Recreational services in resort hotels: customer satisfaction aspects

Abstract

Leisure, fitness and sport activities, as well as live entertainment, are the content of recreational services, attributed by European resort hotels as hotel animation. This paper reviews the nature of such services, as a component of the hotel product, in order to appropriately assess and standardize quality towards customer satisfaction. The majority of Greek resort hotels offer animation services free of charge, aiming at profits and other benefits. Evaluating those services appears critical, because they hold up autonomy and require greater human involvement compared with other hotel services. Instruments for measuring the quality of services, such as SERVQUAL and its modifications, have been in use by several organizations in the hospitality industry. However, they are subject to criticism and it is argued that these instrument's are not suitable for international measurements. Literature on customer satisfaction in this area of services has been reviewed with the focus on experiential dimensions of this construct. A different approach of animation services as a marketing management tool is suggested.