The role of consumer protection in ensuring quality in the hotel services market

• Author: Neacsu N.A.
• Pages: 35-42

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 10 (59) No. 2 - 2017

The role of consumer protection in ensuring quality in

the hotel services market

Nicoleta Andreea NEACȘU 1

Abstract: In Romania, tourism is an attractive sector with high potential, but unfortunately

not exploited enough, so it is not yet a source of attraction for investors and foreign tourists.

Most tourists are not satisfied with the quality of the hotel services in Romania and complain

about it. The existence of adequate legislation on the protection of the consumer of tourist

services could lead to the provision of quality services on this market and to a higher degree

of tourists’ satisfaction.

In the first part, this paper presents the public organizations dealing with the protection of

the consumer on the hotel services market in Romania. The second part of the paper

analyzes the quality of hotel services in Romania from the tourists’ point of view. In this

respect, the author made a quantitative marketing research. The results featured the

opinions and attitudes of tourists regarding the quality of hotel services in Romania.

Key-words: quality of services, accommodation services, consumer protection, tourist’s

safety, tourist satisfaction

1. Introduction

For Romania, tourism is the economic sector that has a valuable development

potential that is still untapped and that can become a source of attraction for both

foreign investors and tourists. Romania has a rich touristic potential and natural

resources for practicing various forms of tourism.

In any industry, customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the quality of

the services and products it receives. The importance of customer satisfaction lies in

acknowledging the manner and the way in which the organizations generate or

create “pleasures” among the consumers of services, after having identified these

consumers’ needs (Bărbulescu, 2015). Quality is an important factor in achieving

market advantage for firms, alongside technology or brand strength (Boșcor, 2016).

It seems obvious that in any commercial activity the ultimate metric is profit.

Many definitions, approaches and statements that elude this simple truth were put up

front over time – such as society benefit and welfare, environmental care, social

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, andreea.neacsu@unitbv.ro