Creating excellent and competitive motels services

Abstract

Purpose The motel industry in Taiwan is a highly competitive industry, which requires considerable investment and demands innovative services. This paper aims to identify the competitive qualities that urgently require improvement to enhance the service quality of motels using the two-phase method of importance-performance and gap analysis (IPGA) and the Kano model, and develops specific improvement strategies. Design/methodology/approach By questionnaire survey, this study collects 562 valid questionnaires from motels in Taipei City. The IPGA and Kano model are used to identify the service attributes of market competitiveness that urgently require improvement. Findings The results show there are 14 attributes that should be urgently improved, of which four are the attractive qualities of market competitiveness (competitive qualities). This study develops ten improvement strategies, as based on the four competitive qualities, for the reference of the motel industry. Practical implications The results can identify the competitive qualities that require urgent improvement to address the development of improvement strategies for motels. The managers of motels can refer to the ten improvement strategies to create excellent and competitive motel services. Originality/value The results combine “customers’ needs” with “the competitive meanings of quality attributes in the market” under limited resources, to upgrade motel service quality, customers’ willingness to purchase and motel competitiveness.