Page 1 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 201
Handling Customer Complaints in Hotel Industry
SHIKHA
Assistant Professor
Department of Tourism and Hotel Management
Central University of Haryana, Mahendargarh
Abstract: It is a well known fact that with
the world becoming a global village, the
hotel industry is expanding rapidly. This
puts an immense pressure on the services
provided by the industry. The majority of
revenue in the hospitality industry comes
from the customers. These customers if
satisfied properly then spread the word
about hotels through social medial or word- of-mouth. This helps in boosting the
revenues of the hotel. On the other hand if
a customer is unsatisfied he/she tends to
warn friends about the poor quality of
services of that particular hotel. This leads
to a huge economic loss for the hotel and
might lead to bankruptcy. Hence, it is the
need of the hour to create a robust system
to take customer feedback and complaints
and work on them. Not only complaint
should be booked but they should be
resolved efficiently as per customer
satisfaction. This will help in preventing the
damage to the image of the hotel while at
the same time it will help the hotel to look
at areas of improvement. Thus building an
efficient complaints resolution mechanism
is not expenditure but an investment which
will benefit in the long term.
Keywords: Customer Satisfaction,
Complaints, Service Quality, Feedback
Mechanism.
Introduction: Any organisation, large or
small, can only operate successfully and
profitably if they are providing a service
that the customer desires and can afford.
When this is not achieved a gap has formed
between customer expectations of a
product or service purchased and the actual
standard of this product or service when
Page 2 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 202
delivered by the particular organization.
This gap does not necessarily indicate that
the guest will express their dissatisfaction in
the form of complaining; alternatively the
disappointed customer concerned may
choose to take their business to a
competitor or engage in negative word of
mouth communication. Moreover, it has
been found that only five percent of
unsatisfied customers complain, with less
than ten percent who did not complain
repurchasing from the same supplier. This
emphasises the importance for encouraging
customer complaints within organisations,
as the effects of not doing so result in loss
of business. It is also more cost efficient to
keep the present customers happy as
recruiting a new one costs five times as
much as retaining a current one. There are
procedures that management within an
organisation can carry out in order to
attract and handle complaints. The
hospitality industry is constantly changing
and evolving therefore organisations must
continually adapt their product and service
offering. This is imperative in order to stay
ahead of the high levels of competition and
give customers what they have increasingly
come to need and expect. Complaints can
occur when there is a gap between the
expected and actual product of service that
the guest has received. Hence, we can state
that complaints handling process is basically
a setup to receive customer complaints and
thus improving our services.
Research Methodology: The present
research paper is based on the secondary
sources of data collection. Most of the
research material has been taken from the
various journals and reference books
including some official websites related to
the research problem. Moreover, the
research is exploratory in nature and to
pace the study, the researcher has also
used some observational facts.
Research Objectives: This research paper
aims at the following research objectives:
To know about the nature of
customer complaints.
To provide a mechanism to deal
with customer complaints.
Page 3 of 9
Journal for Studies in Management and Planning
Available at
http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/
ISSN: 2395-0463
Volume 02Issue 10
October 2016
Available online: http://edupediapublications.org/journals/index.php/JSMaP/ P a g e | 203
To highlight the reasons behind
customer complaints.
To give some suggestion regarding
managing customer complaints.
Review of Literature: There are many
complaints of customers in hospitality
sector. Therefore, there is also a
mechanism for handling the complaints
which has been described by various
scholars in different ways. Some of them
have been cited here:
L. Ang & F. Buttle (2006) in their
study has pointed out that it is
necessary to have a robust
complaint resolving mechanism. It
will lead to a satisfied customer and
increase customer loyalty towards
the hotel. Further research in this
area has proven that hotels with
such mechanisms Gin higher
revenue.
T. Gruber & Others (2006) in their
study has pointed out that a major
tranche of complaints-related
research has focussed on the
interpersonal behaviours of
complaints handling employees as
they engage with customers. Not
only booking a complaint is
sufficient but the responsible
authority needs to ensure that it is
resolved properly. For this purpose
there is a need of friendly,
enthusiastic and good listening
employees. Further, there is a need
to train the staff regarding this and
start a robust mechanism to deal
with complaints within the hotel.
D. Fluss (2014) in his study has
stated that the ideal complaint or
customer service is necessary in
modern times. Not only this, there is
a need of application which should
include a practical and user friendly
approach. Moreover, it should be
such that it can handle complaints
from a variety of sources such as
verbal, telephonic, email, and social
media etc. In addition the
application should come with
standard reporting templates, tools
