Hotels Must Turn Attention to Services

While overall consumer satisfaction with hotels continues to climb steadily, the hospitality industry needs to turn its attention to service offerings, says a new J.D. Power report.

Satisfaction for the industry increased eight points between 2017 and 2018 (to 825 on a 1,000-point scale), according to the just released 2018 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.

Guest happiness with service is also improving, but at a slower rate, notes the report.

“Years of capital investment in offerings such as higher-end televisions and in-room tablets have left their mark. Now, as hotels look to push customer satisfaction levels higher, their focus should turn to service areas, particularly when it comes to direct booking,” said Jennifer Corwin, associate practice lead for the Global Travel and Hospitality Practice at J.D. Power.

Getting the service offering right will continue to propel satisfaction higher and give a better value to guests, according to Corwin, who added that refining service efforts represents a significant opportunity for improvement with less capital expense than product offering upgrades.

Now in its 22nd year, the J.D. Power study is designed to help hoteliers add focus and clarity to product and service improvement efforts.

The study measures overall guest satisfaction across eight hotel segments: luxury; upper upscale; upscale; upper midscale; midscale; economy; upper extended stay; and extended stay.

Seven key factors are examined in each segment to determine overall satisfaction: reservation; check-in/check-out; guest room; food & beverage; hotel services; hotel facilities; and cost & fees.

Some of the report’s additional key take-aways include:

—Up, up and up: Compared with 2017 results, the greatest improvement in overall satisfaction occurs in the upper midscale segment (+12 points on the 1,000-point scale). There was a seven-point increase in the luxury, upper upscale, upscale and midscale segments, while a six-point improvement was found in the upper extended stay, extended stay and economy segments.

—Flying high: The Ritz-Carlton scores 902, up 14 points from last year and the highest ever for a brand in the study. The Ritz-Carlton is at the top in five of the seven factors in the luxury segment.

Similarly, Drury Hotels scores 895, also up 15 points from last year and the third-highest score of any brand. Drury Hotels ranks highest in the upper midscale segment across all seven factors. Both brands have high levels of consumer loyalty and advocacy, with 70 percent or more of guests stating they “definitely will” recommend the brand to someone else and more than half of guests saying they “definitely will” stay at that hotel chain again.

—Technology offerings are important: Technology is becoming more pervasive in the guest experience, specifically in guest rooms. Adding capabilities has a clear association with higher guest satisfaction, but this plateaus as offerings become standard.

About 77 percent of guests surveyed say a large flat-panel television was available in their rooms, but only 10 percent have a tablet for in-room information. The former is worth a 12-point lift, while the latter is worth a much larger 47-point increase. Mobile app adoption generates a 58-point increase in 2018, compared with a 65-point increase in 2017.

—Service satisfaction increases at a lesser rate: While on the rise, hotel services satisfaction continues to be outpaced by the growth in product satisfaction. Guest room and hotel facilities satisfaction, which are primarily product-focused, are increasing at a greater rate than any other factor (13 and 11 points, respectively).

The factor areas with the highest level of staff touch points (check-in/check-out and food & beverage) have improved the least (5 and 7 points, respectively), which coincides with a smaller improvement in cost and fees (5 points).

—Think local, act local: Providing authentic local experiences has increasingly become an important focus of the hotel industry as a means of providing a unique, destination-specific feel to a hotel room.

While providing an authentic local experience in food and beverage is essential, more guests experience the guest room décor and hotel facilities. Focusing on delivering a location-specific feel can cause a greater lift to overall satisfaction.

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