2013 Online Hotel Reviews Tell All: Travelers Love Comfortable Beds, Not Fans of Hotel Bathrooms

Hotel guest satisfaction may be up for the first time in many years, but according to online hotel reviews, there’s more work to be done—especially in hotel bathrooms. A TrustYou survey of 2013 online hotel reviews, specifically for guest sentiments about hotel facilities, shows that guest rooms are getting mostly mediocre ratings and bathrooms are failing, while the effort on making beds more comfortable has paid off considerably with many markets receiving “Very Good” ratings.

TrustScores are based on guest sentiments in online reviews over the past two years with more recent sentiments given more weight: 87-100 is “excellent,” 79-86 is “very good,” 75-79 is “good,” 67-75 is “mediocre,” and 0-67 is “poor.” A review of the top performing markets for 2013 in each category showed the following results:

Hotel Rooms & Beds

• Hotel room scores are surprisingly low given that guest satisfaction has increased. New York City (78=”good”) rates highest for hotel rooms in 2013, but all other markets are receiving mediocre scores.
• Even if rooms aren’t meeting expectations, the beds are. New York tops the list of comfiest beds with an 86 followed by San Francisco, Houston, Phoenix and Chicago—all rating “very good”

Hotel Bathrooms

• Ouch, with a “mediocre” 72 rating New York tops the best bathrooms and from there the results plummet with all other markets receiving poor ratings.

• Bathroom size is another story, though. Las Vegas (86) and Detroit (80) get “very good” sentiment ratings for spacious bathrooms while Miami, Orlando, and New York also make the top five with “good” ratings.

Hotel Swimming Pools

• Florida knows swimming pools. Orlando (89), Miami (79), and Tampa/St. Petersburg (79) all made the top five list of U.S. markets with best rated hotel swimming pools, as did Houston (80) and San Diego (79).

“Guest responses to hotel facilities prove just how important service is. Guest are giving much higher marks to service in most of these markets than they are giving to the facilities and with overall guest satisfaction having increased this year, I’d say service is key to maintaining that trend. That and going to your guests to determine where to put dollars toward hotel improvements,” says Alan Young, TrustYou’s Senior Vice President of Marketing & Strategic Partnerships.

For more information about TrustScores or for media requesting custom report details, please contact marketing director Margaret Ady at margaret.ady@trustyou.net.

* TrustScores are based on a scale of 1-100, with anything 87 or above qualifying as “Excellent” performance.