Quality Assurance in Athenian Luxury Hotels

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how quality assurance is currently managed in five star luxury hotels in Athens. The study explores how hotels design and structure their quality assurance systems (standards, procedures, audits, KPIs), how these systems are implemented in daily operations, and how managers perceive their effectiveness, challenges, and impact on consistency.

The theoretical framework combines literature on luxury hospitality, quality assurance management, ISO 9001, PDCA, with additional concepts such as CAPA, Lean, and Six Sigma, used to situate hotel practices. The empirical part adopts a qualitative approach using semi structured interviews with managers and employees from selected Athenian luxury hotels.

The interviews were analyzed thematically and presented around key themes, including staff introduction to quality, overall standards, daily operations, performance indicators, audits, service failures, guest feedback, and competitive advantage.

The findings suggest that Athenian luxury hotels use a mix of formal quality management systems, brand standards, and internal procedures, supported by training, KPIs, and audits, but face ongoing challenges related to human factors, change of management, and external pressures such as seasonal staffing, costs, and sustainability.

Overall, the thesis argues that quality assurance in this context functions as a strategic, organisation wide commitment that must be embedded in everyday work, continuously monitored and regularly adapted in order to sustain high service quality and differentiate luxury hotels in an increasingly competitive Athenian market.