ReviewPro have recently published its industry reference Top Luxury Hotel & Brand Report. The findings of the study demonstrate how the hospitality landscape has evolved over the past year, highlighting important trends as well as leading brands and individual hotels that are achieving exceptional levels of guest satisfaction.
Many hoteliers are already monitoring and measuring online reputation and collecting guest feedback, but this is no longer enough. The real challenge is knowing how to use this insight to enhance the guest experience and exceed expectations. There has been a recent shift from reputation management to overall guest satisfaction improvement where shrewd hoteliers are implementing strategies to make the necessary changes on property to ensure they exceed guest expectations.
89% of global travelers consider online reviews important to booking1 and one negative review could result in a potential guest choosing to stay at a competitor’s hotel instead. Today, review sites are a key guest feedback channel and every single review, whether positive or negative, should be treated like a call to a call center.
Following the success of our Top Luxury Hotel & Brand Reports, for this third edition, ReviewPro analyzed 2,713,414 online guest reviews published during 2015 to gather insight from a broad range of luxury brands across the globe and demonstrate how the hospitality landscape has evolved over the course of this period. A total of 2,690 properties that pertain to 159 luxury hotel brands worldwide were evaluated. The study did not include luxury serviced apartment brands or soft brands.
As per our previous reports, the brands were divided into two groups, Large Luxury Brands, for groups with 20 or more hotels and Small Luxury Brands, for those with fewer than 20. After splitting the sample, the company calculated ReviewPro’s proprietary online reputation score, the Global Review Index (GRI)2, for both hotels and brands based on guest reviews from 175 online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in 45 languages. Hotels with less than 100 reviews were not included in the Individual Luxury Hotel ranking. Besides overall guest satisfaction scores (GRITM), this report also evaluated guest satisfaction performance on other key indexes: Service, Value, Location, Cleanliness and Rooms.
The extensive selection of hotels analyzed varies from innovative, quirky brands to classic luxury properties. Some establishments are ultra-luxury resorts developed by accomplished hoteliers while others are the creation of some of the world’s largest hotel brands, aiming to craft something unique in leading destinations.
Online review analytics provide hoteliers with valuable insights to set departmental goals and to make changes that improve the guest experience. In turn, as the number of positive reviews increases, a property’s online reputation will also improve, allowing hoteliers to increase room rates and RevPAR. RJ Friedlander, CEO of ReviewPro said, “Savvy hoteliers are aware of the shift from online reputation management to overall guest satisfaction improvement. Guest Intelligence provides luxury hotels and brands with the insight needed to prioritize operational and service improvements to enhance the guest experience.”
For the third edition of this study, ReviewPro analyzed 2.7 million online guest reviews published during 2015, evaluating a total of 2,690 properties that pertain to 159 luxury brands worldwide. The ranking was based on the Global Review Index (GRI), ReviewPro's industry standard online reputation score, calculated from guest reviews from 175 online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in 45 languages. As well as overall guest satisfaction scores (GRI), the report also evaluated performance on other key indexes: Service, Value, Cleanliness, Rooms and Location.
Key findings:
- In terms of overall online guest satisfaction, Four Seasons (GRI 93.2%) was the best performing Large Luxury Brand and Library Hotel Collection (GRI 96.1%) was the best performing Small Luxury Brand. Belmond Palacio Nazarenas and Spicers Peak Lodge were the best performing Individual Luxury Hotels, both with a GRI™ of 98.1%.
- Guest satisfaction with the Top 25 Small Luxury Brands improved year-on- year with their average GRI increasing from 92.2% to 93.7%. The GRI of the Top 25 Large Luxury Brands was lower in comparison, with almost no change at 90.1%.
- Luxury hotels in China received 703,041 reviews, representing a dramatic increase of +46% year-on- year and taking them into first place ahead of American hotels who experienced a decrease of 13% year-on-year.
- TripAdvisor was the largest online review source for luxury hotels, generating 26% of total reviews followed closely by Booking.com with 25%. Ctrip overtook Facebook to become the third largest review source.
- Luxury hotels guests were happy to share their experiences with each hotel receiving on average 1,008 reviews (versus 836 in the previous year’s study). Guest satisfaction also improved with 83% of reviews being positive, an increase from 80% the previous year.
- China had the largest number of Top 100 rated luxury properties (increasing from 14 to 23 within a year), followed by Maldives (11) and United Kingdom (6).
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
