|
|
| HotelWorld Network » Listing » Guest relations » Guest Satisfaction Economy A Hindrance | Log in |
|
|
 Barsky MARKET METRIX |
National Report–The good news: Guest satisfaction with hotels is up, according to two studies. The bad news: While this could indicate more willingness to spend, current economic conditions mean many consumers are tightening their belts on travel.
Customers might be more satisfied with hotels, but with prices rising on everything from fuel to food, it's increasingly difficult for them to spend more, even if they want to, said David Van Amburg, managing director of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index.
"In times of recession, there are things that happen no matter what. In a downturn, you will cut staff and services," said Jonathan Barsky, v.p. of research and co-founder of Market Metrix. "Those two things weigh heavily when you go to a hotel. A lot of the free services are no longer free. That's an important element, in that, satisfaction is not going down overall."
Luxury leads
The Market Metrix Hospitality Index for 2007 found a slight increase in guest satisfaction (+.4) over 2006. For Q1 2008, satisfaction is up slightly (+.2 to 82) compared to Q4 2007. Luxury hotels are leading, with customer satisfaction up almost a point in Q1 2008 over Q4 2007.
Barsky said the 1-point jump is important in luxury. "Luxury is raising prices more than anyone else, and still there's increased customer satisfaction," he said.
"An intuitive guess why luxury appears more recession-proof is that the well-off customers are typically less affected by economic downturns and not specifically affected by rising interest rates and mortgage problems," Barsky said. "They absorb the costs more easily."
Another factor is that international tourists who are taking advantage of the exchange rate are upgrading to higher-end luxury accommodations, he said.
 American customer satisfaction index |
The ACSI found the hotel industry tied the all-time high in customer satisfaction after improving 6 percent to 75. The other years the industry reached this level were in 2006 and 1994, when the ACSI was started.
Much of the gain can be attributed to the "all others" category, which includes smaller budget hotel chains and luxury resorts, which rose 9 percent to 76, Van Amburg said.
"What it seems to suggest is that there is not something peculiar to budget hotels or luxury hotels—it's that the industry across the board is doing something to improve," he said.
The study found that, to some extent, guests get what they pay for, Van Amburg said. He pointed to the high scorers—Marriott International, Hilton Hotels Corp. and Global Hyatt Corp.—to show that although the room cost is higher, the quality also is higher, which leads to a higher level of satisfaction. Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt tied at the top of the industry at 78.
Choice Hotels International and Best Western International were at the other end of the scale, scoring 71 and 70 respectively.
"A 70 for Best Western, if they were another kind of company in another industry, might not be a bad score," Van Amburg said. "Within the hotel industry, since hotels are doing much better than that at an industry average of 75, that's not the position you want to be in."
 Market Metrix hospitality index 2008 1Q YTD segment winners |
Best Western actually was the winner for the midscale-with-food-and-beverage segment in MMHI's Q1 2008 results (see chart).
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide saw a drop on the ASCI scale, down 3 percent from a year ago.
Guest expectations
In the MMHI, Kimpton Hotels posted the highest score (92.3) in Q1 2008 and also was the winner for 2007. The boutique hotel company outscored Ritz-Carlton, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts and other luxury brands.
How is it that a boutique collection outscored the Ritz?
"The well-accepted model of customer satisfaction is how well a company meets or doesn't meet a customer's expectations," Barsky said. "Kimpton, given a more modest level, perhaps, of expectations, is meeting and exceeding guest expectations at a higher rate proportionally than the Ritz-Carlton."
This ties to the aspect of managing guest expectations, he said. "Ritz-Carlton is at the untenable position of reaching that high bar all the time for all guests."
The MMHI is based on 35,000 customer interviews conducted each quarter. The hotel portion of the ACSI is based on a little over 2,000 interviews.
|
|
|
©2009 Questex Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved
Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited.