Unveiling halal luxury hotel service quality: key attributes from online reviews

Purpose Luxury hotels catering to the needs of halal markets continue to grow in popularity. While there is emerging research on luxury services and attributes valued by Muslim consumers in general, there is a lack of certainty on the factors that matter to consumers in the context of halal luxury hotels. This study aims to identify the key concepts and themes that matter for halal luxury hotel service quality. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzed 369 online reviews from Tripadvisor of an award-winning halal luxury hotel brand. Content analysis was done on the reviews using Leximancer. Findings Qualitative analysis showed 11 key themes that mattered to consumers of halal luxury hotels. Nine of the themes were related to service quality attributes, while two represented themes associated with the outcomes of halal luxury hotel service quality. Themes related to the attributes of halal luxury hotel service quality exhibited similarities and uniqueness compared to the extant service quality literature. Research limitations/implications This study was limited to reviews from three hotels of a single halal luxury hotel brand. Data was also collected from English-language customer reviews from TripAdvisor till July 2024. The study weaves together the site context of halal luxury hotels with findings that are indicative and lead to future research methodology that accommodates in situ Muslim guests’ experiences. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to identify the key themes associated with halal luxury hotel service quality based on online customer reviews. This provides support for further research to empirically transform these themes into service quality dimensions with suitable measure items. Service managers can also use our insights as guidance to design and measure the service quality of their luxury hotels for halal markets.