To Investigate the Impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Its Relationship to Guest Revisit and it Impact on Brand Loyalty in the Hospitality Industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

The following study will dive into the impact of Service Quality on customer satisfaction and the connection with brand loyalty in the hospitality industry in Phnom Penh, Cambodia (Prum, S., 2024). As the capital of Cambodia experiences steady tourism growth, maintaining service consistency across the hotels has become vital to sustaining customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study will apply the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) to examine how the five service-quality dimensions tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy shape guest satisfaction and long-term loyalty behaviours. Although service quality and satisfaction have been extensively studied, existing literature often analyses these constructs separately or within Western contexts, providing limited insight into their combined effects in emerging hospitality markets such as Cambodia (Laghari, 2009; Ung, 2013).

Using a quantitative research design, primary data will be collected through a structured survey questionnaire administered to domestic and international guests that have stayed at the three to five stars hotel in Cambodia, Phnom Penh (Daria, 2024). Data will be obtained through a self-administered structured questionnaire, distributed to hotel’s guests selected through purposive sampling, and the survey indicators adapted from the SERVQUAL model, which consists of service quality through five critical dimensions such as tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy (Parasuraman, Zeithaml, & Berry, 1988). Measures related to customer satisfaction and brand loyalty are adopted from established behavioural-intention and relationship-marketing frameworks to ensure construct validity (Kumar & Reinartz, 2016). All survey will utilise a five-point Likert-type scale, enabling quantitative assessment of guests’ perceptions and experiences across hotel categories (Joshi, Kale, Chandel, & Pal, 2015). Academically, this research advances the theoretical understanding of the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction, and brand loyalty by developing an integrated conceptual framework that connects the SERVQUAL dimensions with affective and behavioural loyalty outcomes (Chumpitaz & Parapodia’s, 2004; Chen & Tsai, 2021). It contributes to hospitality scholarship by extending classic service-quality theories to the context of emerging markets in Cambodia, where cultural and infrastructural factors offers valuable implications for hotel managers and practitioners, enabling them to design evidence-based strategies that strengthen guest retention, service differentiation, and competitive advantage through targeted improvements in service delivery and emotional engagement (Kim & Cha, 2002; Okoronkwo & Hsu, 2006; Lee & Back, 2015). The research also emphasizes the role of emotional connection and experiential value in sustaining loyalty within the hospitality environment, highlighting that affective attachment can be as critical as functional service quality (Tsaur, Chang, & Wu, 2006; Bhandari & Poonia, 2022). From a policy-making perspective, the findings will inform Cambodia’s tourism authorities and professional associations on developing national service-quality benchmarks, staff training frameworks, and hospitality performance standards that align with the country’s sustainable tourism development goals (Kingdom of Cambodia, Ministry of Tourism, 2024; Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1996). Collectively, these contributions strengthen both theoretical insight and managerial practice while supporting evidence-based policy initiatives for Cambodia’s growing hotel industry.