Second Annual Rants and Raves: Over One Million Online Sentiments Show Travelers’ Top Complaints and Praises

Like it or not, travelers love voicing their feedback online. For the second year in a row, we have taken a look at a sample of over one million online sentiments, spanning user generated content (UGC) from 250+ websites across dozens of countries and languages to find out travelers' top complaints and praises.

As we found last year, more often than not, it is one in the same: service, food and cleanliness (or lack thereof) made appearances on both the top 5 complaints and compliments. The good news for hotels is that the number of positive comments outnumbers the negative by a landslide. However, service appeared on the top rant list in two places: unprofessional/incompetent service (number one spot), unfriendly service (seventh place). A dirty room also continues to be a deal breaker (no surprise there!), ranking as the #3 rant, up 3 spots from last year.

Here’s a look at the top 20 traveler rants and raves from reviews written across 250+ websites worldwide:

Key Takeaways and What To Watch For:

Raves Continue To Outnumber The Rants

There are nearly six times more positive comments than negative. These findings are consistent with last year, and across all reviews, we find this to be true. About 81% of the reviews we analyze are positive.

Cleanliness (Or Lack Of) 

Moving up the ranks on both the rants and the raves list: room cleanliness (or lack of). There has been a 30% increase in complaints of dirty rooms and a 12% increase in guests praising a clean room. Is cleanliness becoming more important for travelers? (we have a hard time believing that it wasn’t ultra-important a year ago). Are more hotels truly missing the mark in the cleanliness department? We’ll continue to track this.

Internet Becoming More Top Of Mind

While mentions of Internet (free vs. charging for it, good connection vs. poor) do not break in to the top 10 rants or raves, travelers do seem to be more aware of a hotel’s connectivity and internet price. New to the top 20 list of rants this year are 1,000+ complaints of expensive, overpriced Internet. On the list of raves, mentions of affordable/free Internet have dropped by 47%. TrustYou’s recent US Quarterly Destination Report confirms this dissatisfaction, with Internet scores across the US dropping 2.6%.

Despite this dip in satisfaction with the price of hotel WiFi, travelers are taking note when visiting a hotel with great Internet connection. It is a new addition to the top 20 list of raves.

Travelers Take Note…Of The Bathroom?

With a 148% increase in traveler praises, the bathroom has moved up two spots in the rankings; a hot topic this year. Are hotels investing more into the facilities? Let’s see if this trend remains.