The Hotel Opinion Report
Hospitality
The results of the Burba Hotel Network\'s first hotel opinion survey.
The results are in for BHN’s first hotel opinion survey, covering the likes, dislikes and preferences of hotel insiders. More than 1,000 hotel insiders from around the world responded to the survey in March 2012, and here are their opinions.
Location, Location, Location
What is the first consideration when choosing a hotel when traveling for personal reasons? 61% say location. Logical, but we thought brand affiliation might be more important since we were polling hotel industry insiders. Actually, price was identified the second most frequently (18%), followed closely by brand affiliation (17%), and finally amenities (5%).
Is Online Really Out-of-Line?
Despite the rancor about Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), 63% of our insider respondents have used an online booking service such as Hotels.com or Expedia to purchase a hotel room for personal travel over the past year. For business travel, this number drops to 45%, no doubt due to corporate and other business relationships of the respondents.
It’s Not the Bed, It’s the Wi-Fi
In an earlier survey we were told that Wi-Fi was the most desirable amenity in a hotel room. Well, it is also the most annoying amenity – when one has to pay for it or it doesn’t work well. 42% of respondents noted slow Wi-Fi as the most annoying thing in a hotel room. Coupled with a number of open-ended responses about price, difficulty, or lack of – Wi-Fi is the winner – or is it the loser? The second most annoying thing noted in a hotel room was poor lighting (17%), followed in a cluster by slow room service, no coffee maker, mini bar prices, and no place for luggage (all 5-6%). In the open ended responses, lack of power outlets and dirty rooms led the “annoying” responses.
It’s All About the Miles
Perhaps the most surprising (or not) survey finding came from our question about what hotel insiders prefer to collect. Is it the miles or the points? A whopping 87% think it is more important to collect airline miles, leaving a lowly 13% indicating that collecting hotel frequent stay points was their top preference. Why? Is it because hotel insiders don’t need to redeem points to stay at their own hotel brand, because hotel rewards aren’t seen as being as valuable as airline rewards, because it takes too long to earn something meaningful, or because location drives the personal travel decision and not the brand? We wonder what the hotel frequent stay executives will think about this result.
The facts
More than half of the survey invitees (53%) indicated they live in the U.S. 25% indicated they live in Asia. 10% of the respondents indicated they live in Europe. The balance of the respondents was spread fairly evenly around the globe.
The age of the survey respondents show a broad range, with the most common age ranges being 46-55 (33%) and 56-65 (26%). The younger group of 25 and under (3%) and senior group of 66 or older (8%) were the bookend age segments of respondents.
The next Hotel Opinion Report will be coming out soon.
Location, Location, Location
What is the first consideration when choosing a hotel when traveling for personal reasons? 61% say location. Logical, but we thought brand affiliation might be more important since we were polling hotel industry insiders. Actually, price was identified the second most frequently (18%), followed closely by brand affiliation (17%), and finally amenities (5%).
Is Online Really Out-of-Line?
Despite the rancor about Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), 63% of our insider respondents have used an online booking service such as Hotels.com or Expedia to purchase a hotel room for personal travel over the past year. For business travel, this number drops to 45%, no doubt due to corporate and other business relationships of the respondents.
It’s Not the Bed, It’s the Wi-Fi
In an earlier survey we were told that Wi-Fi was the most desirable amenity in a hotel room. Well, it is also the most annoying amenity – when one has to pay for it or it doesn’t work well. 42% of respondents noted slow Wi-Fi as the most annoying thing in a hotel room. Coupled with a number of open-ended responses about price, difficulty, or lack of – Wi-Fi is the winner – or is it the loser? The second most annoying thing noted in a hotel room was poor lighting (17%), followed in a cluster by slow room service, no coffee maker, mini bar prices, and no place for luggage (all 5-6%). In the open ended responses, lack of power outlets and dirty rooms led the “annoying” responses.
It’s All About the Miles
Perhaps the most surprising (or not) survey finding came from our question about what hotel insiders prefer to collect. Is it the miles or the points? A whopping 87% think it is more important to collect airline miles, leaving a lowly 13% indicating that collecting hotel frequent stay points was their top preference. Why? Is it because hotel insiders don’t need to redeem points to stay at their own hotel brand, because hotel rewards aren’t seen as being as valuable as airline rewards, because it takes too long to earn something meaningful, or because location drives the personal travel decision and not the brand? We wonder what the hotel frequent stay executives will think about this result.
The facts
More than half of the survey invitees (53%) indicated they live in the U.S. 25% indicated they live in Asia. 10% of the respondents indicated they live in Europe. The balance of the respondents was spread fairly evenly around the globe.
The age of the survey respondents show a broad range, with the most common age ranges being 46-55 (33%) and 56-65 (26%). The younger group of 25 and under (3%) and senior group of 66 or older (8%) were the bookend age segments of respondents.
The next Hotel Opinion Report will be coming out soon.
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