Market Metrix, LLC announced results of the Market Metrix Hospitality Index (MMHI) for the first quarter of this year. Ritz-Carlton, JetBlue Airways and Enterprise Rent-A-Car ranked number one in hotel, airline and rental car industry customer satisfaction, respectively.

For the first time since 9/11, in a year-over-year comparison, guest satisfaction was down or flat across all hotel segments except for Extended Stay. The biggest losers were in the Casino and Luxury segments with drops of -2.3% and -0.9% respectively.

Why the downturn? Has the industry simply recovered to pre-9/11 levels and is now starting to flatten out? Or, has the rather quick upturn in business caught hotels off-guard in terms of staffing and amenities? Probably a combination...but other industries are also down in customer satisfaction. In the past six months, retail, financial services, and e-commerce all have received dramatically lower customer ratings according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

For hotels, and especially companies and properties that are fighting to keep pace, continuing declines in customer satisfaction will further influence demand and consumer price tolerance. Dissatisfied guests are more price sensitive and less likely to return.

Vacation Clubs

To recognize their continuing growth, Vacation Clubs was added as a new category in Q1 2005. For Q1 2005, as a group, customer satisfaction with Vacation Clubs (87.4) was second only to the Extended Stay segment (87.9).

The winner was Disney Vacation Club (92.1) followed by Trendwest Resorts (88.6). Interestingly, vacation club travelers report feeling more `Practical` (82.3) than Extended Stay customers (80.3) and more Welcome (90.5) than even Luxury (89.8) guests.

MMHI Top-Hospitality Rankings Q1 2005