Ongoing staffing shortages and higher room rates took a toll on guest satisfaction during the third quarter of this year, according to a global report by guest-experience platform-provider ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand.
The finding is reflected in a decline in ReviewPro’s proprietary Global Review Index (GRI), an online reputation score based on data from more than 140 online travel agencies and review sites in more than 45 languages. Hotels included in the report range from three to five stars and represent five major regions: Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America and the Caribbean.
The global GRI was 84% for the three-month period that ended September 30 - a 1.9-point drop from the pre-pandemic period of Q3 2019.
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“Notably, the value index experienced the sharpest decline, at 1.9 points from Q3 2019,” according to the report titled “Q3 2022 Global Hotel Review Benchmark - Spotlight on Sentiment Analysis.”
This decline in the value index “was presumably a product of hotels increasing room rates at a time when many struggled with labor shortages and offered scaled-down services.”
The GRI dipped for all star segments, with three-star hotels experiencing the largest decline, at -2.5 points, and five-star hotels experiencing the smallest decline, at -1.5 points. Four-star hotels experienced a decline in GRI of 2.0 points.
Hotels in North America had the lowest GRI (82.8%) for the third quarter of this year, while hotels in Asia Pacific had the highest GRI (86.4%).
ReviewPro analyzed more than six million mentions in review comments posted in Q3 2022. Of these mentions, 71.3% were classified as positive and 28.7% were classified as negative. The Room (-2.5 points) and Cleanliness (-1.9 points) categories had the highest negative impact on the GRI. The Experience (+1.0) and Staff (+0.7) categories had the highest positive impact on the GRI.
From Q3 2019 to Q3 2022, Booking.com increased its global market share of reviews by 13 points, generating 43.4% of reviews in Q3 2022. Google generated 29.4% of reviews in the third quarter of this year. Together, Booking.com and Google represented 72.8% of review volume in Q3 2022.
Globally, Booking.com’s Source Index, or review score, was 81.4% in the third quarter of this year. This was the lowest index of the major review sources and 2.6 points lower than the GRI for all review sources combined. Tripadvisor’s index of 82.9% was also lower relative to other sources.
Understand what parts of the guest journey can be digitized quickly. This may mean using an AI chatbot solution, a digital dining solution or an online check-in solution.
Neil James - ReviewPro and MyCheck
“While all Source Indexes have experienced a decline since the outbreak of the pandemic, Booking.com’s decrease was significantly higher, at 3.5 points,” the report states. “Given the OTA’s market share of 43.4% of reviews, this should be a concern for hoteliers as [Booking.com] pulls down overall review scores.”
Ctrip, Trip.com and Hotels.com had the highest source indexes, but each source generated only about 1% of review volume, so the impact on the GRI was minimal, the study finds.
Neil James, COO of ReviewPro and MyCheck, advises hoteliers to take the following steps to enhance the guest experience while also improving efficiencies:
- “Understand what parts of the guest journey can be digitized quickly. This may mean using an AI chatbot solution, a digital dining solution or an online check-in solution.
- “Use guest data from reviews and surveys to really understand the experience of your guests. Guest expectations have changed, as have traveler perceptions of value now that room rates are higher. Ensure you’re studying sentiment data to understand what their needs are now.
- “Personalize. This means understanding why guests are visiting and what they plan to do while there. Then it’s about how to make the experience more personalized, how to wow them, and how to turn them into loyal guests and promoters,” according to James.