It is well known that the hospitality industry faced an unprecedented decline in guest satisfaction in 2021 as demand rebounded after the peak pandemic period.
We wanted to understand the drivers behind the guest satisfaction decline and, through this understanding, help the industry focus its efforts to address the items that will be most impactful to the guest experience. Using ZS’s proprietary, AI-driven natural language processing tool, we scraped guest reviews from hotels across the U.S. Pre-Pandemic (defined as February – July of 2019) and the Return to Travel (defined as February – July of 2021) periods to determine how overall satisfaction has trended and what factors are driving both the positive and negative impact. By uncovering the detailed drivers, hotels and casinos can prioritize targeted programs that will have the largest impact on improving satisfaction. Successfully executing this balancing act is critical in today’s world of limited resources and staffing.
Let’s begin with some facts about how guest satisfaction has changed as demand rebounded in the Return to Travel period.