Service failure and recovery: evidence from the hotel industry

Abstract

This paper is focused on service failure and recovery in the hotel industry in the UK. The objectives of the research were to: assess the types and magnitude of service failures experienced by hotel guests; evaluate the service recovery strategies used by hotels and their effectiveness; and discover whether or not there were differences in attitudes and behaviour between business and leisure guests. Data were collected from a sample of guests in a four‐star hotel. Discussion of the findings leads to some suggestions for improvements for hotel management.