The impact of service recovery on satisfaction and word of mouth of international tourists towards homestays: an empirical study in Vietnam

Abstract

Service failures are fairly common these days, and recovering from them is difficult. If service failures are not addressed quickly, the service provider may lose revenue and customers. A good service recovery strategy will positively impact the business results of the service provider. The study aims to demonstrate the impact of service recovery on the satisfaction and word of mouth of international visitors towards homestays in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The research data was collected from 320 international visitors who have used services at homestays and experienced service failures in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. Structural equation modeling was applied to analyze the data. The result shows that 3 dimensions constitute service recovery which are distributive justice, interactional justice, and procedural justice. Most importantly, the study has proved the positive impact of service recovery on both satisfaction and word of mouth of overseas tourists towards homestays in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The results have stressed the importance of service recovery to tourists’ perceptions of service quality and service image. In addition to this, the study suggests that homestay owners should develop risk handling and risk prevention plans for their services.