Next, the overall population of customer-contact employees in the selected sample of
30 hotels was determined through communication with their management. The
respective figure stood at 346. As the total population was not large, self-administered
paper questionnaires with the help of hotel management were distributed among all
346 customer contact employees in the selected 30 hotels. At the end of the survey 211
filled-in valid questionnaires were returned (response rate of 61 per cent). According to
Remenyi et al.’s (1998) formula, the final margin of error comprisedþ/- 2 per cent at 95
per cent level of confidence.