VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

FACTOR EFFECTING GUESTS’ SATISFACTION TOWARD LUXURY
HOTEL IN HO CHI MINH CITY – A MEDIATION ANALYSIS OF
PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
In International Business Major
By
Ms. Ngo Hoai Diem Nga
ID: MBA05022

International University - Vietnam National University HCM
Jan 2014
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FACTOR EFFECTING GUESTS’ SATISFACTION TOWARD LUXURY
HOTEL IN HO CHI MINH CITY – A MEDIATION ANALYSIS OF
PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY
In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the Degree of
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
In International Business Major
By
Ms. Ngo Hoai Diem Nga
ID: MBA05022
Business School, International University,
Vietnam National University, HCMC Jan 2014
Under the guidance and approval of the committee, and approved by all its

i


LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviations

Equivalence

TAN

Tangible

EMP

Empathy

REL

Reliability

IMAGE

Hotel image

PRICE

Price

PERSEQUA

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT
This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it
is understood to recognize that its copyright rests with its author and that no quotation
from the thesis and no information derived from it may be published without the author’s
prior consent.
© Ngo Hoai Diem Nga / MBA05022 / 2012 -2014

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Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................... i
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................. ii
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ............................................................................................ iv
List of Tables .......................................................................................................................x
List of Figures .................................................................................................................... xi
CHAPTER I – INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the study.............................................................................................. 1
1.2. The problem statement ................................................................................................ 5
1.3. Research question ........................................................................................................ 6
1.4. Research objectives ..................................................................................................... 7
1.5 Limitation and scope of the study ............................................................................... 8
1.6 Structure of the study .................................................................................................. 8
1.7 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................... 10
CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW .........................................................................11
2.1 Concepts .................................................................................................................... 12
a.

Tangible ................................................................................................................... 13
v

i.

Perceived service quality ......................................................................................... 16

j.

Perceived value ........................................................................................................ 19

k.

Customer satisfaction ............................................................................................... 21

l.

The European Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI) model ..................................... 23

m.

Relationship among Hotel Image, Service Quality, Perceived Value, and Customer

Satisfaction ........................................................................................................................ 25
2.2. Conceptual framework .............................................................................................. 25
2.3. Research hypothesis .................................................................................................. 26
2.4 Chapter summary ...................................................................................................... 28
CHAPTER III - RESEACRH METHODOLOGY ............................................................30
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3.1 Target population, population sample size ................................................................ 30
3.2 Research instrument .................................................................................................. 30

Appendix 1: English Questionnaire .................................................................................. xii
Appendix 2: Vietnamese questionnaire .......................................................................... xvii
Appendix 3: Factor effect perceived service quality ..................................................... xxiii
Appendix 4: Factor affect to Guest satisfaction ............................................................. xxix
Appendix 5: Factor perceived service quality affect to guest satisfaction ................... xxxvi
viii


ix


List of Tables
Table 1: International tourist arrived in 2012 ....................................................................03
Table 2: Interpreting strength of Pearson correlation ........................................................37
Table 3: Interpreting strength of path coefficiemts............................................................38
Table 4: Cronbach alpha of independent variables (IDVs) ...............................................39
Table 5: Cronbach alpha of dependent variables (DVs) ....................................................39
Table 6: KMO and Bartlet ‘s Test for IDVs ......................................................................40
Table 7: KMO and Bartlet ‘s Test for DVs........................................................................41
Table 8: Factor statistics of IDVs ......................................................................................43
Table 9: Factor statistics of DVs ........................................................................................47
Table 10: Demographic Characteristic of the Sample (n = 277) .......................................52
Table 11: Descriptive statistic of IDVs ..............................................................................55
Table 12: Descriptive statistics of DVs .............................................................................55
Table 13: Pearson correlation between independent variables (IDVs) ..............................57
Table 14: Pearson correlation between independent variables (IDVs) and perceived
service

quality (PERSEQUA) ......................................................................................59


highest oversea income, and count over 55% export service. Service’s labor force counts
31% of Vietnamese population (Tourism Bureau).
According to the General Statistics Office (GSO), the number of international
arrivals to Viet Nam in July 2013 was estimated 658,325, increasing by 16% in
comparison with June 2013 and 28.5% over the same period of 2012. In July,
international arrivals to Viet Nam by air reached 506,388, an increase of 24.3% over July
2012; by sea: 18,947 (down 27.1%); by road: 132,990 (up 68.3%). (See the Table 1)
With this growth, the total number of international arrivals to Viet Nam in 7
months was 4,198,728, up 5.9% over the same period of 2012, fulfilling 58.3% of the
goal in 2013.
Viet Nam tourism sector has set the target of receiving 7.2 million international
arrivals in 2013. Moreover, according to the annual survey of the purchasing intention of
inbound and outbound tourist, international tourist stay in 3 stars hotels decrease 1.6%
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but 5 stars hotels increase from 5% to 5.3%. Besides, the percentage of domestic tourist
stay in luxury hotel suddenly raise up 3.6%.With high requirement, many local and
international hotels increase steadily so the improvement in service quality is necessary.
Realizing the increase in competition among hotels, hotel managers are focusing on
improving service quality to put them in a competitive advantage (Min&Min, 1996). In
this intense competitive market, it is essential for local and international hotels to inquire
about good values and tool for improving service quality (Narangajavana and Hu, 2008).
The competition in global market among hotels is very powerful (Chen, 2008). Any hotel
cannot survive in this competitive environment, until it satisfies its customers with good
quality service (Narangajavana and Hu, 2008). Customer satisfaction has been viewed as
an important issue because of its impact on customer retention and positive word of
mouth reputation. The most important five dimensions in tourist guest satisfaction is
accommodation, beauty spots, cuisine, transportation .Therefore, the Vietnamese
government and hoteliers have reached a consequence to raise the quality of lodging

2012 to 12

month (%)

12/2011

months in
2011

Total

614.673

6.847.678

93,74

103,58

113,86

Means of transportation
Airways

516.673

5.575.904

92,25


relaxing
Business
Family
visiting
Others

373.396

4.170.872

93,5

103,64

114,23

107.527

1.165.966

92,80

108,65

116,25

102.568

1.150.934



1.592

16.204

193,91

142,25

142,87

Korea

64.978

700.917

108,71

122,77

130,67

Malaysia

35.058

299.041

112,91


51.890

576.386

97,65

109,22

119,70

Sweden

3.619

35.735

133,59

122,43

119,29

Philippines

7.790

99.192

81,54


Compare

months in

12/2012 to last 12/2012 to

2012 to 12

month (%)

12/2011

months in
2011

28.564

409.385

92,62

80,18

113,39

Swiss

2.342


109,88

England

13.685

170.346

75,80

88,74

108,99

Denmark

1.826

27.970

84,93

71,92

108,69

Canada

9.043


102,06

Holland

3.803

45.862

88,57

85,60

101,86

America

36.480

443.826

99,47

84.05

100,90

China

141.117


100,06

Spain

2.125

31.305

65,14

66,32

96,40

Germany

9.155

106.608

75,98

81,43

93,57

Delgium

1.706


78,39

Others

38.352

554.307

93,11

158,79

226,43

(Source: Vietnam National Administration of Tourism)

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1.2.

The problem statement
Many authors like: Johnson, Gustafsson, Andreassen, Lervik, and Cha (2001)

demonstrated that many national and international customer satisfaction indices are
introduced a composition of cause and effect relationships or satisfaction models;
moreover, customer satisfaction indices could be developed and modified through the
models and methods used to measure customer satisfaction. Most indices are developed
in terms of the degree to which a product/service provides key customer requirement
(customization) and how reliably these requirements are delivered (Johnson, Gustafsson,

From the above reasons, I decided to choose the topic for my thesis as
follows:
“FACTOR EFFECTING GUESTS’ SATISFACTION TOWARD LUXURY
HOTEL IN HO CHI MINH CITY – A MEDIATION ANALYSIS OF
PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY ”
1.3.

Research question
From problem statement, the study raises the following research question:
“TO WHAT EXTENT ARE GUEST SATISFIED STAYING IN LUXURY
HOTELS IN HO CHI MINH CITY?”

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1.4.

Research objectives
General objective
Generally, this research is to evaluate the guest satisfaction through the effect of

hotel service quality to propose a model for hotels in Ho Chi Minh City. The customer
satisfaction model proposed by the researcher for this study has seven dimensions:
tangible, reliability, empathy, hotel image, price, perceive quality and customer
satisfaction.
The specific objectives of the study were:
-

To achieve an overall understanding of hotel business


1.5

Limitation and scope of the study
-

The sample for the study cannot be generalized to the Vietnamese hotel industry
as a whole since it was not randomly selected sample. A convenience sampling
will be used in this study to collect data.

-

Geography limitation, samples are within the limit of hotel guests who stayed in
Ho Chi Minh City only.

-

Model development based on a literature review. So, in practical model may be
more complicated than theory. The operations of the hotel sector in the real world
include others variables such as: managers, employees, environmental
issues….which are not including in this study.

-

Within short time so the result may be not so good to generalized as a whole
population.

1.6

Structure of the study
This study includes 5 chapters. Chapter one comprised a few issues of the study

Chapter summary
Chapter one was a chapter that generalize the overview of dissertation. It began

with background related to the study and then the induction about tourism industry in
Vietnam in recent years. Especially, the potential market was open and Vietnam tried to
develop the hospitality industry rapidly. This chapter also defined clearly the objective of
the study that was to identify the direct and indirect effect on guest satisfaction and
measure the hotel service quality through intervening variables (perceived service
quality).

Finally, it provided the practical improvement and development

recommendation to help the hotel managers had deeply knowledge of hotel industry.

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CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter included a review of the literature on 7 components of the customer
satisfaction index model proposed for this study including tangible, reliability, empathy,
price, hotel image, perceived service quality, and customer satisfaction. The literature is
reviewed to understand background information related to this study as well as to develop
a conceptual model for a customer satisfaction index for hotels in Vietnam. In addition,
the literature revealed that language ability in the hotel industry is an important issue
related to customer satisfaction.
Viewing customer satisfaction as a form of consumer purchasing behavior is
consistent with a framework for understanding customers’ wants and needs. The
framework of customer satisfaction includes important components that must be
described as a basis for the study reported herein. LeBlanc and Nguyen (1996) indicated
that five attributes including physical environment, contact personnel, quality of service,

a logical attempt to work out a list of desirable attributes from the basic needs of the
clients. A variant of a scale containing desirable characteristics of services, known as
SERVQUAL scale, is currently quite popular in literature. It was developed in marketing
circles with the aim to measure service quality (Baković, Lazibat). In the original
SERVQUAL instrument, Parasuraman et al. (1985) define service quality through ten
dimensions which they sum up in five in 1988:

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