Measuring customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry: an empirical study of the hotels in the capital cities of Europe

The aim of this paper is to assess the expectations of hotel guests in relation to the services offered by the hotel. For the purpose of this research, data on 6,768 hotels located in 47 capital cities in Europe were collected from the website www.booking.com. We have used all information available on the website regarding the hotels chosen on the basis of previously specified criteria, including ratings given by the registered users. The methods of partial correlation and hierarchical regression analysis were then conducted. Research results indicate that the number of stars is the most important factor that influences overall customer satisfaction in the hotel industry. We find that room price, the presence of air-conditioning in rooms, lobby bar, and free Wi-Fi are variables that positively correlate with customer satisfaction, whereas the number of rooms in hotel and distance from the city center are negatively correlated with customer satisfaction.