A Study on the Influence of Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction on Behavioral Intention in the Hospitality Industry in Malaysia

This paper aimed to investigate the applicability of the SERVQUAL model in predicting customer satisfaction and customer behavioral intentions in three five star hotels in Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. A total of 650 structured questionnaires were distributed to the respective hotels over five months. A letter granting approval to conduct this study to gauge the customers‟ perception of service quality and behavioral intention purely for academic purpose was attained from each of the hotel‟s management. The front office receptionists at the hotels helped to distribute and collect the questionnaires. Two hundred and eighty seven (n = 287) respondents returned the completed questionnaires. Service quality was measured using the SERVQUAL scale developed by Parasuraman et al., (1988) and behavioral intentions were measured using Zeithaml et al., (1996). The five dimensions of the SERVQUAL model predicted high amount of variances in both the satisfaction and behavioral intentions variables.