THE IMPORTANCE OF PERCEIVED VALUE IN EVALUATING HOTEL GUEST SATISFACTION: THE CASE OF SLOVENIA

Perceived value is considered as one of the most influential measures of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Perceived customer value can be broadly defined as the customer's overall assessment of The utility of a product (or service) based on perceptions of what is received and what is given. The main purpose of the study is to examine the role of perceived value as mediating variable in hotel services perception, in the empirical study perceived quality was linked directly as well as indirectly to hotel guest satisfaction, therefore perceived value was considered to be a mediating variable between perceived quality and hotel guest satisfaction. Data for empirical research was collected from 1020 hotel guests in Ljubijana, Portoroz, Zrece and Rogia in May and June 2007 by means of a personal interview. Results suggest that only one third of the variance in guest satisfaction can be explained by perceived quality and that the indirect effect of perceived quality on guest satisfaction through perceived value is much stronger than direct effect. This indicates the importance of perceived value as mediating variable in quality - satisfaction relationship.