THE INFLUENCE OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMERS' RETENTION AND LOYALTY IN THE UAE HOTEL SECTOR WITH RESPECT TO THE IMPACT OF CUSTOMER’ SATISFACTION, TRUST, AND COMMITMENT: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The coronavirus (Covid-19) epidemic is changing the business activities, systems, and operations
around the world these days. Such a crisis makes all business institutions in a large number of
business sectors shrink, suspend or close their business operations. One of the main problems that
such institutions face is losing their customers and accordingly releases a large number of their
employees. Accordingly, customer retention becomes one of the main business concepts that need
to be studied again especially in the hotel sector. The research aims to explore the main factors
that affect positively customer retention and loyalty in the hospitality industry, in particular, the
hotels' sector in the UAE.
This study extends the literature by giving more light at the effects of service quality, customer
satisfaction, trust, and commitment particularly in the hotels' sector in UAE that lead to
empowering customer retention and loyalty of these hotels. A qualitative method is conducted to
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this exploration and interviews were handled among hotel customers in the UAE to collect primary
data. The data are analyzed through various steps involving the coding process and the categorizing
process. The findings of this study ensure the significant effect of service quality on satisfaction,
trust, and commitment, which influence effectively in return the retention and loyalty of customers.