As hoteliers across the U.S. benefit from high demand from vacationers and a rise in corporate trips, guests aren't particularly satisfied with the value they're getting for the prices they pay, partly because delayed maintenance and renovations are making rooms look outdated, according to the JD Power 2022 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.
JD Power conducted its survey from June 2021 through May 2022, analyzing responses to more than 150 questions from 34,407 hotel guests staying at branded hotels.
Overall hotel guest satisfaction during this time period declined eight points from 2021 on a 1,000-point scale, with dissatisfaction largely focused on cost and fees as well as guestrooms.
"We really saw this decline in the last quarter of the study," Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power, said during a webinar presenting the survey results. "We measure costs and fees of the stay and, of course, inflation is on everyone's mind; certainly consumers are reacting to that."
While an eight-point decline might not seem massive, Stokes said in a phone interview with Hotel News Now that because there are more than 34,000 stays in JD Power's data, "eight points is sort of statistically significant."
"When you break out costs, because it is one factor that we roll up into our overall satisfaction score along with food and beverage and guest rooms, the cost and fees factor [resulted in guest satisfaction declining] by 18 points," she added. "We don't often see double digits like that, but we're not in a normal [price environment] still."
Because of this inflationary environment, JD Power wasn't surprised by that decline, as this tracks closely with the increase in average daily room rates since late 2021, she said.
In terms of fees, the survey shows for example, 81% of guests access Wi-Fi in their guestroom, and the percentage of guests who paid extra for internet increased four percentage points from 2019.
Stokes noted that the guest satisfaction change versus 2021 differs a little bit based on the segment. For example, guest satisfaction related to cost and fees did not drop as significantly in the luxury and upscale segments as it did in the upper-midscale, midscale and economy segments.
"Even in those segments, that value factor is important to keep in mind. We do see guests paying more but perhaps not necessarily seeing a big difference in the services and the hotel product that they're receiving," she said.
Another source of guest dissatisfaction is coming from hotel room decor, furnishings, beds and quality of bathrooms.
Stokes said this could be attributed to several hotel owners having to defer some maintenance items or even renovations since the start of the pandemic, which is resulting in the appearance of outdated furnishings.
"Certainly, guests I think are noticing that. Of course, hotel owners and operators really had to just survive the pandemic and a lot of expenses like maintenance or renovations were delayed or eliminated entirely," she added.
JD Power was surprised by those findings, she said, as guest room satisfaction is typically stable each year.
"We just think it's that value perception that is affecting the satisfaction," Stokes said, noting this is especially acute in limited-service hotels and not so much in full-service hotels.
Satisfaction with cleanliness, however, remains high.
"Cleanliness was very stable, on par with last year. Cleanliness was already very high going into the pandemic and it continued to stay high; we don't really see that as an issue," she said.
New Additions to the Survey
New segments that have been introduced in this recent survey include the upscale extended-stay and upper-midscale and midscale extended-stay, Stokes said. The decision to roll these segments in came from market demand.
"We got feedback over the past few years from the industry that, in our analysis for our subscribers, they really were asking for those [extended-stay] brands," she said. "We didn't have an award for those segments the past few years but we decided we had enough [extended-stay brands to benchmark] and we went forward with that in 2022."
Along with industry feedback, JD Power also monitored the extended-stay brand pipeline, which accounts for approximately 1 in 4 hotels in construction, she said.
"We recognized the growth of those extended-stay brands," she said. "Financially, even before the pandemic, extended-stay properties did well, which is why they are so popular with owners."
Upscale extended-stay hotels performed about the same as other upscale non-extended-stay brands on the survey, while upper midscale and midscale performed slightly better than their non-extended-stay counterparts collectively, Stokes said.
Breakfast Satisfaction Still Not 'Better Than Ever'
Respondents of the 2021 survey noted they were less satisfied with hotel food and beverage, particularity breakfast.
The 2022 survey indicates that satisfaction with breakfast is "still not better than ever," as it's still not at the level it was pre-pandemic, Stokes said.
"It is a little bit better, and guest of course do respond positively to the complimentary breakfasts particularly in limited-service segments," she added.