Park Hyatt, Omni, and Outrigger are the American hotels currently providing the best guest experiences, according to a report released today by Medallia®.
The report uses ratings from some of the world’s most-visited and -used travel and hospitality review sites to rank 47 leading hotel brands across six different price tiers. These rankings show which hotels provide the most positive experiences for guests—and reveals key drivers of success shared by the most-improved brands. The report identifies the hotel brands that provided the best experiences across different price tiers during the second quarter of 2014.
Park Hyatt topped the highly competitive, top-tier Luxury category with an impressive 94% positive guest reviews. Meanwhile, Hawaii-based Outrigger Hotels—which maintains only 36 properties—beat out much larger competitors to win the mid-tier upscale category with a score of 90%.
Best Performing:
• Luxury: Park Hyatt (94% positive scores)
• Upper Upscale: Omni (85%)
• Upscale: Outrigger (90%)
• Upper Midscale: Hampton Inn & Suites (88%)
• Midscale: Candlewood (82%)
• Economy: Value Place (67%)
The report also reveals the hotel brands that improved the most over the past year.
Hotel guests responded particularly enthusiastically to improved hotel facilities. Over the past year, the most-improved brand in five of the six tiers won that distinction because of upgrades to its dining and recreational facilities. In the Upper Upscale category, Hard Rock Hotels saw an impressive 10% satisfaction increase by improving its bars, restaurants, and pools.
However, in the least-expensive Economy category, quality of staff was the biggest differentiator for hotel guests. Value Place—the most-improved brand in that or any category—saw a 14% increase in positive guest experiences because of better performances by its frontline staff.
Most-Improved Hotels per Category:
• Luxury: Park Hyatt: +2%
• Upper Upscale: Hard Rock: +10%
• Upscale: Four Points: +3%
• Upper Midscale: Home2 Suites: +6%
• Midscale: Quality: +2%
• Economy: Value Place: +14%
“Ultimately, the most successful hotel brands win by grounding guest experience investments in a solid understanding of what guests are talking about and asking for,” Michelle de Haaff, Medallia’s Vice President of Marketing, said in the report. “In many ways, guest-reported experiences are the new proxy for brands, since consumers use them to make purchasing decisions. This shift makes it as important as ever for hotels to pay close attention to guest voices and incorporate them into strategic decisions and investments.”
Only multi-property brands in the U.S. are included.