Hotel online reputation rankings show best, worst performers

ReviewPro has published an analysis of hotel brand reputation in North America, using online reviews and ratings to indicate hotel performance.

Ranking 179 hotel brands by online reputation in six segments, the report provides insights for hotel companies and investors on what it takes to outperform competitors. Brands are ranked from best to worst performers in key areas including service, value, rooms and cleanliness.
 
“At ReviewPro, for over a decade we’ve been developing tools and processes to help hotel companies improve the guest experience,” ReviewPro founder and CEO RJ Friedlander said in a statement. “We’re excited to share this report, which represents a starting point for conversations with brand executives, hoteliers and investors about how to measure, benchmark and improve guest satisfaction and reputation brandwide.”
 
Based on the same data set as the recent research report on hotel brand reputation published by Cornell University, this report analyzes more than 15 million online reviews of 32,359 hotels in the U.S. and Canada. Brands are divided into six segments according STR’s chain scale system and ranked using ReviewPro’s Global Review Index.
 

The report examines:

  • The best and worst performers in each segment (economy, midscale, upper-midscale, upscale, upper-upscale and luxury), ranked by overall online reputation score as well as improvement, service, value, rooms and cleanliness.
  • A breakdown of review volume, review sources, country sources, management response rates and semantic analysis in each segment.
  • Trends in review volume. 
  • Changing market share in review sources. 
  • Review scores by review source. 
  • Review response ratios revealing that hotels responded to 35.76 percent of respondable reviews, with negative reviews receiving a higher response rate (41.1 percent) than positive reviews (34.9 percent).

Responding to Reviews

A previous study showed that even if an online review isn't positive, hotel management responses can not only lead to higher ratings for properties but also more substantive reviews. The study, "Online Reputation Management: Estimating the Impact of Management Responses on Consumer Reviews," by researchers from the University of Southern California and Boston University found that online ratings increase not because consumers are more satisfied with the business but because unsatisfied customers are less likely to post groundless negative comments.

“After hotels respond to reviews, they receive fewer negative reviews,” said Davide Proserpio, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business and an author of the study.

When hoteliers begin to respond to reviews, they receive 12-percent more reviews and their ratings increase an average of 0.12 stars, the study found. The authors claim that even a small change in ratings can have a significant impact on how hotels are perceived by consumers and how they are ranked by review platforms. However, the study found that when management responds, although there are fewer negative reviews, the ones that are posted tend to be longer in terms of characters.

“Responding to reviews is a good strategy to increase ratings, but you will get [fewer] and longer negative reviewers,” Proserpio said. “This is happening because by responding to reviews, it is signaling that management reads them. … The consumer feels the need to explain.”

Top Brands

Top-ranking hotel brands as measured by Global Review Index are:

Luxury

No. 1 Four Seasons 93.6 percent
No. 2 Montage 93.2 percent
No. 3 Mandarin Oriental 92.6 percent
No. 4 Rosewood 92.4 percent
No. 5 21c Museum Hotels 91.9 percent

Upper-Upscale

No. 1 Hilton Grand Vacations 90.7 percent
No. 2 Autograph Collection 89.7 percent
No. 3 Silver Cloud Inns & Hotels 89.2 percent
No. 4 Ace Hotels 88.3 percent
No. 5 Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants 88.2 percent

Upscale

No. 1 Grand America Hotels & Resorts 91.1 percent
No. 2 Disney Hotels 90.8 percent
No. 3 Stoney Creek Hotels 90.7 percent
No. 4 Best Western Premier 90.6 percent
No. 5 Cambria Hotels 90.2 percent

Upper Midscale

No. 1 Drury Plaza Hotel 94.1 percent
No. 2 Drury Inn & Suites 92.0 percent
No. 3 Drury Inn 90.9 percent
No. 4 Oxford Suites 90.2 percent
No. 5 Home2 Suites by Hilton 90.0 percent

Midscale

No. 1 GrandStay Residential Suites Hotel 89.1 percent
No. 2 Crystal Inn Hotels & Suites 88.9 percent
No. 3 ClubHouse 88.5 percent
No. 4 Tru by Hilton 88.1 percent
No. 5 Candlewood Suites 84.4 percent

Economy

No. 1 Pear Tree Inn 88.8 percent
No. 2 Affordable Suites of America 87.4 percent
No. 3 SureStay Hotel 78.7 percent
No. 4 Good Nite Inn 76.6 percent
No. 5 Microtel Inn & Suites 76.4 percent