 2009). 2. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Guest house is a form of accommodation that "can be an existing home, a renovated home or a building that has been specifically designed to provide overnight accommodation. A guest house is a commercial operation
1
A small house near a main house, for lodging visitors. A private house offering accommodation to paying guests; a boarding house; a bed and breakfast. 2 A Guest is a person that is currently registered to stay at a property and/or has stayed at a property.
enterprise and as such the owner or manager may live on the property" (Tourism Grading Council of South Africa, 2009). According to Middleton and Clarke (1999), accommodation plays a functional role by providing the facilities that make travel convenient and comfortable. In a conceptual model of tourism, Hall (1995) regarded accommodation as one of the more critical components on the demand side-because accommodation has a major influence on the type of visitors who come to a destination. Customer Satisfaction is the extent to which a firm fulfills a customer's needs, desires and expectations. Customers find it desirable to permit businesses to cater to them and even to stimulate wants (Perreault, Jr. & McCarthy, 1999). Cooper, Fletcher, Gilbert and Wan hill (1996) suggested that accommodation provides an essential support service to satisfy the wider motivation that brought the visitor to the destination. Guest Houses must therefore ensure that they provide the kind of services that will satisfy current customers and motivate the new ones. In order to determine the factors that contribute to a customer's satisfaction, it is necessary to examine the different needs, expectations and behavior of the customers. The services offered should be analysed as part of the marketing strategy that would help to attract the customers to a particular guest house. In assessing the services offered, management should consider that there could be service quality gaps between the expectations of the guests and the actual services being offered (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003). Therefore, one has to identify the key elements that require systematic management action (Candido & Morris, 2000). Radder and Wang (2006) determined similarities and differences in business travellers' expectations and managers' perceptions of the service provided by the guest houses. Business travellers considered secure parking and the professionalism of staff as the most important attributes, while guest house managers thought it would be the friendliness of front desk staffs and efficient handling of complaints. Both groups indicated that the cleanliness of rooms and adequate services performed by staff the first time, were of particular importance. The importance rating of the different service dimensions was not significantly influenced by the business travellers' gender, managerial position, nights of stay or by the guest house grading. Managers mostly overestimated guests' expectations. Crotts et al (2009) tried to measure guest satisfaction and delight. They proposed stance-shift analysis and demonstrated on data composed of Internet blog narratives. They argued that the method provides both an efficient and effective means to determine a firm's competitive position in producing satisfied guests who will not only be repeat customers but also recommend the firm to others. Specifically, the method produced relatively detailed evaluations such as satisfaction level of guests and their experiences. So the study has been undertaken with the main objective of identifying the factors that affect the satisfaction of the guests staying at the guest houses located in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. 3. METHODOLOGY A questionnaire was developed to identify the factors that affect the satisfaction of the clients of the guest houses. For each item in the questionnaire, 'Likert Scale' type questions were used for measuring the attitude of the respondents. Initially, a draft questionnaire was prepared. A pilot test was carried out on 5 respondents and two questions were identified as ambiguous. Corrections were made before finalizing the questionnaire. The convenience sampling technique, one of the most commonly used techniques of non- probability sampling (Fink, 1995), was employed to obtain information from the tourists who had come to the guest house. The sample for this study consisted of 207 respondents who were the tourists and clients of the guest house. The study was conducted during the period of August 2012 to September 2012. For the study, the entire analysis was performed by personal computer (PC) using statistical package SPSS. 4. FINDINGS OF THE STUDY 4.1 Socio-economic Background of Tourists Appendix A shows that most of the respondents (62.8%) in the survey were male. 33.8% of them were in the age categories of 36-45 years. A significant proportion (48.8%) of the respondents was involved with business. The majority (53.2%) of the tourists had a monthly income in the range of Tk 10,001 and Tk 30,000. Moreover, most of the tourists (63.8%) traveled in a group of 3 to 4 people and stayed for less than 7 days (39.6%). Apart from that, the vast majority of the tourists (84.5%) was locals and visited Khagrachari mostly for religious purpose (33.8%).
4.2 Reliability Analysis of Observed Variables The reliability of each variable was first measured with Cronbach's alpha. Table 4.2 demonstrates high internal consistency of the constructs and their stability (Nunnally and Bernstein 1994). In each case,
Cronbach's alpha far exceeded Nunnally and Bernstein's (1994) recommendation of 0.7 and Bagozzi and Yi's (1988) of 0.6. Thus, the scales are sufficiently reliable for data analysis.
Table 4.2: Reliability analysis of different Observed Variables Running Hot and Cold Water 24 hours Room Service Air Conditioner Restaurant Specialty Lobby Conference Hall Cable Television Intercom Telephone Elevator Stand by Generator Safe Deposit Lockers1 Internet Service Rent A Car Car Parking In House Laundry2 Guide Service Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Quick Response to Guest Problems Security and Safety of Room Cleanliness of Room Comfortable Mattress and Pillow Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities Reasonable Room Rate User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out Convenient Location Overall observed variables Cronbach's Alpha (?) 0.9840 0.9836 0.9839 0.9838 0.9848 0.9834 0.9835 0.9836 0.9837 0.9838 0.9835 0.9840 0.9839 0.9845 0.9842 0.9842 0.9857 0.9842 0.9848 0.9846 0.9840 0.9843 0.9857 0.9853 0.9842 0.9848
4.3 Results of Factor Analysis Principal Component Factor Analysis with rotated factor loadings was performed on the survey data. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a commonly used method for grouping the variables under few unrelated factors. Variables with a factor loading of higher than 0.5 are grouped under a factor. A factor loading is the correlation between the original variable with the specific factor and the key to understanding the nature of that particular factor (Debasish 2004). Table 4.3.3 illustrates the rotated factor loadings against the twenty five variables. Moreover, factor analysis using Varimax rotation found three derived factors. The results from the survey were coded and entered for statistical analysis. The data obtained for the study were analyzed by using "Factor Analysis" for identification of the 'key factors' preferred by the respondents. Factor analysis identifies common dimensions of factors from the observed variables that have a high correlation with the observed and seemingly unrelated variables but no correlation among the factors. The communalities of the variables show that the values are very high indicating the higher level of association among them (Table 4.3.1).
1
Individual boxes provided for the safekeeping of guest valuables. location or in individual guest rooms.
2
Located either in a central, secure, and supervised
This provides a washing machine for use by guests and ironing facilities. A dryer is optional. Note that there may be a charge for use of these facilities where the laundry is shared by multiple groups of guests.
Table 4.3.1: Communalities of the Observed Variables
Observed Variables Running Hot and Cold Water 24 hours Room Service1 Air Conditioner Restaurant Specialty Lobby Conference Hall Cable Television Intercom Telephone Elevator Stand by Generator Safe Deposit Lockers Internet Service Rent A Car Car Parking In House Laundry Guide Service Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Quick Response to Guest Problems Security and Safety of Room Cleanliness of Room Comfortable Mattress and Pillow
Initial Extraction 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 .899 .935 .941 .849 .958 .971.91 7 .969.9 67 .775 .983.97 9 .976.9 66 .979 .979.97 8 .979.8 84 .958 .958.80 8 .983.9 01 .934
Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities 1.000 Reasonable Room Rate User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out Convenient Location 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000 1 .000
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Factors analysis identified three factors important to the guests of the guest houses of Khagrachari of Bangladesh (Table 4.3.2). The factors identified through factor analysis are Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System. The three factors collectively influences 93.7% of the customer's satisfaction. Of them, Services, has the highest Eigen value (20.205) and the variance (80.82%) indicates that this factor is the most important. The second important factor is Value Added Services (1.943) and last factor is Reservation System (1.277).
1
Food and beverage delivered and served in a guest room.
Table 4.3.2: Total Variance Explained by the Factors Initial Eigen values Fa cto r Total % of Variance Cumulative % Services Value Added Services Reservation System 20.205 1 .943 1 .277 80.820 7 .770 5.110 80.820 88.590 93.700
Table 4.3.3 shows that factor structure. The variables such running hot and cold water (0.929), air conditioned restaurant (0.911), specialty lobby (0.899), rent a car (0.844), in-house laundry (0.836), elevator (0.834), conference hall (0.831), stand-by generator (0.802), car parking (0.801), safe deposit lockers (0.801), internet service (0.801), intercom telephone (0.801), cable television (0.736) and 24 hours room service (0.726) constituted the factor called Services. The second factor was constructed by quick response to guest problems (0.872), cleanliness of room (0.865), reasonable room rate (0.818), comfortable mattress and pillow (0.785), security and safety of room (0.717), guide service (0.676), convenient location (0.676), friendliness and courtesy of staff (0.676), quality of bathroom and shower facilities (0.657). Reservation System was constituted by the variables like user friendly reservation system (0.926) and quick check-in and check-out (0.712).
Table 4 .3.3: Observed Variables
Varimax Rotated Factor Matrix Fa cto r 1 2 3
Running Hot and Cold Water Air Conditioned Specialty Lobby Rent A Car In House Laundry Elevator Conference Hall Stand by Generator Car Parking Safe Deposit Lockers Internet Service Intercom Telephone Cable Television 24 hours Room Service Quick Response to Guest Problems Cleanliness of Room Reasonable Room Rate Comfortable Mattress and Pillow Security and Safety of Room Guide Service Convenient Location Friendliness and Courtesy of Staff Restaurant
.9 2 9 .2 8 6 .1 6 0 .911 .367 .063 .8 9 9 .2 7 1 .2 9 4 .8 8 4 .3 8 6 .2 1 8 .8 3 6 .2 0 0 .3 8 2 .8 3 4 .3 7 1 .3 7 7 .8 3 1 .2 7 5 .0 9 1
.8 0 2 .4 0 4 .3 9 9 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .8 0 1 .3 9 9 .4 2 1 .7 3 6 .5 3 6 .3 9 3 .7 2 6 .5 5 5 .2 8 5 .210 .872 -.066 .3 7 7 .8 6 5 .1 0 2 .4 0 1 .8 1 8 .3 2 3 .2 1 6 .7 8 5 .5 2 1 .3 6 4 .7 1 7 .5 8 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0 .6 2 1 .6 7 6 .3 4 0
Quality of Bathroom and Shower Facilities .487 .657 .480 User Friendly Reservation System Quick Check-in and Check-out .2 4 4 .1 5 5 .9 2 6 .5 3 2 .2 4 4 .7 1 2
Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization. a Rotation converged in 5 iterations. Therefore, under the construct service, we may consider Running Hot and Cold Water, Air Conditioned Restaurant, Specialty Lobby and Rent-A-Car to be most important variables that would help to satisfy the customers. Among the construct Value Added Services, Quick Response to Guest Problems and Cleanliness of Room may be considered to be the most important for the customer's satisfaction. Finally, User Friendly Reservation System reservation system may considered important under the Reservation System construct. Therefore, improvement to the facilities of the Guest House is considered to be vital to ensure the satisfaction of the customers.
5. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS From the analysis, it is clear that the factor constructs, Services, Value Added Services and Reservation System are the most important factors for the satisfaction of the guests living in the guest houses in Khagrachari district of Bangladesh. These are the important factors for measuring the satisfaction level of the guests. The factors identified through factor analysis can be used as a guideline for the concerned service providers to satisfy their guests. Among the three factors, Services provided by the guest house is the most important factor for ensuring guests' satisfaction. Therefore, in order to improve their competitiveness, these guest houses should investment more on improving the physical evidence such as providing Hot and Cold Water, Air conditioned restaurants and Specialty lobby. The specialty lobby provides privacy to the guests during meeting with colleagues. Apart from that, the Guest House should have arrangement with rent-a-car businesses so that the guests have convenience in transportation. In addition, the reservation system could be made online in order to increase the convenience of the tourists regarding the booking of Guest House. The Guest House should also try to improve the professionalism of the employees so that they can respond quickly to guests' problems. In addition, attention to cleanliness of the room is very significant to ensure the customers' satisfaction. So, the Guest House should recruit efficient employees as well as train them to be competent. In fact, we can see from Table 4.3.3, the guests expect the services to be provided efficiently the first time more than being friendly and courteous from the employees. Therefore, the guest house should simplify the process of the services. Supervisors should also regularly monitor the performance of the staffs. Customer Satisfaction has an important role in the hospitality industry. It has a direct influence on the survival and success of the service providers in this sector. In addition, the success of the hospitality industry has an impact on an economy. As most of the guest of the Guest House in Khagrachari are local tourists, they should try to attract the foreign tourists as well to earn more foreign currency for the country. Appendix A Table 4.1.1: Gender Gender Frequency Percent Female 77 130 207 37 .2 Male 62 .8 Total 10 0.0
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Table 4.1.2: Age of the Respondents Age Below 25 Years 25 to 35 Years 36 to 45 Years 46 to 50 Years Over 50 Years Missing Total Frequency Percent 30 40 70 31 33 3 207 14 .519.3 33 .815.0 15 .9 1 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.3: Occupation of the Respondents Occupation Service Holders Businessman House Wife Student Retired Missing Total Frequency Percent 20 101 31 29 21 5 207 9 .7 48 .815.0 14 .010.1 2 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.4: Income Group Monthly Income(Tk.) Frequency Percent Less than 10,000 10,001 to 20,000 20,001 to 30,000 More than 30,000 Missing Total 20 20 90 71 6 207 9 .7 9 .7 43 .534.3 2 .9 10 0.0
Table 4.1.5: Size of Travelling Group Size of Travelling Group(Persons) Frequency Percent 1 to 2 3 to 4 More than 4 Missing Total 30 132 41 4 207 14 .563 .819.8 1 .9 10 0.0
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Table 4.1.6: Length of Stay Length of Stay (Days) Frequency Percent Less than 7 days 7 days 14 days 21 days Over 21 days Missing Total 82 81 20 9 12 3 207 39 .639.1 9 .7 4 .3 5 .8 1 .4 10 0.0
Table 4.1.7: Nationality of the Tourists Nationality Frequency Percent Locals Foreigners Total 175 32 207 84 .5 15 .5 10 0.0
Table 4.1.8: Purpose of Visit Purpose of Visit Tribal Culture Religious Meeting with Relatives or Friends Vacation Missing Total Frequency Percent 48 70 30 55 4 207 23 .233 .814.52 6 .6 1 .9 10 0.0
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