Sometimes, a well-conducted survey analysis will disclose some real surprises. I remember one time Gallo Livingston Cream tied with Bristol Cream in a respected sherry wine rating. Not so with hotels, at least not now. The new J.D. Power hotel satisfaction results are about what you would expect. But they can also help you select a hotel within your target price range, wherever it may be.
The Ratings
The J.D. Power North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study 2023 final ratings are a composite of six factors: communications and connectivity, food and beverage, guest room, hotel facility, staff service, and value for price, with a top score of 1,000. It covered 102 brands across nine market segments.Overall, Power found that staff services earned top overall satisfaction scores among the six factors with a score of 701. This might be a mild surprise, given the trouble hotels are facing in finding employees, but the hotels are apparently doing a good job of attracting help. Another surprise to me is the apparent importance of lobbies and common areas to most travelers—personally, I hardly consider those at all.
Market Segments
The average scores for the nine market segments fell about where you would expect: Luxury, 733; Upper Midscale, 693; Upscale, 680; Upscale Extended Stay, 672; Upper Midscale, 671; Upper Midscale and Midscale Extended Stay, 674; Midscale, 625; Economy, 636; Economy Extended Stay, 585. The only mild surprise here is that the Economy group slightly outscored the Midscale.The Outliers
A few brands stood out as scoring well above average and often above hotels in a higher segment: Upscale Cambria Hotels & Suites, at 738, outscored the entire Upper Upscale group and half of the Luxury group. Hyatt House, at 723, did almost as well. At the other end of the spectrum, the only brands to score less than 500 were Rodeway Inn and OYO.The Winners
The top few hotel brands in each category were Waldorf Astoria and Ritz Carlton in the Luxury group; small-chain Hard Rock Hotels and Margaritaville Hotels & Resorts in the Upper Upscale group, with Le Méridien close behind; Cambria then AC Hotels by Marriott, Delta, Element, and Hilton Garden Inn closely grouped in Upscale; Hyatt House by itself in Upper Extended stay, with all others closely grouped; Trademark Collection by Wyndham and Drury Hotels well above the others in Upper Midscale; Home2 Suites by Hilton at the top of a closely bunched Upper Midscale and Midscale Extended groups; Tru by Hilton well above Wingate by Wyndam, itself well above Best Western in the Midscale group; America Best Value Inn and Microtel by Wyndham tied at the top of the Economy segment, followed by SureStay and Howard Johnson by Wyndham in Economy; and Woodspring Suites well above the rest of the Economy Extended Stay group.I’ve been generally skeptical about the whole idea of “lifestyle” hotels; I figured that was just a nonsense label meaning nothing. But small niche hotels such as Canopy by Hilton and Element seem to have done well.
