Room for Savings: Optimizing Hotel Spend - Carlson

Hotel category: not the most important
driver of traveler satisfaction
Although surveyed travelers state that the hotel
category is important to them—it ranks second
after proximity to business locations—it does not
always appear to have a direct impact on how
satisfied they are with their stay. In fact, some
companies using lower category hotels achieve
greater satisfaction scores than those using
higher categories (Figure 30).
Figure 30: Traveler satisfaction is not always driven by hotel category
2.5
Traveler satisfaction vs. hotel category
L
Average satisfaction level
2.0 = satisfied - 3.0 = very satisfied
2.25
K
B
2.0
Economy
D
F
Standard
G
H
I
E
J
First
Average hotel category
Surveyed companies
Source: CWT Travel Management Institute
Based on a survey of travelers at 10 companies (3,901 responses)
Travelers attach more importance to all hotel
criteria the longer they stay. In particular, Internet
access becomes critical (Figure 31) and not
having it is the main source of dissatisfaction
noted in the survey. It is worth noting that
travelers tend to choose higher hotel categories
for longer stays (Figure 32), which should be
considered when designing a hotel program.