One of the biggest contemporary challenges of management in service industries is providing and
maintaining customer satisfaction. Service quality and customer satisfaction have increasingly been identified as
key factors in the battle for competitive differentiation and customer retention. Lam and Zhang (1999) claim that
overwhelming customer demand for quality products and service has in recent years become increasingly
evident to professionals in the tourism and hotel industry. Among all customer demands, service quality has
been increasingly recognized as a critical factor in the success of any business (Grönroos, 1990; Parasuraman et
al., 1988).
The purpose of this study is to examine hotel guest comment cards (GCCs) and customer satisfaction
management schemes in Opatija’s hotels. This study adopts the applied content analysis approach which Gilbert
and Horsnell (1998) used in their study, utilizing comparison and recording of findings based on a set of best
practice criteria.
The results of this study provide hotel professionals with an assessment of current methods of
measuring and managing customer satisfaction in Opatija’s hotels.
Key words: customer satisfaction, service quality, measurement techniques, content analysis, hotel industry