Are Legacy SPG Hotels Customer Reviews Lower on the Combined Marriott Bonvoy Web Site
 

I was searching hotels for an upcoming trip. It appears the legacy SPG hotels have a lower customer review score in general than comparable legacy Marriott hotels in the same general area. I know there are a lot of variables when someone reviews a hotel and some hotels do indeed deserve below 4 stars. I don't know the formula used to for the customer rating. There are some terrible Residence Inns with 4.3 that are probably more like a 3.8. There some Westin and Sheraton hotels that should be higher than a 4.1 or 4.2. With the merger of the database, is there a different formula or criteria used on legacy SPG hotels than on the legacy Marriott hotels when the database were merged? Are the legacy Marriott hotels ratings inflated? What are your thoughts?

I can think of several possibilities immediately. How about, -- Other people may rate these hotels differently from the ratings that you would give.

What same general area are we talking about here?

Anecdotally speaking, pre-rewards program merger, I found that comparable hotel reviews (at least business/city hotels where I usually stay) on legacy SPG.com averaged ~0.5 star lower than on legacy Marriott.com. After the merger Starriott imported the scores as-is.

I don't think that Marriott scores were "inflated" or SPG scores suppressed, just that each community had differing consensus baseline numbers. Definitely be aware of this and don't simply compare scores between these properties.

I have noticed the same thing all over the country (USA) and was wondering if there was a difference in the rating system when they brought them into Marriott. Glad I am not the only one to notice.

+1

It's my sense that all things being equal, legacy SPG hotels are scoring lower. I think its more than people seeing things differently but must have something to do with how they were brought over.

That being said, since I've had 500 nights in the past three years and have only had one survey, I don't give it a lot of credibility anyway.

Hard to know without knowing area.

Also one of the many reasons I check FT first for hotel reviews and only rely on TA or Google Ratings if there are no FT reviews (for all hotel chains, not just Marriott)

Or more likely, all the Marriott folks complaining about the lack of lounges. :)

Cuts both ways
 

Or maybe it’s all those legacy Marriott members whose limited horizons lead them to believe their local domestic Residence Inn is the epitome of sophistication & luxury and rate it accordingly ? :p

Bizarre: guest satisfaction rate among SPG hotels
 

I had this question in my heart 3 years ago when I using both Marriott and spg app, now I finally must ask this, I genuinely want to know the answer.

When I trying to find hotels in Chicago my app, I found that SPG brands tend to have lower guest satisfaction rate( under or around 4): W, Sheraton Grand, Westin. While Marriott mostly scored 4.3 or higher, even for limited brands: Residence inn, Fairfield.

This is a Bizarre situation.

And then I spending 1 hour checking all the other primary large city in the world: London, Paris,..

The situation is the same , spg brands( Westin, W , Sheraton even the Luxury collection in London) tend to scored only 3.7~3.9, while those Marriott, Renaissance , Edition scored above 4.3~4.6.

I'm not trying to make any conclusion, but from my observe at this forum , SPG is a more superior company in term of every things, quoted from FlyerTalk members here.

But as I observed and collect evidence of guest satisfaction rate from 3 difference sources: OTA guest(Tripadvisor),Elite members(Marriott and SPG website), Professional report (JD power), It was not difficult to see that Marriott brands usually tends to receive a higher guest satisfaction rate than SPG Brands .

If this is not a scam, then why? It looks like SPG is much more popular in the website world, but , Why?

I really thought this is bizarre.

And some luxury hotel receiving unbelievable low guest satisfaction rate, most W , Westin Pairs.