Methodology For The 2001 Top U.S. Hotel Chain Survey

<B>Methodology For The 2001 Top U.S. Hotel Chain Survey</B>

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

BTN sent out 1,800 questionnaires in each of five categories to a random sample of corporate travel managers and business travel agents in its subscriber base. R.I.C. Associates of Melville, N.Y., tabulated the 719 responses. To qualify to rate a particular hotel company, respondents were required to have done business with that chain within the past 12 months.

The column "percentage usage" shows what percentage of the respondents used that company. Not every respondent rated every hotel company in every category, and those who left out a category in their ratings were not included in the average rating for that category or company.

The overall average weighted score indicates that the score was affected by the fact that some categories drew more responses than others. The weighted score assigns more weight to the categories rated more frequently.

There are nine hotel categories in this year's survey: deluxe, upper upscale, upscale, midprice with food and beverage, midprice without food and beverage, extended stay--which was broken into two segments again this year, upscale and midprice--economy and budget.

Depending on the category, the hotels were rated on anywhere from six to 13 attributes, including quality of food, physical appearance, corporate rate programs and quality of the business center and meeting facilities. Ratings are on a numerical scale from one to 10, with the number highlighted indicating the high scorer for that category.