The most important thing to me is that the place is clean and in good repair. There shouldn't be hairs on the towels or behind the toilets. There should not be dark shots on ceilings or walls from previous water leakage. The tubs should be cleaned frequently enough that there is no sign mildew or mold. There should always be an extra box of tissues in the bathroom (75% of time I take the last one, I have no idea why that is but it's annoying).

Newer furnishings are always nice but well cleaned and cared for stuff can be fine, too. Fresh paint can go a long way, too.

I stayed at a place this week where they scraped the ice off of all the car windows before most of the guests were up. That blew my mind. And boy did I appreciate it!

Staff should be friendly and knowledgeable. They should be extroverts.

A hotel is only as good as its people. They should be rewarded for good work and kindly corrected for poorer work.

Every hotel will have some bad survey responses. But when the staff cares about the guests and state of the property, the surveys will be overall good. IMO it doesn't really matter what questions are on the survey great staff who have the appropriate resources will be at hotels that score well.