Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: the value of user generated content

Abstract

This paper presents a fuzzy multi-attribute decision making approach for evaluating the service quality of the hotels of an important tourist destination island: Gran Canaria. We fi rst extract the information provided in www.tripadvisor.com which is becoming one of the most popular websites that assists customers in gathering travel information. Th e information provided for the hotels located on the island of Gran Canaria using the fi xed seven attributes is obtained. Service quality is a composite of these seven attributes, evaluated in a 5 point Likert scale, which are intangible and diffi cult to measure. For this reason, a method based on Fuzzy Logic is proposed using Fuzzy Numbers (FN). Triangular fuzzy numbers and fuzzy set theory is a very powerful tool to overcome some linguistic problems associated with the Likert scales. Based on the concept of the degree of optimality, we also develop through TOPSIS an overall service performance index for each hotel included in the sample. Th is index could be used by diff erent stakeholders for understanding and analyzing their relative ranking position and the level of quality provided by the hotels in a specifi c area. Finally, the ranking is analyzed according to the standard star classifi cation system fi nding that the hotel industry provides more quality than the extra-hotel industry.