Methodology For BTN's 2006 U.S. Hotel Chain Survey

Business Travel News' Top U.S. Hotel Chain Survey is an annual measure of corporate travel buyers' opinions of the lodging brands that their companies and clients use.

Business Travel News sent an e-mail to a random sample of 6,000 corporate readers responsible for hotel buying decisions, asking them to rate hotels with which they do business in 10 hotel segments: deluxe, upper upscale, upscale, midprice with and without food and beverage, economy, budget and upper upscale, upscale and midprice extended stay. Buyers rated hotels in each segment on six to 13 attributes, including quality of food, physical appearance, corporate rate programs, quality of facilities, and overall price-value relationship. Ratings are presented on a numerical scale from one to five, with the number highlighted indicating the highest score for each attribute.

To qualify to rate a particular hotel company, respondents were required to have done business with that chain within the past 12 months.

This year, BTN created a more extensive questionnaire with sister company ACNielsen, which tabulated 322 completed responses to the online survey Dec. 17, 2005 to Feb. 4, 2006. BTN used telemarketing firm Advanced Data-Comm to contact another 103 buyers by telephone who added responses for the economy and budget categories.