Ithaca, N.Y.—Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research has released an index and analysis of hotel brand reputation in the United States and Canada, revealing important insights into the role played by brands in the hotel industry today.
The first of its kind in terms of the scale of the reputation data analyzed, the report analyzes over 30 million reviews of more than 30,000 branded hotels posted to 47 review sites between January 1, 2016 and March 31, 2018.
The report categorizes brands according to the six segments identified in STR’s chain scale report and ranks them using ReviewPro’s Global Review Index (GRI), an industry-standard online reputation benchmark derived from online reviews.
This analysis yields three major conclusions:
1. The variation in reputation across brands is larger than the variation across chain scales;
2. Online reputation is mainly a function of brand and sub-brand rather than segment or hotel location; and
3. Variability in reputation across hotels within a brand is greater than the variability in reputation in hotels across brands.
“Our research suggests that the roles of hotel brand and chain scale are changing, and, further, that the influence of brands is growing,” said the report’s co-author, Chris K. Anderson, director of Cornell University’s Center for Hospitality Research. “If a hotel’s brand is a more reliable indicator of reputation than its chain scale or star classification, travelers will lend greater weight to brand when selecting a hotel. Over time, brands that consistently deliver on expectations across their portfolio will carve an increasingly higher market share.”
“We’re excited to support Cornell University’s research and the contribution that it makes to the global hotel industry,” said R.J. Friedlander, CEO and co-founder of ReviewPro. “It is a privilege that our data was selected for a study that has such important implications for hotel owners, operators, and brands seeking to analyze and improve the guest experience.”
