The international guests’ satisfaction about Service Quality of Guesthouse in Sukhothai

The purpose of this study is to study international the guests’ satisfaction about service quality of guesthouses in Sukhothai. The researcher used quantitative method for this study with sample size 400 people. A quantitative methodology used questionnaires with international guests who staying in the guesthouse in Sukhothai. The data was analyzed as descriptive statistic to mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviations. The questionnaires were distributed by purposive and convenience sampling techniques and only 388 questionnaires were usable for this study. The questionnaire is divided into 3 parts: 1) respondent’s demographic information 2) tourist’s behavior information 3) SERVQUAL dimensions. The respondent’s demographic information and tourist’s behavior information are analyzed by using descriptive statistic finding frequency and percentage. SERVQUAL dimensions are analyzed by the mean and standard deviation (S.D.) The result indicated that the service quality of guesthouse in Sukhothai is keeping on the tangibles (x̄= 3.92) includes employees are well dressed and appear neat, physical environment of the guesthouse is clean and the quality of guesthouse equipment at most, followed by assurance, responsiveness, reliability and empathy. This study will help to develop the service management of guesthouse to be higher quality.


Introduction
The management of the service is very necessary for the hotels or every type of accommodation including the guesthouses that need to have a good standard and high quality to serve the tourists and to satisfy them reaching their expectation with the good management and the service or even the facilities, the staff, the manager, or the owner to provide the best things and to understanding the guest very well.
This research is about the service quality of the guesthouse in order to create the guidelines for the successful management, satisfy the customers 'needs and wants at a profit are crucial. The guesthouse owners have to know and understand the guest so that they can sell the rooms at most. If the owners do not know the demand of the guests, they will not be able to reach them through the marketing activities. As a result, the guesthouses might not be successful. The guesthouse managers should have target of a specific group of the guests and try to reach their requirement as best they can do. (Radder & Wang, 2006). According to Phirasant, J., Sirasoonthorn, P., Viriya, D., Chanthawarang, W., & Sattha, N. (2014) Sukhothai, in the past where was the ancient city, is surprisingly still the role model of a visual meal of suggestive devastations and also is seen as Thai civilization foundation. For instance, Thai alphabet was initiated in Sukhothai. Moreover, Thai arts, cultures and laws occurred in Sukhothai era.
As Sukhothai had been affluent, it was a prosperous center of trade, culture and religion. At the present time, the destructive city is located amongst the green areas such as the hills. Plus, there are several peaceful lotus ponds. However, the development of the green areas provides a glimpse of the wonderful culture and architectural. Depending upon Cobweb Information Ltd. (2015), overnight or short-stay accommodation is provided for visitors. In a large residential stuff, a guest would be comfortable with the multipurpose facility provided in the guest house where are characteristically family run. They are commonly identified as providing accommodation for six or more guests at once. Furthermore, the guests could be either on a bed and breakfast or half-board basis. The providing the internet access is only available at a dining room, lounge or TV room. Typically, nonguests cannot access the internet with any costs.

Guesthouse management
Guest house as defined by the optional way for the European people that used to stay in the rural area than the city. It is either a converted house adjusted to accommodate an overnight guest or it might be a reason built facility. A guesthouse is kept running as the business operation and it frequently owner managed. It has public areas, which can be for the exclusive use of the guest. The owner lives off-site, or in a different area on the property. Horner and Swarbrooke (1999) demonstrated that tourism forming into an arrangement, which is more personalized and adjusted to new attention to nature and self. In fact, European tends to make a different style of destination improve their interest and one of the options is to explore the rural area which has benefits for them, to satisfy their expectation (Lynch, 2003). Guest houses, mostly play for a share of the tourist market with all types of accommodation because providing quality of service is significant in making value for customers and thus, for producing worth to the service provider like guest house management. Achievement in getting the customer to acknowledge and perceive the guest house service, provided is a test for the guest house management. (Groth & Dye 1999:274). The guest expectation is an assumption that the service as standards against which performance is evaluated by the customer who experiences the serviced. In the other words, customer desires help predict what ought to happen as opposed to what may happen during or after the service. (Teare 1998:89;Zeithaml & Bitner 2000:48). Combine expectation and satisfaction by the guest to the guest house that used to evaluates might be based on consolidated expectation standards. It starts from inside the guesthouse that multi-expectation standard point of view between guesthouse management and guest. (Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman) (In Walker & Baker 2000:413). guest houses are typically fewer and more private, more often than not house size in width with very few rooms, in spite of the fact that that doesn't block them going after the sky. Generally do not have lifts either. A number oblige you to take your shoes off on passage too. MGHworld.net (2016) defined that Guest Houses are not only a cheaper replacement of hotels, but are also an appearing segment with many branches. Now there are many types of Guest Houses like Common, Beach and Budget guest houses. Most of the urban cities are a perfect hub for Corporate Guest Houses. These properties be composed of 8-10 rooms within a budget of 100-150$. They are essentially accommodated by corporations looking for a 10-15 days stay on their firm trip. One can find perfect Beach Guest Houses along the ocean strand. Beach Houses have become a good substitute of costly resorts and are a perfect mix of affordability & graciousness. Budget Guest houses are living up to their real name. They furnish budget friendly accommodations. One can easily get a 10-20$ room in this category with basic conveniences.

Service Quality (SERVQUAL)
The way of service is defined similarly to an action which includes an item or goods. What's more, is provided as an answer to meet guest demand and that quality is the outcome of being satisfied or not subsequently to having assessed when the service is delivering well to meet the expectation of guest at the same time management providing the important as intangible services, yet, this is deemed to be view of individual accepting the service and the quality then rely on service to meet the needs, wants and expectation of that particular guest, example of European, within the story, service quality is seen as the appraisal of how well an service offered to meet the expectation of the guest. (Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman 1988, 35) & (Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1988, 15).
The reason why travellers choose a destination is based on the range of destinations' interestedness and attractiveness in influencing travellers' satisfaction. The assessment of destination possible helps to indicating and assessing the importance of existent destination resources in each area or province (Jittangwatana, 2005). In addition, the evaluation of destination potential also identifies destinations' competencies and preparedness in order to rank them according to their importance (Emphadhu & Ruschano, 2007). The estimation of tourism destination potential includes the investigation of destination value or justice, physical view of destinations, destinations readiness in terms of foundation, environment, accessibility, reputation and safety. However, the assessment of destination potential was associated with the five major elements of the destination or 5A including attraction, accessibility, amenities, activities and accommodation (Dickman, 1996).
The SERVQUAL instrument was the supreme method used to measure consumers 'awareness of service quality. It has five normal dimensions or factors and is stated as follows (van Iwaarden et al., 2003): (1) Tangibles: physical facilities, apparatus and presentation of personnel.
(2) Reliability: capability to perform the promised service dependably and correctly.
(3) Responsiveness: willingness to help consumers and provide quick/punctual service.
(4) Assurance (including competence, politeness, credibility and security). Knowledge and courtesy of workers and their ability to influence the trust and reliance.
(5) Empathy (including access, communication, understanding the guests). Kindness and particularized attention that the firm provides to its customers.
The indication is that travellers are influenced to visit attractions. There are natural attraction such as waterfalls and coasts, built attractions such as the Sydney Opera House, and private company developments such as Adventure World and Dream World. Tourists lacking to visit attractions will need to get to them and require satisfactory access. This is able take the form of transport for example day or expansive tours, flights and boats. If an overnight stay is demanded during the trip, tourist visiting an attraction will need accommodation at or close to the attraction or on the way to the attraction. Having the perfect attractions, accommodation, access, and amenities in the world is totally useless if the awareness factor is lacking. Tourists also require amenities at their accommodation and on the way to destinations and attraction. These include shops, restaurants, coffee shops, public transportation, tourist information, toilets in the public.
Service quality for businesses distinct, it is for the customer. However, when to use it as a different. Service quality uses more as the key element of measurement performs between guest expectation and guesthouse management. There is a lot of definition for customer service quality in the middle of what is wanted, needs of expectation, and the actual service.
However, it is about customers satisfaction or not and it's is this fulfillment or not which decides service quality for guesthouse as perceived by from customer. The reality that customers are getting satisfied or not by the guesthouse services provided and the complete how well guesthouse is executing as perceived by the customer and this information is used to enhance service, distinguish issues and better evaluate consumer satisfaction. In fact, most of the literature in the context regards in hotel industry distinguished customer satisfaction as the basic component of the hotel industry's quality position to a guest. Similarly, service quality is recognized as a basic thing to be an accomplishment of guesthouse management and in addition, to gain positive ideal intentioned fulfillment. (Min and Chung, 2002;Callan and Kyndt, 2001;Callan and Bowman, 2000).

Customer Satisfaction
Hom, W. (2000). This is a noticeable definition. First, the concentrate is on a buyer rather than a "customer." Traditionally speaking, the consumer uses a goods or service, whereas a customer spends for the service/product but may not be the consumer (the direct user). Allowed, this is a fine difference that gets lost in daily eloquence, but it makes dissimilarity in a researcher's modeling of satisfaction. Satisfaction with a goods/service is a construct that demands experience and use of Customer Satisfaction Models 102 RP Group Proceedings 2000 the product or service (Oliver, 1997). Individuals who spend for a product/service but who do not use this service or product should not be expected to have the type of (dis)satisfaction that a product and service user (the buyer) will have. So we need to understand that the concept of customer satisfaction is about the buyer or consumer satisfaction. Second, satisfaction is an emotion. It is a short-term attitude that can willingly change given a group of circumstances. It resides in the user's mind and is distinct from observable behaviors such as product choice, repurchase, and complaining. Third, satisfaction commonly has entrances at both a lower level (insufficiency) and an upper level (excess). This means that a customer's satisfaction may drop if she/he "gets too much of a good thing." Many people focus upon the lower entrances and neglect the ability for an upper threshold. With this definition in mind, we shift to the original macro-model of customer satisfaction. This is the model shown in Figure 3. This model underlies extremely of the research in customer satisfaction over the past decade. Following by: 1. Perceived performance often differs from purpose or technical performance, especially when a product or service is complicated, intangible, and when the buyer is unfamiliar with the product and service.
2. Comparison standards can come from many sources that can alter widely by individual, situation, and product/service type.
3. Perceived disconfirmation is the assessment of perceived operation according to one or more comparison standards. Disconfirmation can have a positive conclusion (generally hinting a satisfying result), a negative outcome (generally indicating a dissatisfying result), or a zero effect.
4. Satisfaction feeling is a state of mind and attitude. The phrase "mixed feelings" uses here, as a buyer may have dissimilar levels of satisfaction for different parts of a product and service experience.
5. Outcomes of satisfaction feelings may involve an intention to repurchase, word-of-mouth (the customer communication with her/his network of her/his approval or disapproval for a product or service), and complaints. These outcomes also are averaged by other variables Giese, J. L., & Cote, J. A. (2000). This researcher gave a basic definitional incongruity is obvious by the consideration of whether satisfaction is a method or an outcome (Yi 1990). More correctly, consumer satisfaction definitions have either emphasized an assessment process (e.g., Fornell 1992;Hunt 1977;Oliver 1981) or an acknowledgment to an evaluation method (e.g., Halstead, Hartman, and Schmidt 1994;Howard and Sheth 1969;Oliver 1997Oliver , 1981Tse and Wilton 1988;Westbrook and Reilly 1983). From a general defining aspect, process definitions are doubtful in that there is little accordance with the satisfaction process. From a working perspective, process definitions are plagued by previous constructs featured in the conceptual definition; thus, there is an overlap between the territory of the determinative process constructs and the customer satisfaction construct.

International tourist behavior
Al Muala, A. M. (2011). Tourists are determined as the foremost factor of the tourism industry. It is important to know more data about international tourists' behavior, and what they expect during their travels out of their lands (Cook et al., 1999). Consequently, tourist's behavior is the act through which the tourist makes buying decisions (Boone and Kurtz, 1998). Internationally, there are not many studies that inspect the actual behavior of visitors (Castro et al, 2007;Ryu et al, 2007;Um et al, 2006;Valle et al, 2006;Hong et al, 2009). Moreover, there is not much research that was done to study the path between determination and actual behavior in Jordan. This also uses to Jordan in which there is a deficiency of research on present visit behavior, whereby most of the studies behaviors in this region focus only on the satisfaction of tourists (Qwaider, 2005). Also, many studies discontinued at behavior intention as the dependent inconstant (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993;Baker & Crompton, 2000;Hellier et al, 2003;Um et al, 2006;Castro et al, 2007;Chen, 2008;Hong et al, 2009). As well as there are restricted past studies that have examined predictors of actual behavior (ACT) in tourism environment, such as intention (Zhang, 2008;Duffy, 2009) subjective average (Lin, 2008), service (Bigne, 2001;Lin, 2008), attitude or opinion (Steinbauer and Werthner, 2005), habit (Zhang, 2008), and satisfaction (Allard & Van Riel, 2004). Hence, the researcher found that the actual visit behavior could be prophesied by behavior intention and perceived behavior manage.

Methodology
This research is quantitative method. The researcher will collect the data by distribute the questionnaires.
The 5 point Likert Scale questionnaires were used to collect the data of the research. 1 = strong dissatisfied to 5 = very satisfied.
After collecting the data from the questionnaires, the Social Science ( SPSS) program was used to analyze the data collected.

Part 1. Respondent's demographic information
Part 2. Tourist's behavior information Part 3. SERVQUAL dimensions The study aimed to all the international guestss who came to stay at Guesthouse in Sukhothai.
However, due to the time limitation, convenience sampling method was used to represent the whole population of international guests visitin Sukhothai.
The questionnaires were collected in several tourist attractions in Sukhothai.
The sample to be used in this research is the international guests travelling in Sukhothai, Thailand. Then the research process is outlined as per its purposes as follows: The population of this research is the international guests who travelling to Sukhothai. According to Sukhothai Province Office of Tourism and Sports from 2012-2014, Sukhothai received about 438,485 international tourists arrived per annual and this number was considered the population of this research.
From the calculation, the sample size was 400 subjects; however, to prevent any errors or incomplete answers on some of the questionnaires, 420 questionnaires were distributed.
Incompletely filled questionnaires would be thrown away and only 400 completed questionnaires were used in the analysis of the data.
According to Miller (2002), to create the good quality research questionnaire, the content should be determined the validity and reliability before collecting the data. So, the researcher examinines the questionnaire's reliability by conducting a tryout at 30 samples. Then, finding to reliability of the questionnaire by using (a coefficient) from Cronbach.

Variables
1. Independent Variables: The independent variables are demographic information such as gender, age, education, occupation, nationality.
2 . Dependent Variables: To study international guests' satisfaction about service quality of guesthouses in Sukhothai.

Result and conclusion
Originally, there were 400 questionnaires distributed to the respondents, but there were just 388 questionnaires could be analyzed in this study because of the completion of the data. The data were identifying to the international guests' satisfaction about service quality of guesthouses in Sukhothai. The result will show the average in each issue in guesthouses by collect the survey data of the international tourists who travel in Shukhothai guesthouse.
The survey data in questionnaire are divided for 3 parts that as follow:   Table 2, show classify of respondents status that are travel in Sukhothai. The most number is single status in 181 people (46.8%) followed by married in 164 people (42.3%), rather not to say is 25 people (6.4%) and Divorced/Separated/Windowed on status in number of people 18 with 4.6% respectively.  Table 3 tells about the sequence of the tourists' age. The most number in age of visitors is 20-30 years old with 213 people (54.9%) followed by31-40 years old with 22.4 percentages or 87, 41-50 years old with 12.6 percentages or 49 people, less than 20 years old in 6.4 percentages or 25 people and the least is 51-60 year olds in 3.6 percentages or 14 people respectively.    Table 6 talks about the level income of tourists. The most is the tourists who have income more than 1,001 USD (195 people or 50.3%) followed by tourists have the income around 801 -1,000 USD (103 people or 26.5%), less than 300 USD of income with number 58 people or 14.9%, tourists have income around 501 -800 USD in 5.9% or 23 people and the least is the tourists who have income around 301 -500 USD in 2.3% or 9 people respectively. tourists who are African tourists with number 8 of people or 2.1 % respectively.  Table 8 indicates the tourists are travelling together with. The most is tourists travel with friend in 38.7% representing 150 people followed by travelling with boyfriend/girlfriend in 25% or 97 people, travelling with family is 65 people representing 16.8%, spouse is 49 people representing 12.6%, alone have number of people is 24 or 6.2% and the least is other source by 3 people or 0.8% respectively.  Table 9 clarifies the purpose of tourists travelling to Sukhothai. The most is travelling for leisure with 340 people or 87.6% followed by visiting friend(s) or relative with number 26 of people representing 6.7%, business with 16 number of people or 4.1%, others by 5 people representing 1.3% and the least is travelling for health in 1 people or 0.3% respectively. From above table shows the way to get the accommodation in different sources. The most is internet in 197 people representing 50.8%, friend(s) or relative in 92 people with 23.7%, from book/magazine in 53 people or 13.7%, from accommodation's website has 23 people representing 5.9%, travel exhibition12 people or in percentage is 3.1% and from travel agency are 11 people or 2.8% respectively. From above table 12 explains about length of tourists staying in guesthouse, Sukhothai. The most is 62.6% or 243 people staying around 1 to 3 days followed by 4 to 7 days staying is 100 people (25.8%), 15 to 21 days staying is around 24 people (6.2%), 8 to 14 days staying is 15people (3.9%) and the least is more than 30 days staying have 6 people or only 1.5% respectively.

Part 3. SERVQUAL dimensions
This part examined the level of the international guests' satisfaction about service quality of guesthouses in Sukhothai. It shows mean, percentage, frequency, standard deviation and level of guests 'satisfaction of independent variables that shows the relationship between independent and dependent variables.

Conclusion
This research has the purpose to study international the guests' satisfaction about service quality of guesthouses in Sukhothai. The questionnaires were conducted with 388 respondents who stayed in guesthouse at Sukhothai province. The guests are international tourists (European, American, Asian, Australian, African and Others). The questionnaires were analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) ver.17.0. The most accommodation in Sukhothai is guesthouse as well as cheap and comfortable but no one do research and study about guests' satisfaction about service quality of Guesthouses in Sukhothai. The researcher was interested in this perspective to study about the SERVQUAL in the guesthouses from the users who used the guesthouse service and to focus on the SERVQUAL dimensions (tangible, reliability, assurance, empathy and responsiveness) this researcher presents the feedback from the guests and provide the recommendations how to improve the quality of guesthouse services in Sukhothai province.

Discussion
The researcher explored the result of international guest are rather satisfied with the service quality in guesthouse but not that sufficiently high and meet the standard/ requirement. Otherwise, guest may dissatisfy or change their mind to another type of accommodation that more expensive but higher service quality.
According to Rao, P. S., & Sahu, P. C. (2013).Service businesses have been growing quickly in contemporary decades, while the client demand for higher quality service .To remain competitive and hotels need to examine customers' expectation and awareness towards the service quality of its, This result has been ensured. The quality is important as this researcher said that Improvements in quality of product/service and creation of specific values for the guests make a whole and should be maintained as priority in business procedure and policy of every hotel. Hotels that choose to use concept of quality, as the key factor of achievement, should gain higher number of satisfied customers, i.e. should be able to position themselves on the market prosperously and make bigger income. (Blešić, I., Čerović, S., & Dragićević, V. 2011).
The questionnaires were conducted in 388 international guests. The most of respondents were male (54.1 %) and most of the respondents were single status (46.6 %). Most of them were in the aged 20 -30 years old (54.9 %). Most of respondents were had a bachelor's degree (52.1%). The most occupation was private sector (26%) and the income was more than 1001 USD of respondents. Most of respondent nationality was European (51%) and the most of them traveled with friend(s) (38.7%). Most of respondents had the travel purpose for leisure (87.6%). The most of respondent got the accommodation from the internet (50.8%). Most of respondent traveled at the first time in Sukhothai (78.6%) and length of stay were 1-3 days (62.6%) at most of respondent. The most of service quality dimensions that the respondents were tangibles and the reliability, assurance and responsiveness were moderately satisfied. The weakest of SERVEQUAL in guesthouse were empathy.

Limitation of the study
This research were distributed a questionnaire to respondents during day and night time which many international guests come to traveled at Sukhothai and guests deny to participant in a questionnaire with many cause for example some tourist was busy with taking photo, some tourist doesn't understand English, guests need to enjoyed as private in the destination and no need anybody disturbed their time.
When questionnaires were distributed to respondents randomly in Sukhothai province and most of guests were busy with limit of travel time also bad weather and it was difficult to distribute a survey to guests who stayed in guesthouses at Sukhothai.
This research was distributed a questionnaire focusing on The International Guests' Satisfaction about Service Quality of Guesthouses in Sukhothai; the result may not provide in-depth results as conducting an interview with guests.

Recommendation for further study
This study was studied on the International Guests' Satisfaction of Guesthouses and it is focusing on the service quality only it does not focus on any method of development in hospitality. Therefore, the questionnaire used in further research should be more specific.
Further study should be study guest's satisfaction International Guests' Satisfaction about Service Quality of Guesthouses in popular destinations or another province and so on and should be study in another viewpoint which Guests' Satisfaction about Service Quality of Guesthouses.