Competitive benchmarking of Korean luxury hotels using the analytic hierarchy process and competitive gap analysis

As quality and profitability have become inseparable concepts, a growing number of service firms have considered quality their top priority in maintaining competitiveness. Commitment to service quality, however, is nothing more than lip service, unless management develops reliable service quality standards. Perhaps one of the best ways of developing such standards is to compare the firm’s service performance with that of the service leader and reassess its service performance continuously through competitive benchmarking. In an effort to establish practical guidelines for competitive benchmarking, proposes the use of an analytic hierarchy process and a competitive gap analysis. These methods can help the service manager to formulate viable service improvement strategies in the increasingly competitive service industry. Illustrates the usefulness of the proposed benchmarking methodology using the case of Korean luxury hotels.