Globalization of the Hospitality Industry the Operational

Globalization of the Hospitality Industry

The operational aspects of expansion are often the easiest for any hospitality provider to plan and execute, regardless of the global location of their latest hotel, resort or expansion property. The cultural and experiential factors however are far more difficult to manage and excel within the context of, and are often what challenges the growth of even the most highly-0regarded brands over time (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). Within the last decade hospitality providers are increasingly relying on advanced techniques for determining how they can anticipate and respond appropriately to cultural and customer-centric expectations and needs. In the peer-reviewed research presented in Service Quality: A Study of the Luxury Hotels in Malaysia (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005) the researchers use the Service Quality (SERVQUAL) index to measure the variation between customer expectations and experience. Using this framework, the researchers provide a detailed analysis of the contributors and detractors to guest satisfaction with luxury resorts throughout Malaysia. SERVQUAL is pervasively used throughout hospitality, healthcare and many other services industries as the intangibles of customer service from the customers' perspective can be quantified through attitudinal measurement (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988). The five classification of elements that comprise the foundation of the SERVQUAL framework include reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness. Measuring all of these factors in a consolidated set of metrics provides a unique, 360-degree view of a service business that is not available through more qualitative and often imprecise research methods. The outcomes of SERVQUAL analysis provide international hospitality providers with a nuanced and focused view of how each of their properties are perceived by current and future guests. The research process to capture SERVQUAL data is also often interval or ratio-based in terms of scaling attributes, which provides a measure of orthogonally-based reliability to the results (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988). These foundational elements of SERVQUAL have also led to this technique being combined with Six Sigma and DMAIC-based methodologies for understanding regional variations in service quality for internationally-based chains.

Analyzing the Influence of Globalization on the Hospitality Industry

The cultural and experiential differences between regions of the world and within nations need to be taken into account in any expansion strategy for it to succeed. Globalization requires a nuanced and much focused series of strategies to align a given hospitality providers' services and facilities mix to the precise needs of a given location. While globalization is often criticized as the homogenization of a given industry, in fact the most successful luxury hotels prosper when they take a very local, culturally-aware approach to planning and executing their overall strategies. The research that forms the foundation of Service Quality: A study of the Luxury Hotels in Malaysia (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005) illustrates this point through the use of the SERVQUAL methodology.

The study examined the gaps in performance across five service quality dimensions including reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibility, which are the five foundational elements of the SERVQUAL methodology today (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, Berry, 1988). The findings illustrate how difficult it is for a globally-based hospitality provider to expand into Malaysia and orchestrate services well enough across all five dimensions, delivering excellent, above-expectation service in the process (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). The study also sought to create a benchmark of performance across the four- and five-star hotels in Malaysia based on minimal customer expectations and an upper threshold of exceptional performance. The researchers found that despite these four- and five-star hotels having the capacity to excel in more westernized nations, they were still missing the nuanced yet highly important aspects of hospitality performance in Malaysia. The study shows how a broad approach to aligning with a culture isn't good enough to meet and exceed customer expectations (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). Instead there needs to be a more focused strategy on how to create a more effective aliening of hospitality performance and a continual monitoring of customers' expectations over time. This continual approach to evaluating hospitality performance is a crucial strategy for hospitality providers looking to expand into countries and regions that have cultural norms, values and profiles significantly different than their own. It can be inferred from the analysis of the Malaysian four- and five-star hotel performance that quality measurement and management is never a one-and-done strategy, instead it must be periodic and the metrics must be infused into the culture of the organization if it is going to excel (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). This approach to managing globalized operations for international brands must become an essential part of the expansion and launch process, so that ownership of service quality and the metrics used for measuring it get engrained into the culture of the new location. As is apparent from the failure of the Malaysian hotels to accomplish this, there is a cautionary tale for other internationally-based hospitality chains that the ownership of the daily quality experience including the attitude of service above all must pervade any location, supported and supplanted by cultural congruity (Hofstede, McCrae, 2004) if it is going to succeed (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). This cultural sensitivity and congruence is exceptionally difficult to accomplish without cultural insights as well, and even with SERVQUAL monitoring service performance as measured by the gap between customer expectations and experience, there is still a cultural gap that falls outside of this framework (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). The study concluded that the Malaysian hotels failed to meet regional and local customer expectations on three of the five dimensions of the model, and this was attributable to a lack of alignment with the specific cultural expectations and perceptions of the local community (Pei, Abdolali, Yong, 2005). Clearly there is much room for improvement in how globalization strategies are implemented.