<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p> Delighted customers are those whose expectations have been exceeded by the service provider. Competitors in the hotel business need to go beyond what is expected in order to satisfy the guest with an unpredictable positive experience. This study was aimed to clarify the significance of customer delight as an antecedent to customer loyalty, in five-star hotel spas in Portugal. To better understand spa consumers’ perception of delight, the development and testing of an integrated model was undertaken by examining the relationship between perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and customer delight. The model was tested using surveyed data from 427 spa consumers and validated using partial least squares (PLS) technique. The results indicated that satisfaction had a direct positive effect on customer delight and, consequently, influences the effect of customer delight on customer loyalty.</p></abstract>

Delighted customers are those whose expectations have been exceeded by the service provider. Competitors in the hotel business need to go beyond what is expected in order to satisfy the guest with an unpredictable positive experience. This study was aimed to clarify the significance of customer delight as an antecedent to customer loyalty, in five-star hotel spas in Portugal. To better understand spa consumers’ perception of delight, the development and testing of an integrated model was undertaken by examining the relationship between perceived service quality, customer satisfaction, loyalty and customer delight. The model was tested using surveyed data from 427 spa consumers and validated using partial least squares (PLS) technique. The results indicated that satisfaction had a direct positive effect on customer delight and, consequently, influences the effect of customer delight on customer loyalty.

Customer delight: perception of hotel spa consumers

Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPL), School of Tourism and Maritime Technology (ESTM), Campus 4 – Santuário Nossa Senhora dos Remédios, 2520- 641 Peniche – Portugal, Tel: (+351) 262 783 607

University of Extremadura, Faculty of Economics and Business Management, Avda. de Elvas, s/n. Edificio Rectorado 06006 Badajoz, Spain

Polytechnic Institute of Leiria (IPL), School of Tourism and Maritime Technology (ESTM), 2520-641 Peniche – Portugal

European Journal of Tourism, Hospitality and Recreation

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

{"article-title":"Customer delight: perception of hotel spa consumers"}

Delighted customers are those whose expectations have been exceeded by the service provider. Competitors in the hotel business need to go beyond what is...

Customer delight: perception of hotel spa consumers

Publicado en línea: 26 may 2016

Páginas: 13 - 20

Recibido: 20 oct 2014

Aceptado: 22 feb 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2016-0002

Palabras clave
Customer delight, Perceived service quality, Customer satisfaction, Loyalty, Spa tourism

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Customer delight: perception of hotel spa consumers

Publicado en línea: 26 may 2016

Páginas: 13 - 20

Recibido: 20 oct 2014

Aceptado: 22 feb 2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ejthr-2016-0002

Palabras claveCustomer delight, Perceived service quality, Customer satisfaction, Loyalty, Spa tourism

© 2016

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Palabras clave
Customer delight, Perceived service quality, Customer satisfaction, Loyalty, Spa tourism