THE STUDY ON FACTORS INFLUENCING CUSTOMER RETENTION IN HOTEL INDUSTRY DURING COVID-19

Abstract

The customer retention is extremely important for the hotel to take care of the old customer and attract the new customer. It is very difficult job for the hotels and for every company to retain the old customer and for that reason the hotel offers different packages with offers. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown was declared suddenly which imposed restrictions on travel. This had a massive impact on hospitality industry. Hospitality businesses were expected to make substantial changes to their operations during the COVID-19 business environment to maintain and ensure the employees’ and customers’ health and safety, and enhance customers’ willingness to patronize their business. The main aim of this research is to find out which factors play an important role in the customer retention in hotel industry during pandemic. The Study is exploratory in nature. The study is based on the following Parameters i.e. Customer satisfaction, physical environment, Service Quality, Food quality, lodging, Pricing. The study is based on the primary data in which sample comprised of 200 respondents collected by simple random sampling technique. To find the association and significance of the relationships with respect to demographic variables, the researcher has applied Chi square test. The study revealed that factors like Behaviour of Customer, Service representatives and Staff, Physical Environment, Accuracy of the orders & services, Facilities availed by customer during check in process and Customer Loyalty majorly affects the customer retention. Secondly the study also found a meaningful result that, there is an association between Age-group (26 – 45 years) and the Customer Loyalty. The reason for thisassociation can be related to the desperation to move out for a change as people were suddenly locked in their houses for a long period. Visible sanitizing efforts were expected by the authorities as well as the customers. Management had to follow more safety and rigorous cleaning procedures to cope up with the situation of pandemic for retaining customers.