Which Country Provides the Most "Comfortable" Hotel Experience?

Nov 29, 05 | 8:56 am

Market Metrix Examines How Countries, Hotel Brands, and Guests Differ Across the Global Hotel Industry

The international component of the MMHI is based on 10,000 guest interviews of non-US hotel stays annually. The results offer a fascinating glimpse into how countries, hotel brands, and guests differ across the global hotel industry. Here are highlights from the most recent survey results.

Overall, customer satisfaction is slightly higher at overseas hotels. Comparing hotels of the same brand, both leisure and business travelers report superior overseas experiences. Based on non-US hotel stays among leisure guests, the top international hotel brand is Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
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Satisfaction by Country

Hotels in the Philippines, Brazil, and Greece are delivering the highest levels of customer satisfaction. Guests staying at hotels in Belgium, the Netherlands and England reported the lowest overall customer satisfaction scores.
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Which country provides the most "Comfortable" hotel experience? Greece. In fact, Greece was the winning country in 10 categories. For example, guests at Greek hotels reported feeling more "Pampered", "Elegant" and "Hip/cool" than guests staying in any other country. Greek hotels also received the highest scores for "Cleanliness", "Proper room lighting" and "Value for price".
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Which country provides the least "Comfortable" hotel experience? Scotland. Scottish hotels also received the lowest score in other critical areas including "Value for price" "Likely to return" and "Likely to recommend".

Brand Consistency

The consistency of brand experience is becoming more important as most major hotel chains are rapidly expanding overseas. Among international chains, Comfort Suites, Quality Inns and Residence Inn By Marriott provide the most consistent guest experience across their system while guests staying with Renaissance, Hyatt and Fairmont report the most variability within each brand.

Comparing the performance of a chain's domestic vs. international hotels provides some interesting results. Guests report less variability among a brand's US hotels compared to its overseas locations. As a result, there is a greater probably that international hotel chains may not meet guest expectations. Brands that receive higher scores for their US hotels (compared to their hotels located outside the US) may disappoint their US guests who travel overseas and expect a similar hotel experience when staying with the same brand. Similarly, hotels scoring better overseas, while perhaps delighting US travelers may upset travelers visiting the US from other countries.
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Overseas Hotels Score Higher In Emotions

Emotion scores (which correlate highly with loyalty) were higher at overseas properties compared to US hotels. Specifically, overseas hotels scored much higher than US hotels for the feelings of "Pampered" "Elegant" and "Important".

There were some noteworthy exceptions. For example, Sofitel hotels in the US scored better in overall emotions compared to their international properties. The biggest difference was for "Elegant" where Sofitel's domestic hotels out-scored their overseas properties. Conversely, Fairmont Hotels located in other countries deliver a more "Elegant" experience compared to their US hotels.

The Market Metrix Hospitality Index is a quarterly report of customer satisfaction with hotel, airline and car rental companies based on 35,000 in-depth consumer interviews. It ranks top hospitality brands by industry and, for hotels, by categories such as luxury, mid-price and economy. Reports are available by subscription.

Jonathan Barsky, PhD, and Lenny Nash work for Market Metrix LLC (MarketMetrix.com ), a firm that provides customer and employee programs for the hospitality industry. For more information, call 800-239-7515.