“It is no secret that many of the major hospitality companies have put off upgrades and deferred maintenance while they were in survival mode during the pandemic,” hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power Andrea Stokes said in a statement this week on the release of the company’s 2022 Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark report. “Now, however, as demand has climbed above pre-pandemic levels and consumers are paying record rates for hotel rooms, expectations are rising rapidly. Now is the time for hotel operators to invest in the maintenance and renovations that improve quality in the eyes of guests.”
Travel managers and business travelers are not much different. No matter what they negotiate and buy from a hotel corporate sales team, delivery of the product and service happens onsite at the property. Often, between those two ends of the hotel ecosystem sits a third-party hotel management company that is responsible for on-property operations, service standards and upkeep. With that critical party in mind, J.D. Power introduced its Third-Party Hotel Management report in 2020 to determine which hotel management companies operating 14,000 rooms or more in North America delivered the highest-quality stay.
The 2022 report is again the result of secondary analysis on J.D. Power’s 2022 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Survey, which gathered information on 3,804 guest responses for branded hotel stays from May 2021 through May 2022. Looking at the alignment of those scores according to third-party management companies, J.D. Power pegged Davidson Hospitality to the top spot, with a score of 875 on an ascending 1,000-point scale. In second and third place respectively were Atrium Hospitality at 870 points and Crestline Hotels & Resorts at 856 points.
The average for all hotel management companies considered in the report was 837 points, which was four points lower than last year and 11 points lower than in 2020, the first year of the benchmark.
J.D. Power identified several key drivers beyond price that had a major impact on how hotels within each management company performed in the analysis. The quality of décor and furnishings in guest rooms was an important differentiator as was the variety of food and beverage on offer at the property. How quickly and genuinely guests are greeted and served not only by the front desk but also by other employees working in the lobby and common spaces also drove top scores.
More staff training in empathy and human connections may also be in order for hotel management companies to receive top marks from harried travelers. According to J.D. Power’s analysis, when guests say hotel staff makes them feel like a valued guest, overall satisfaction scores are 139 points higher. When staff shows concern for guest needs or warm, sincere treatment, satisfaction scores rise 135 points.