What’s Wrong With Your Hotel

Good or bad, what ever you’re saying on the social web is being reviewed.  TrustYou, a company focused on reputation management for the hospitality industry,  has more than 10,000 customers in 60 countries and monitors over 400,000 hotels, providing an extensive base for competitive analysis.

TrustYou recently looked at one million comments from around the world to find out what guests love and what they complain about when it comes to hotel stays. More often than not, it is one in the same. Service, food, breakfast, cleanliness (or lack thereof), room size and pricing made appearances on both the top 10 complaints and compliments.

cartoon hotel

Here is what TrustYou found are the top 10 rants:

Rants
1. Unprofessional/incompetent service   (11785 mentions)
2. Small room   (8669 mentions)
3. Expensive/overpriced   (8390 mentions)
4. Tasteless, bad breakfast   (8243 mentions)
5. Bad food   (5956 mentions)
6. Dirty room   (5439 mentions)
7. Unfriendly service   (5123 mentions)
8. Bad bathroom   (4600 mentions)
9. Bad service   (4266 mentions)
10. Loud, noisy room   (4123 mentions)

And here is what they found as the top raves:

Raves

1. Friendly, professional, efficient service   (103440 mentions)
2. Great, well-situated location   (98668 mentions)
3. Good room   (40191 mentions)
4. Great food   (42868 mentions)
5. Great breakfast   (41356 mentions)
6. Clean room/hotel   (27513 mentions)
7. Large room   (23867 mentions)
8. Good, affordable price   (23292 mentions)
9. Good bed   (11369 mentions)
10. Nice view   (9147 mentions)

So what were the overall finding? TrustYou found that the number of raves far exceed the number of rants.

“There has been a tremendous growth in online feedback, especially as it relates to the hospitality industry,’” said Benjamin Jost, CEO and co-founder of TrustYou. “The comments are extremely valuable for both consumers and hoteliers,” he added.  “Travelers are able to get a peer’s opinion on a hotel experience and hoteliers are able to address the issues or misperceptions in a public forum.  This has brought an entire new level of transparency and accountability to the industry.”  The volume of online comments related to the hospitality industry is tremendous; TrustYou searches 700 reviews every single minute.

TrustYou’s monitoring dashboards capture sentiment and opinions from millions of comments from sources like Tripadvisor, Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Yelp and more across 23 different languages and aggregates them  in one easy-to-view place so hoteliers can utilize that information.

What didn’t make it on either list might surprise you, it sure surprised me! Wifi or internet did not make the lists.  TrustYou says that “while there seems to be lots of talk surrounding hotel Internet (free vs. charging for it), that did not make the top 10 rant or rave. Is this no longer a big deal for guests? We wouldn’t go this far. Internet is still important, but paying for it might not be the “deal breaker” that it has often been singled out as.”

What does TrustYou suggest hotels do to win over guests?  Improve their service.  Service related rants appeared on the list three times and should be an area where hotels focus.

So what are your biggest rants?

Personally, I tend to agree with most of the items on the list. But if I had to name my top rants and raves (based on the 200+ nights I spent in hotels in 2012) I’d say:

Rants:

1. Bad Service or Inconsistent Service

2. Dirty rooms

3. Lack of outlets for electronic devices/tools

4. Bad wifi or no wifi

5. Lack of consistent recognition of preferred guests program benefits

Raves: 

1. Location

2. Comfortable Bed

3. Good value for price paid

4. Good wifi that allows me to stream video or download video

5. Professorial Staff

 

Want a chance to win MY favorite hotel amenity kit of all time?  Leave a comment here about what your #1 rant or rave is and I’ll pick two winners, at random to receive a Bliss set similar to what they provide at the W hotels.  Deadline to enter, Friday, April 5th at 11:59pm PT. Must be 18 years to enter.

17 Comments on "What’s Wrong With Your Hotel"

  1. I definitely agree that poor or bad customer service would be my number one rant.

  2. My favorite Rave is when I’m checking-in, the agent is pleasant and seems to enjoy his/her job. This sets the tone for my stay.

  3. Lack of or inconsistent wifi has to be my top complaint!

  4. Inconsistent quality of coffee at breakfast.

  5. Rave: Great breakfast and snack amenities. We always rave about the smaller brand Drury and it’s excellent breakfast along with always-available soft drinks and popcorn. They even have evening heavy snacks. Great for families.

  6. My biggest rant is hotels that require you to pay for wifi. In 2013 this should be a given like electricity. I specifically choose hotels based on wifi policy.

  7. Rave- Free wifi and breakfast. Rant – Snotty uptight staff!

  8. Sharon Jones | April 2, 2013 at 10:35 pm |

    My rant is having noisy next-door neighbors, and even after complaints to the front desk, either nothing is done or assistance crawls toward a resolution.

  9. Rants: poor housekeeping and when parking costs extra.

    Raves: nicely furnished rooms, quality linens, and easy/quick check-in process.

  10. Lame customer service!

  11. My raves are an inviting lobby and clean room. I just love walking into a hotel that looks like a place I want to be! One of my top rants is a bad TV…if its not a flat screen and not in HD…it just annoys me!

  12. Rant…overpriced coffee for purchase in the lobby – Rave…free coffee in the lobby

  13. My favorite rave is 2. Comfortable Bed – Ahhhhh!

  14. Since I have asthma the room itself is important. Nasty old carpet does me in. My other rant is noisy neighbors. I call and complain more than once if needed!

  15. Rant is thin walls, or hearing noise from upstairs
    Raves is a great shower and prompt housekeeping

  16. My #1 rant is poor/non-existent/expensive wifi. I’m lucky that I sleep like a rock no matter what (noise, uncomfortable bed, etc) so those don’t bother me so much. I use wifi for personal reasons as well as work, so that’s an absolute must for me.

  17. Rave-Great shower and comfy bed.

    Rant-Staff/Concierge that only recommends the hotel restaurants and not something local, cheaper, and likely better.

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