RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SERVICE QUALITY AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION FOR MUSLIM-FRIENDLY ACCOMMODATION

Muslim Friendly Accommodation (MFA) is considered a new direction to capture the market among Muslim travellers. Consecutively, service quality is a significant concept related to consumer behaviour and is intertwined with behavioural intentions and satisfaction. The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction is an important strategy because MFA has become an alternative way for the tourism industry to generate profit. This study examines the MFA context's service quality elements concerning customer satisfaction using correlation analysis. 150 questionnaires were distributed to budget hotel customers in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. The findings showed that SERVQUAL’s elements of tangible, empathy, and responsiveness are the main elements influencing customer satisfaction in the MFA context. Thus, the hotel’s physical facilities and equipment should be in perfect condition, with the staff being well-trained to attend to and be aware of customers’ requests and needs in a specific time frame.