The Role of Service and Experience Quality in Academic Hospitality: Evidence from Indian CFTI Guest Houses

This study investigates service quality (SVQ) and experience quality (EXQ) as predictors of consumers’ perceived service value (PEV) and behavioral intentions (BIN) in Centrally Funded Technical Institutions (CFTIs) in India. This unique context offers guided insights for academic tourism and a holistic understanding of guest perceptions in academic hospitality research. A structured survey was conducted across seven premier CFTI guest houses, targeting academic guests availing accommodation facilities. The study employed a disjoint two-stage Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique to examine the hypothesized links between the constructs. The findings reveal that both SVQ and EXQ significantly influence guests’ behavioral intentions and are critical drivers of their perceived value. Moreover, PEV plays a key mediating role, partially translating the effects of SVQ and EXQ to BIN. These results suggest that enhancing both tangible and experiential facets of quality can improve guest perceptions and foster favorable behavioral outcomes. The integration of an additional quality parameter (i.e. EXQ) enhances the understanding of quality formation in academic environments and puts forth a holistic model of service experience evaluation.