The purpose of this paper is to study whether quality certified hotels develop some managerial key factors in a significantly better way and have better performance.
The empirical data were collected from a sample of 303 Spanish hotels. Hotels were grouped as certified and non‐certified hotels and the differences were analysed between these two groups in relation to the key factors and performance variables.
Certified hotels develop better the key factors and have better performance. This supports the findings related to this issue in other industries and expands the literature on quality management in the hotel industry.
Quality certifications in hotels may be an important strategic initiative because they may facilitate the development of key factors and may have an impact on firm performance.
The paper reinforces the fact that the quality certification is also important in the hotel industry, where the more scarce literature on this issue in this industry suggests that it is necessary to analyse the relationship of quality certification on firm performance.
