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LRAWorldwide Launches National Hotel Guest Satisfaction Report
HORSHAM, Pennsylvania; June 28, 1999 - LRAWorldwide today announced the creation of the first-ever national comparative hotel guest satisfaction database. The LRA Hotel Guest Satisfaction Report (GuestSat Report) has been developed to provide the hotel industry with national and local market guest satisfaction data on a comparative, non-identifying basis.
"Currently, hotel companies survey and research their own properties and guests to build a proprietary database about their hotels and customers," said Rob Rush, managing director of LRAWorldwide. "However, the brands cannot compare guest satisfaction levels against those of other companies in their competitive set. LRAWorldwide's new GuestSat Report includes a protocol that standardizes the data so that objective comparisons can be made.
"Quality improvement begins with the guest," Rush added. "We want to help raise the quality of the hotel experience by unlocking, in a completely anonymous way, data that many hotels currently collect regarding various guest satisfaction attributes. Similar objective information is available for occupancy and ADR and, more recently, for hotel development and real estate pricing. We believe the GuestSat Report will provide meaningful guest satisfaction data to the industry that today includes only occupancy and supply/demand data," he said.
The company noted that it is currently beta-testing the program in midtown Manhattan. "We have obtained commitments from virtually all major hotel chains that have a property in the market," Rush said. "In addition, chains that do not have a midtown property have expressed strong interest in participating in the Report when it is rolled out to other metropolitan areas."
From existing hotel brands' guest satisfaction and comment card data, LRAWorldwide researchers and analysts have created a database model that allows participants to determine, for the first time, how well they perform against the competition based on certain customer satisfaction attributes. The ability to compare a particular hotel's guest responses for attributes such as "Likelihood to Return" or "Value for Price Paid" with all competitors in a given market can provide a user with critical information. "If the average "Likelihood to Return" score is 91 percent and I'm at 78 percent, I definitely need to know about this competitive disadvantage," Rush said. "This kind of information will allow the industry to make better business decisions regarding capital expenditures, marketing and training programs.
"We believe this data will be extremely beneficial to both hotel companies and guests because, ultimately, it will raise the quality of the hotel product," he said. "The GuestSat Report allows lodging brands to see exactly where they stand with their guests as well as their competition," he said.
Rush noted that LRAWorldwide has built stringent "firewalls" in the Index and related methodology to protect the identity of all participants. "We are using similar disclosure techniques as those developed by other well-respected hotel research and database organizations," he commented.
About LRA Worldwide, Inc.
LRA Worldwide, Inc. is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in "operationalizing the brand" - turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA's CEM practice areas include CEM Strategy Design, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific tactical client need.
LRA's clients include some of the world's leading companies and brands, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, the PGA TOUR, Albertsons Supermarkets, the NBA and First Niagara Financial Group. For more information, visit the company's Web site at www.LRAworldwide.com
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