Comparison of hotel fine dining and chain restaurant consumer perceived service quality and satisfaction predictions

Purpose Since the COVID-19 epidemic, the number of restaurant service quality studies has continued to increase. However, until now, there has not been an overall perspective or accurate instructions for research on restaurant service quality and experiential value enhancement. This study conducts multiple comparison studies to discover differences between consumer-perceived service quality and satisfaction perspectives on hotel fine dining and chain restaurants. Design/methodology/approach This study integrates a hotel’s fine dining and chain restaurant to obtain 636 participants (e.g. Study 1 has 318 hotel fine dining customers; Study 2 has 318 chain restaurant customers), mainly expanding the SERVQUAL model and stimulus–organism–response (S–O–R) theory. Findings The results of Study 1 show that value co-creation has a mediating effect on the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. In addition, customer experiences have a significant moderating effect on customer satisfaction. The outcomes of Study 2 showed that experiential value has a significant mediating effect on the relationship between service quality and satisfaction. In addition, customer relationship quality is a critical criterion in regulating the process of experience value delivery. Practical implications Hotels’ fine dining should pay attention to the item risk in the value co-creation factor, while chain restaurants should enhance the item service excellence in the experiential value factor to satisfy the changing customer requirements. Originality/value This study provides several alternative models to verify the robustness of the empirical results. Highlights