Revamping Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Service Quality Perceptions Post-COVID-19

While COVID-19 has brought the hospitality industry to a halt, the industry’s unwavering efforts to introduce technical advances and new safety standards will ensure that it bounces back with greater vigour as it emerges from the crisis. The anticipated growth from the optimistic travel and hospitality sectors has turned downwards due to the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic has enforced border restrictions, and travel bans across the globe have thwarted the sector. Hospitality is a people-based sector and has hence been affected the worst (Hoisington, 2020). The tourism and hotel industries are globally affected by the COVID-19 crisis, especially in countries with low incomes (Oh, 1999). At times like this, the sustainability and growth of the tourism and hospitality industries are challenging. Thus, it becomes crucial for brands to know which service quality dimension is most important to customers. The current chapter is based on a conceptual framework drawn from the SERVQUAL model and Kotler’s layers of products and services. This study is an in-depth review of the research done on service quality dimensions in the hotel industry, and it suggests the probable shift of customer focus across these dimensions post-COVID-19. The study aims to assess customer needs from the perspective of different layers of services and describes how brands can change their outlook on the way these services are perceived and delivered in post-COVID-19 times so as to effectively revamp the business. In light of customers’ shift in their service quality needs, the chapter highlights the opportunities for the emerging concept of homestays and also suggests that research on the concept of homestay, considering its huge relevance in post-COVID-19 times, is very limited and can be explored through empirical studies of different stakeholders.