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To hotel guests, sleep is a start

July 24, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

Consumer Reports asked more than 22,000 readers about their stays at 44 chains. It found scores had improved since 2006. Yet a quarter of respondents had at least one complaint, with inadequate beds, noise, outdated décor, cramped bathrooms and poor heating or air-conditioning dominating the list.

Hotel reviews on sites like Tripadvisor are useful for judging a specific property, to find out whether the elevators are slow or the location is grim. But ranking one brand against another or evaluating the industry as a whole requires a broader view — and new surveys indicate that although guest satisfaction is improving, travelers do have some complaints.

For its July issue, Consumer Reports asked more than 22,000 readers about their stays at 44 chains. It found scores for service, hotel upkeep and the check-in and checkout process had improved since 2006. Yet a quarter of respondents had at least one complaint, with inadequate beds, noise, outdated décor, cramped bathrooms and poor heating or air-conditioning dominating the list.

“The key thing about a hotel is how good a night’s sleep you were able to get,” said Tod Marks, a senior projects editor with Consumer Reports. “An uncomfortable bed is one of the things that always seems to stand out in terms of problems.”

Get the full story at The New York Times

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