Abstract

<p>Service quality is an invisible hand that influence the patronage of goods and services. Service is the heart of hospitality industry. The study adopted the correlational survey research design which involves the relationship between two variables. A sample size of 232 was determined from a population of 552 hotel staff using the Taro Yamane formula. Data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient as well as Coefficient of Determination to answer the research questions as well as test the hypotheses at 0.05 Alpha level of significance. The result shows that service-related problems significant correlate with patronage of hotels in SouthSouth, Nigeria. The researchers recommend among others that hotel management and their employees should endeavor to respond quickly and willingly to customer’s problems and complaints by providing prompt solutions. It was concluded that service-related problems have significant positive relationship the patronage of hotels in SouthSouth Nigeria</p>