Using Service Design to Analyze Guest Satisfaction in Budget Accommodation : a case study of CheapSleep Helsinki

Abstract

This thesis studies what factors affected customers choices to choose CheapSleep Helsinki as their accommodation‚ and how service design methods could be used to further improve customers experiences in budget accommodation in Helsinki‚ Finland․ CheapSleep Helsinki commissioned this thesis․ The objective was to find the key booking drivers‚ identify service touch-points and improvement areas‚ and increase customer satisfaction‚ online reviews and repeat visit rates․ The study employed a mixed-methods approach‚ with a quantitative guest questionnaire answered by 35 participants as the primary data source and publicly available online guest reviews as the secondary data․ The data from the questionnaire were descriptively analyzed‚ while the qualitative data from customers' comments and reviews were analyzed thematically․ The theoretical framework was based on customer choice‚ expectation-based satisfaction‚ perceived service quality‚ perceived value‚ servicescape‚ customer journey thinking‚ and service design․ Price was the most important factor when deciding on CheapSleep Helsinki (54․3%‚ n = 19) and location‚ online reviews and shared rooms were the most common concerns․ Apart from the positive assessment of the check-in process‚ open-ended comments and review data indicate that the social atmosphere and community were the greatest strengths of the hostel‚ while the beds and lockers as well as the common areas were the greatest weaknesses․ The study recommends that CheapSleep Helsinki protects its positioning as a budget accommodation provider through expectation management‚ improving the check-in process‚ improving the usability of sleep and storage services‚ providing more explicit directions to shared facilities‚ and advertising social programming better․