Cornell Research: Lost in Translation: Cross-Country Differences in Hotel Guest Satisfaction

Executive Summary: Hoteliers need to take cultural differences into account when they compare guest satisfaction levels for hotel guests in various countries. This study by J.D. Power finds that those differences can be remarkable. For example, the length of time that guests from different countries will wait to check in before they become unsatisfied varies greatly—from as little as five minutes to as long as half an hour (as shown in this infographic). The study provides recommendations on how to account for these differences in international satisfaction scores so that hoteliers can more effectively use their benchmarking results.

Worldwide Study Shows How Customer Satisfaction Varies from Country to Country

We sought to address differences in international satisfaction scores by examining four issues critical to hoteliers. Based on two years of data for nearly 200,000 guests from eight nations, our study found:

1. While price and location remain uppermost as decision factors, residents of some countries give considerable weight to specific services;
2. People in different countries do consider different factors in their determination of satisfaction;
3. The effect of certain procedures on guests' satisfaction differs by country; and
4. Residents of some countries generally express lower levels of satisfaction than those in other countries.

The implications of our findings are thatcountry differences must be accounted for when multinational brands are benchmarking or comparing satisfaction results across different market segments.

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• Lost in Translation: Cross-Country Differences in Hotel Guest Satisfaction By:Gina Pingitore Ph.D., Weihua Huang Ph.D., and Stuart Greif M.B.A.