After several years of challenging business conditions, which caused much of the hospitality industry to scale back on capital expenditures, hotel management companies have started making serious investments in renovations, maintenance and staffing.
According to the J.D. Power 2023 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark released today, those investments are paying off in the form of strong satisfaction scores for quality of the guest room and staff service.
“In the span of a year, staffing has gone from being the biggest pain point for hotel management companies to one of the greatest strengths,” Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power, said. “Despite continuing labor shortages, this is a testament to the efforts of the industry to ramp up hiring and training during the past several months. Interactions with staff is one of the most important components of a hotel stay and guests are noticing that they are getting better service.”
This year, the Third-party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark has been updated.
"While the Benchmark’s Overall Guest Satisfaction Index is still based on guest ratings for rooms, staff service, F&B, and the hotel facility itself, we have added guest satisfaction for ‘Communications and Connectivity,'" Stokes told Hotel Management. "This new factor area encompasses the tech-related investments by owners and operators are making such as hotel Wi-Fi, guestroom USB ports, smart TVs, payment options, and more. In fact, our data show that smart TVs for streaming entertainment in guest rooms are increasingly a must-have amenity for 34 percent of hotel guests overall. The proportion rises to 43 percent for guests of luxury hotels.”
Key Findings of 2023 Benchmark Survey
Anticipation of guest needs is the most important key performance indicator when it comes to guest interactions with hotel staff. Across all third-party hotel management companies evaluated, hotel staff met that goal in 82 percent of guest interactions.
Hotel guests are looking for modern and unique design when it comes to hotel lobbies and common areas. Currently, just 13 percent of branded hotels evaluated are meeting these criteria.
While the most important technology features of a hotel are good quality Wi-Fi and plenty of USB ports for charging devices, availability of EV charging stations is also starting to influence hotel selection and satisfaction. Overall, 19 percent of hotel guests say they need to have an EV charging station at their hotel but only 6 percent say they’ve actually used hotel-provided EV charging.
Benchmark Ranking
Davidson Hospitality Group and Dimension Hospitality rank highest in a tie in overall guest satisfaction, each with a score of 725. This is the second consecutive year that Davidson Hospitality Group ranks highest. HEI Hotels and Resorts (714) ranks third.
The North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark was redesigned for 2023. Now in its fourth year, the benchmark evaluates guest satisfaction with branded hotels that are operated by the largest third-party management companies. It is based on six factors (in alphabetical order): communications and connectivity; food and beverage; guest room; hotel facilities; staff service; and value for price.
The benchmark includes third-party hotel operators with more than 14,000 branded hotel rooms under management and is based on 3,942 guest responses for branded hotel stays from May 2022 through May 2023.