A pilot test was undertaken to assess the reliability of the attributes, and to ensure that the wordings of the questionnaire were clear. Twenty questionnaires were completed by the guests in accompaniment of researcher. Some problems were identified with the wordings and implications of some questions, so some minor revisions were made to avoid confusion. Reliability analysis was also applied to test the internal consistency of each of the expectation and perception attributes. The results showed that the Cronbach's α coefficients for all the expectations and perception attributes, ranging from 0.9150 to 0.9486, were quite high, and they were internally consistent and reliable.
The study was conducted in a business hotel situated in a large city in the west coast of Turkey during 6 weeks in autumn of 2002. The target population of the survey was all business travelers who stayed in the business hotel selected for this study during the data collection period. A convenience sampling approach was employed and 250 questionnaires were distributed to the guests who inclined to take the questionnaires. Hotel guests who checked-out from the hotel and about to leave were approached and asked whether they would be willing to participate in the survey. The questionnaires were handed to the ones who were willing to fill out the questionnaires. The guests completed the questionnaires in accompaniment of researcher and the completed questionnaires were taken back by the researcher right after the completion of each questionnaire. By utilizing this method, a total of 250 questionnaires were attained. The sample size was chosen because the scale developers have used, and found reliable, similar sample sizes in previous studies (Stevens et al., 1995). Of these 250 questionnaires, 16 were not included in the analysis because of incompleteness, and 234 were usable for further analysis.