Assessing Service Quality and Guest Satisfaction in Hotels of Darjeeling District: A Content Analysis of Online Reviews

Abstract

Rapid tourism growth in Darjeeling has intensified completion among hotels, making service quality a crucial determinant of guest satisfaction and destination competitiveness. In tourism-dependent regions like Darjeeling, hotel accommodations constitute an important component of the overall tourists’ experience of the destination. However, despite the increasing availability of online guest reviews, they are often treated merely as a numerical rating and remains underutilized as a source of qualitative insight. Therefore, this study examines guests’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction, identifies key factors influencing their experiences, analyses how guests’ narrative align with SERVQUAL dimensions. A qualitative content analysis approach was adopted using 2,007online reviews from Booking.com and Agoda. The findings show that the guest satisfaction is primarily influenced by location and accessibility, staff behaviour, and room quality and cleanliness, whereas dissatisfaction mainly arises from poor room conditions, service failures, and unresponsive staff behaviour. Among SERVQUAL dimensions tangibles emerged as the most dominant dimension in both positive and negative reviews, indicating that guests largely evaluate hotel quality based on physical facilities and visible service elements. Positive experiences were further associated with assurance and responsiveness, while dissatisfaction was largely linked to reliability failures, particularly when promised services were not delivered consistently. Further, sentiment analysis reveals that the overall image of hotel stays in Darjeeling remains positive, shaped by favourable staff interactions, scenic views, and location advantages. Thus, the study highlights that online textual reviews can be used as a useful managerial tool for identifying service quality gaps and improving guest satisfaction and competitiveness in this crowded tourist destination.