Employee Perceptions of Service Quality in the Housekeeping Departments of Graded Hotels in Bloemfontein

Abstract

This study sought to determine perceptions of employees with regard to service quality, specifically within housekeeping departments of selected hotels in Bloemfontein, Free State. The study employed a quantitative approach, using the service quality model (SERVQUAL). Seventy housekeeping employees from participating 3-, 4-, and 5-star-graded hotels, completed a 4 Likert-scale servqual questionnaire. The findings reveal that Tangibles and Reliability are the most important dimensions in determining service quality. The main findings show that employee perceptions are lower than expectations, resulting in overall negative gap scores of all service quality dimensions. This implies that the overall service quality fell below employees’ expectations. Additionally, areas that were highlighted to receive more attention and improvement included the provision of adequate equipment under the tangibles dimension. Also, the need for improved management support and dependability in providing services the first time and at the promised time under reliability dimension was revealed.

Keywords

• bloemfontein
• employee perceptions
• housekeeping
• service quality (servqual)
• servqual dimensions