J.D. Power hotel survey results - Starwood's low placement
 

As an SPG Platinum, I love Starwood and have no substantial complaints, mostly great experiences.

So I was shocked (Four Points and W aside) to see that not a single Starwood brand was in the top 3 in the latest J.D. Power 2013 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study.

Within their respective segments, the three highest-rated hotel groups were as follows:

• Luxury: The Ritz-Carlton, Four Seasons, Waldorf Astoria
• Upper Upscale: Kimpton, Omni, Embassy Suites
• Upscale: Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, SpringHill Suites
• Midscale Full Service: Holiday Inn, Clarion, Ramada
• Midscale: Drury Hotels, Hampton Inn, Wingate by Wyndham
• Economy/Budget: Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham, Red Roof Inn, Days Inn
• Upper Extended Stay: Homewood Suites, Hyatt House, Staybridge Suites
• Extended Stay: TownePlace Suites, Candlewood Suites, Homestead Studio Suites

Not sure what to make of it.

Maybe Starwood focuses so much on SPG that "regular" people are a bit ignored: the J. D. Powers survey is based on random sampling, and the results are not weighted by the # of room nights (i.e. the opinion of a 200 nights/year respondent weighs as much as a that of a 1-night-a year one).

Or it's been too long I haven't seriously tried the competition?

Very surprising results. W-A isn't any more luxurious than StR, probably even less so.

Kimpton upper upscale?

But it's not only Starwood who's taking a hit - where are PH, GH and Conrad?

Embassy Suites Upper upscale? Hilton Garden Inn and Springhill Suites as upscale?

Enough said...

lord, who are they talking to?

^ +1

I'm not sure where Conrad was either. PH is on there though.

hyatt place is upscale? i split my time on SPG and hyatt so i stay at a lot of hyatt places and "upscale" wouldn't be the word i'd use to describe them...

also the westin was ranked under embassy suites? and under regular marriotts?

Hm, not in the OP's post?

heheh. Right up there with Four Points in the upscale category.

I'm not sure who voted on this, but I know people who think that getting clean sheets is luxury.

Perhaps this says more bout who reads and responds to JD Powers surveys now then anything else

While ill almost always choose a Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental or Peninsula in the few cities that have those properties, I will also 9 out of 10 times choose a Westin over any other major chain, a Sheraton over any other major airport hotel and a W when I don't feel like letting my GF out of bed :)

If I had to guess, I would say that Conrad is probably absent because the "travelers" they talked to had never heard of it. :p According to the press release, St. Regis, Luxury Collection, and Mandarin Oriental were excluded due to "small sample size".

Anyway, clearly this survey means nothing if Embassy Suites is considered "Upper Upscale". Just ridiculous. :td:

-S

This is a joke unless they mean upscale compared to sleeping in a shelter or on the street.

Friends of William Shatner from Priceline:D

It really is a bit of a head scratcher.

Cheers,

*Wondering if the Scale was upside down for the upscale category*

I agree. Although the newer Hyatt Place hotels are great, the older hotels are really starting to age poorly. The HDTVs don't work well, the bathrooms are tiny & poorly ventilated in many locations & many rooms have old & loud window heater/ac units. I could go on and on, but I guess the biggest head-scratcher to me is this:

Hyatt Place became Hyatt House in January 2012, so how old is this survey?!? (Hyatt combined Hyatt Place with the often-much-worse Hyatt Summerfield Suites.)

As a physician, it was a reality check when I found out the highest weighted aspect of a doctors visit, according to one survey, was the quality of the office magazines!

Point is, most hotels offer decent service and reasonable accommodations. I think that it is often a matter of expectations coming in. However, I think that I also think this is a great wake-up call to Starwood corporate to help improve their customer service, and perhaps remove those ridiculous "resort fees"! The quality of the physical plant is often not an issue. I've seen too many one star reviews on Tripadvisor based on just one isolated incident...

This blows my mind:

Upscale: Hyatt Place, Hilton Garden Inn, SpringHill Suites

Some of these could be consider motels if the sign out front were different