Cleanliness key to hotel reviews

Data illustrates that 61 per cent of customers read online reviews before making e-commerce purchasing decisions, which in practice means it’s likely the very first impression a prospective guest has of a hotel is the opinion of a previous guest. 

Additionally, results from trivago’s Quality Test, a mystery guest programme in which real guests receive a cash incentive for filling in a detailed questionnaire regarding their stay, shows that 78 per cent of guests expect an ‘above average’ level of cleanliness and that if they rate a hotel as clean, they are more likely to give the hotel a high rating overall. 

So while it is commonly understood that good online ratings boost the number of stays, the combined data clearly outlines that cleanliness is a crucial factor in securing positive recommendations and reviews. In fact, P&G Professional’s research shows that an increase of 1 star rating in cleanliness is likely to increase the overall rating by up to 1 star . To put that in a revenue context, if a hospitality business increases its review scores by one star on a total rating of 5 stars, a hotel can increase its price by 11.2 per cent and still maintain the same occupancy or market share. 

Denise Bartlett, UK public relations manager at trivago, said: “trivago recognises strong online content as one of the most important features of a successful hotel search – which includes accurate, comprehensive and unbiased reviews. We believe a hotel’s reputation should be based on qualitative and extensive data about the hotel’s best strengths.

"As feedback from our Quality Test showed, the cleanliness of a hotel plays a key factor in guests’ retention and can positively impact a hotel’s online reputation. A good online presence is key in this industry, which is why we support the Top Rated campaign and hope hoteliers from around the world will welcome these findings."