A Cross-cultural comparison of customer complaint behavior in restaurants in hotels

Abstract

This study documented consumer complaint behavior in hotel restaurants in two diverse cosmopolitan cities, Hong Kong, SAR and Houston, USA. It was found that in the area of food and beverage attributes, the Hong Kong group rated tastiness, temperature and freshness less important to make a complaint about the Houston group. As for service, service efficiency, greetings, attentiveness and helpfulness were rated differently, with the Hong Kong group rated “greetings” higher than the Houston counterparts. Regarding atmospherics, the two groups were most alike, though the Hong Kong group would be more likely to complain about the noise level while the Houston group, temperature and décor of hotel restaurants.