Originally Posted by
The Road Goes On Forever
Two points:
1. IMHO, reading online reviews is not a reliable way to assess a property. Less than 1% of guests that stay actually fill out the official brand post stay survey let alone something from Trip Advisor or Google which dilutes that into a fraction of a percent. It's highly skewed towards the negative and IME, a lot of the negative reviews are filled with hyperbole, lies and half-truths.
One review in and of itself, probably not. BUT, let's say you're looking at an older, large hotel, which has a chilled-water HVAC system. You see multiple reviews in recent months up until 2 weeks ago about the AC not working. Would you stay there? I won't. If you see multiple complaints about poor housekeeping (w/photos), would you stay there? I won't. The whole point of hotel chains was to deliver a consistent product wherein customers knew what to expect. When chain's corporate offices let hoteliers get away with deviating from brand standards, the value of a brand is diminished, which means reduced value to the customers and other hoteliers flying the same flag. I remember when Wyndham used to mean nice properties. Not anymore.
2. Your theory about the management groups and ownership is 100% correct. They are solely what drives properties since they alone dictate your budgets and staffing allocations.
I'm curious to see which matters more to the guest experience. As I mentioned above, I'm taking notes and will share when I have enough data points, but so far there's one management group which has managed multiple hotels I've stayed at. Every single time has been a 11 out of 10, quality and service well above what I was expecting and well above other hotels with the same flag. In many ways, they're doing what Marriott corporate should be doing.