Ask any regular traveller and you can almost guarantee they will have a hotel-from-hell story and (hopefully) a hotel-from-heaven counterpart. Whether you are travelling for pleasure or business, the place where you park your head at night can make or break the experience.

So what matters? Does a hotel need a spa? Toiletries (to take!)? The latest technology? A green policy? How do people decide where they will lay their heads? Synovate asked over 6,300 people across 10 countries to find out.

The chosen one (hotel, that is)
With so much choice and a mind-boggling amount of information out there, how does a traveller find the hotel that suits them best? Most people (46%) do a little research, finding a few comparable choices and selecting the most suitable. But one in ten (10%) simply choose the first ok one that they find.

Sheri Lambert, Synovate’s United States-based Senior Vice President for Travel & Leisure research, says the proliferation of information online has changed the nature of hotel marketing.

“What an opportunity for hotels! All they have to - and yes, it’s easier said than done - is create easy-to-find search ads to pursue this 10% of potential guests… the ones who want to find an ‘ok’ hotel quickly. They have to get their name in front of these people first.

“But it’s not simply search marketing. There’s also the 19% of people who research every hotel in the area so they can make a truly informed choice. Thirty-nine percent of respondents from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 31% from Hong Kong do this. A well-considered and beautifully presented online strategy is a must.”

The survey delved into how people research their hotel choices. Also showing the vital nature of an impressive online presence, the number one way people assess a hotel is via its website. Twenty-nine percent of potential guests use this more than any other research tool, topped by the French at 55%.

The second most popular choice lay with the 20%, or one in five, who ask colleagues, friends or relatives about hotels. This word-of-mouth approach was especially popular in the two south east Asian markets surveyed (42% in Indonesia and 35% in Malaysia use this more than any other research technique).

Managing Director of Synovate in Malaysia, Steve Murphy, says word-of-mouth rules the roost in markets such as Malaysia.

“There is a firm cultural focus on the importance of family and friends here so opinions and recommendations are often shared throughout social circles. The experience of someone who is trusted trumps any other marketing in many cases.”

Seventeen percent of respondents primarily use review sites, far and away led by 54% of our broadband-savvy Japanese respondents*.

Lambert says: “Again we see how vital an online presence is for hotels. Some of the larger hotel companies are now employing people to stay on top of important review sites. Even for smaller hotels, it cannot be ignored.”

Other interesting findings were:

• 13% of United States (US) respondents read travel magazines to choose hotels, more than anywhere else
• 24% of people in Hong Kong and 17% in the UAE check with their travel agent (still very personal)
• 10% in the UAE read individual travellers’ blogs.
• Brochures and flyers seem more important in Indonesia than elsewhere - 17% refer to them to choose their hotel.

* It must be noted that the survey was conducted online in Japan meaning all respondents were naturally among the most predisposed to use online solutions.

A room with a… PC?
Technology is not only the way many people find their hotels, it can now be make or break for whether a hotel is chosen. Taking your work with you, or even enjoying an on-the-road iPod dock - is more and more vital to more and more people.

An overall 47% make sure a hotel caters to their technology needs before they book it. And there is a gender difference on this attribute… 50% of men agreed and 44% of women. The highest agrees were found in Brazil (68%) and Malaysia (64%).

Murphy says of the Malaysian result: “A little surprising maybe, but urban Malaysians who travel are fairly technology-savvy and will want the same offerings outside of the country as they experience within Malaysia, where the high-end hotels are well set up technologically.”

Lambert adds: “We are finding that it is now no longer an added feature to have wireless internet in hotels, but rather it is expected. Travellers, whether for business or leisure, need to be connected. Wi-Fi internet access is becoming a requirement for many guests, as they have fully adopted the freedom Wi-Fi provides in their own homes.

“Guests also want to have access to their social networks such as Facebook and MySpace… they want to be connected. In fact, we will start to see that travellers are relying on the internet for city information even when they have already checked in. This may even prompt a gradual switch from a “real live” concierge to an “internet concierge”. Time will tell.”

The lowest agrees were France at 32% and Japan at 36%.

Rika Fujiki, Managing Director for Synovate in Japan, says that, excepting business travellers, the majority of Japanese are not too concerned about the technology offering of a hotel because they can get what they need via their own mobile devices.

“When Japanese travel for pleasure, they care about what they can do and experience at the travel destination, meals, communicating with family and friends and, of course, hot spring bathing. Technology is not high on the list as it’s nice to have a break.

“However, when Japanese leisure travellers do need to be connected, they can rely on their mobile devices. They don’t necessarily require access to technology in a hotel room.”

The green scene
A hotel’s green credentials are also becoming more important to its guests. The Synovate survey asked potential guests to choose a statement that best described their feelings about all-things-green in their home away from home.

While it remains the least popular choice, nearly one in ten people (9%) say they will not stay at a hotel unless it has an environmental policy. There was significant difference from market to market though, with Malaysians leading the green charge at 27%, followed by Indonesians (17%) and Brazilians (15%).

Over half of all respondents chose the pragmatic-yet-caring approach, agreeing to ‘a hotel’s environmental policy is important to me, but I don’t research it ahead of time’. This was most prevalent in Japanese (70%) and French (63%) respondents.

Fujiki says, on this, she’s not surprised by the ‘middle-of-the-road’ response.

“Most Japanese do not deny the importance of a hotel’s green policy, but they do not actively pursue it.”

Sixty percent of Hong Kong respondents (the highest) agreed with “I don’t care if a hotel has an environmental policy; I will stay there regardless”, which Brendan Shair, Managing Director of Synovate in Hong Kong explains:

“While people in Hong Kong care about the environment, it is a long way off being as important as brands and luxury to the Hong Kong traveller. It’s not that people are against green, it’s simply that they don’t think it should get in the way of choosing exactly the hotel they wish to stay at.”

Synovate’s Hong Kong-based Frances Li does a lot of work across many markets on hotels and their customer experience management: “People are more and more environmentally concerned in most markets but this has not yet translated into a major hotel selection criteria. The one in ten who look for a policy beforehand is very encouraging though, and I believe this number will rise as more hotels promote this as a competitive advantage. It is a way for a hotel to differentiate itself while having a positive effect on the environment.”

Experience the suite life
Even the most travel weary road warrior can still get a frisson of excitement from a spectacular hotel experience. Of course there is a flip side too and hotels need to rigorously manage the experience from start to finish.

An overall 72% of all respondents agree that a bad hotel experience can ruin an entire trip, led by France (83%), Japan and Hong Kong (both 79%), the US (76%) and the UAE (75%). And 85% agree they will tell others about such a bad experience, led by France (97%), Canada (96%), Hong Kong (94%) and the US (93%).

But in better news for hoteliers, 90% say they will tell others about a good experience, sharing the ‘inside scoop’ with their friends and family. There was almost universal agreement with this from France (97%), Canada (96%), Brazil (96%) and the US (95%).

Thierry Pailleux, Synovate’s Managing Director for France notes that the French are outspoken about their experiences, good or bad.

“During a trip, a hotel is the place where people expect to have a rest in the best possible conditions. Of course if they can’t do it properly, it can ruin their whole trip. The French are not known for suffering in silence, but luckily they are also happy to talk about good times.”

And what about new experiences?

Overall, we have 58% of hotel-goers open to a new experience for each trip. Frances Li explains: “That’s both a loyalty challenge, plus a huge opportunity for all hotels.

“This is probably more true for leisure travel than business travel. Hence, it is even more important to build loyalty with business travellers. As for the leisure travellers, you want them to have very good experience so that they may use other properties from the same group.”

Hong Kongers led this response at 70%, followed by adventurous Japanese and UAE travellers at 64% and 63% respectively. The lowest agrees came from the US at 40% and Canada at 50%.

Stealing beauty
Some guests arrive at a hotel, dump their bags and make a beeline for the bathroom to check out the nature and breadth of the toiletry samples. (No, not me. Honest.) And it turns out that this is not so unusual - half of all American hotel guests are taking toiletries, no questions asked.

When asked to explain their feelings about toiletry samples, an overall 26% of survey respondents said “They are yours; they are part of the experience”. This was led by the US (49%), Japan (43%) and France (41%), in each case with more women than men agreeing.

Sheri Lambert says the supply of toiletries has evolved from no-name items to a not-to-be-missed branding opportunity for both the hotel and the beauty product brand, often linking into spa products.

“Most high-end hotels should - and do - make the absolute most of people’s propensity to enjoy ample samples. Linking the hotel brand to a luxury beauty brand helps create a certain lavish image in a guest’s mind - and it works for both brands. Everyone wins; the hotel, the beauty brand and the happy guest.”

Fujiki explains the Japanese perspective: “Japanese hotel guests do not necessarily take these samples for economical reasons. Japan has a sort of ‘miniature’ culture. In general, we like things made smaller than normal size. It’s kawaii (cute). These products are cherished and seen as a way to make the home bathroom also look kawaii.”

Despite the growing acceptance of toiletry-ownership, the overall most popular approach remains to simply use what you need during the stay and leave the rest. Half of all respondents do this, led by Indonesians (65%), Malaysians (58%) and Hong Kongers (54%).

With the taking of toiletries now a guilt-free pursuit for many, there remain a few people out there who feel like maybe they are stealing, but maybe not… The survey also found that 9% of respondents agreed with “You love taking them with you but always feel a shade guilty”. French women most-often selected this, with 21% feeling slight remorse about pilfering products. (And, for the record, this is my choice too.)


This In:fact survey on hotels was conducted online, via telephone and face-to-face in January 2009 across ten markets - Brazil, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States of America (US). It covered over 7,600 respondents, 6,350 of whom stay in hotels. Most questions were addressed to those who stay in hotels only. We believe in our subscribers’ privacy rights. The data you provide us will not be shared with third parties.