July 14 - Frontline hotel staff did not have an easy job during the past year. Tasked with enforcing mask mandates, reminding guests which services were temporarily unavailable due to the pandemic and putting their own health at risk daily, these workers still managed to keep guests happy.

 

The hotel industry overall maintains a strong overall customer satisfaction score in the J.D. Power 2021 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study,SM released today. But now that the pandemic is waning, hotel guests have made it clear they want breakfast and other hotel amenities.

 

Following are additional key findings of the 2021 study:

1. Hotel staff, flexible cancellation policies save the day in crisis:

Overall hotel guest satisfaction across the study is 830 (on a 1,000-point scale), which is unchanged from 2020 and 10 points higher than in 2019. The strong performance is driven in large part by the overall hotel staff experience, which increases slightly in 2021. Hotel guests also had higher satisfaction with value for money, reflecting the reduction in room rates many hotel properties undertook to stimulate demand.

 

2. Satisfaction with breakfast declines:

One area that is a major drag on customer satisfaction in the study is breakfast. In all but one hotel segment, guests were particularly dissatisfied with reduced variety and quality—if breakfast was offered at all. Through the study fielding dates, 36% of hotels eliminated buffet-style serving.

 

3. I want my smart TV:

During the pandemic, consumers stuck at home increased subscriptions to a variety of streaming entertainment services. It is not surprising, then, that the study shows an increase in demand for smart TVs in hotel rooms. Hotel “need to haves” that have grown the most in importance since 2020 are smart TVs (+9 percentage points), balcony/views (+6 percentage points) and healthy living/wellness amenities (+5 percentage points).

 

Study Rankings

The following hotel brands rank highest in guest satisfaction in their respective segment:

• Luxury: The Ritz-Carlton
• Upper Upscale: Hard Rock Hotels
• Upscale: AC Hotels
• Upper Midscale: Drury Hotels (for a 16th consecutive year)
• Midscale: Tru by Hilton (for a second consecutive year)
• Economy: SureStay by Best Western (for a second consecutive year)

 

See the rank charts for each segment at jdpower.com. For more information about the 2021 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study, visit jdpower.com.

 

 

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