travelswithmyself

Have received these a few times. You know the like... how was your stay on scale of 1-9, etc etc.

If I remember right, the scale is 1-9 with:
a. 1 as totally did not meet expectations
b. 5 as met expectations, and
c. 9 as (wildly) exceeded expectations

So I filled in this one for a hotel after a one-night stay where I got an upgrade from a standard room to a suite. It was a pleasant stay, I got the full buffet BF as a Plat, and a late 4pm checkout. Usual bottled water, internet etc etc.

So, shortly after filling that survey, I got an email from the marketing manager who wanted to know why I put 5 on most of my replies... so I told him my reasoning was that these are what I expected to receive as a Plat member... I only gave a 7 or 8 for the breakfast which was really a good breakfast.

Sadly, I didn't receive an acknowledgement of my reply which I thought was a bit rude.

So now I've actually tried not to go below a "7". But I try to fill in the comments section that the wording needs to be re-thought. I should only need to be put "exceeded my expectations" when they truly exceed... not when they merely fulfil their end of the Plat bargain.

Has the Plat programme become so diluted that we need to consider getting an upgrade to a suite as exceeding expectations? For the marketing manager to immediately email me upon completing the survey makes me wonder what sort of pressure they are under when they receive feedback that is just "meh" instead of "wow". Can you imagine if it was "bleah".

Haven't gone back to that hotel yet... wonder if I'm marked :P

holtju2

Anything below 8 or 9 is likely going to hurt their score.

clublounger

Agreed...these surveys are poorly designed. I'm not able to elaborate where it would help.

Of course, there should be "baseline" questions, so that one person's 5 is another person's 9 , etc..

travelswithmyself

Sigh. That's just it... I don't want to do that unless I had a bad time at the place...

EuropeanPete

I also thought the survey was a bit old-fashioned. They could get more actionable results and shorten the survey significantly by basing it around the Net Promoter Score and asking people some more thoughtful questions.

In general, asking people for their opinion of something and then not specifically giving them the chance to explain an extreme score (as I had recently) is going to annoy people and miss the chance to learn what actually went on.

The follow-up to poor scores is good, but it's telling that the 2-3 times this has happened to me the hotel hasn't received enough information about why I was annoyed to do anything about it.

CPRich

I've found this to be true pretty much across the board. My mechanic tells me that if I don't give a 5 score (on a scale of 1 to 5), they get dinged. Most surveys that I've seen report the percentage of scores in the 8-10 range (on a 10 point scale), sometimes going down to 7, as the good/acceptable scores.

A company I worked for had ratings of not meeting expectations, meeting some expectations, meeting expectations, exceeding some expectations, and exceeding expectations. Meeting expectations was considered to be a poor rating - the bottom two were reserved for folks on the way out. So meeting the expectations for you job was considered somewhat unacceptable.

I pretty much give 8-9 when there are no problems, 10 in an area that a property excelled, and below 7 when I'm not satisfied.

IluvSQ

I have completed these a few times, and wondered about the premises of the survey.
I think expectations vary greatly among the public.

I know, for example, when I stay at the Sheraton Grande Sukhumvit, or the
Westin Bund Shanghai, I have great expectations for my stay; and that when the
hotel meets these expectations, I give them a 5 or 6, since they have met my
expectations.

When I stay at the Sheraton Greensboro, I have very low expectations from that
location, and they usually meet those expectations, and again, they would get a 5 0r 6.

That is to say - my expectations are property-specific, and usually based on prior
stays, so the questions becomes meaningless except for those relatively few
occasions when something great happens ( upgrade to Presidential suite), or something
terrible happens ( missed wake-up call, mould on ceilings).

365RoadWarrior

The whole "expectations" thing just doesn't work for me. I think back to the days when I spent 160 days a year in one property. My expectations were pretty darned closely aligned with the reality of the property. How are they going to wildly exceed them?

Flews

I agree. How can they 'exceed' my expectations after I've already had a bunch of fantastic stays? More fantastic stays may now 'meet' my expectations, but they no longer necessarily 'exceed' them.