And the winner is … Cleanliness

What do guests value most in a hotel?

A new survey about what factor which determines guests’ the decision to stay in a hotel has been released. The most important factor is neither the facility nor the staff’s hospitality. What concerns the most to the people is the level of cleanliness!

Kitty Bean Yancey of USA Today wrote that according to a survey of 1,000 people, 43 % of the respondents considered the cleanliness of a hotel as the most determining factor that affected people’s decision to select a hotel ( read the full article What do guests value most in a hotel? on USA Today). Price is second on the list with 23 % of total votes. The third place belongs to the location (19%). The survey result was released this month by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies. Caravan Orc International, an independent public opinion and market research firm in the U.S., is the one that conducted the survey.

The occupancy rate of a hotel will not be high no matter how close the hotel to the major attractions if the bedroom is as dirty as a dumpster. Although hotel guests will still consider the price of the room but once they see or read reviews about moldy bathrooms then just say good bye to the potential occupants. It is all about back to the basics for hotel management. If you are a hotel owner or manager make sure that you have completely trained your staff. You should make your own high standard of cleanliness and ask all of your staff to keep up with the standard.

There are many ways to check out your hotel cleanliness status. The most effective way is try to build a good relationship with your guests by taking advantage of feedback mechanism. Value their comments about your hotel no matter how harsh it is. You should build an intimate relationship by giving a humble response. In this case, “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” is definitely useful. The basic is the foundation. If we have a strong foundation then the building will not be easy to collapse.