GUIDELINES FOR SERVICE QUALITY DEVELOPMENT OF BOUTIQUE HOTEL'S FRONT OFFICE DEPARTMENT A STUDY OF CHIANG MAI PROVINCE

Abstract

The objective of this study was to study 1) the personal characteristics of tourists using boutique hotel's front office department in Chiang Mai Province, 2) the behaviors of tourists using boutique hotel's front office department in Chiang Mai Province, 3) satisfaction of tourists with the service quality in using boutique hotel's front office department in Chiang Mai Province, and 4) guidelines for service quality development of boutique hotel's front office department a study of Chiang Mai Province. The content validity of English Survey questionnaire was reviewed by experts and implemented to collect data from 400 customers of a boutique hotel in Chiang Mai Province.  In addition, the data were statistically analyzed using percentage, mean, and standard deviation, inferential statistics methods on chi-square test.

The results were found that majority of the tourists were single female aged 21-25 living in Asia. Their average employee salary was 15,001-20,000 THB and most of them got the bachelor degree. They selected the easy access Boutique Hotel for relaxing in the average of 3 nights stay. They mostly got the hotel information on the press and focused on the room rate of THB 501-1,000 per night. The satisfaction of tourists toward the service quality in using boutique hotel's front office department in Chiang Mai Province was found at the significant level of 0.05. In addition, customer’s different behaviors in using the hotel’s service in terms of the trip purposes, result of stay and duration of stay affected the tourist satisfaction toward the service quality in using boutique hotel's front office department in Chiang Mai Province differently at the significant level of .05.

          In the development of service quality of the front desk, Boutique Hotel Chiang Mai, receptionist should be developed for foreign language skills. The heart of the service should demonstrate visitors that the staff is ready, willing, enthusiastic to service. In addition, physical appearance must be visible, tangible and modern usable. Moreover the personality of the service staff must be neat and graceful, always ready for service as well as satisfy the tourist's needs.