Dive Brief:
- Customer satisfaction in the lodging industry has dipped over the past year, reversing two years of gains, according to data released Tuesday from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
- Hilton led other lodging operators for guest satisfaction — despite its satisfaction ranking on the index falling by 1% — followed by IHG Hotels & Resorts, Airbnb and Marriott International.
- Going forward, travel operators will need to work harder to satisfy business travelers and other high-value customers, according to Forrest Morgeson, associate professor of marketing at Michigan State University and director of research emeritus at the ACSI.
Dive Insight:
Lodging is just one of the segments that saw satisfaction drop in the ASCI Travel Study 2025, with airlines, car rentals, rideshare services and online travel agencies all losing ground, according to the report.
Satisfaction with lodging, in particular, dipped 1% overall to an ACSI score of 76 out of 100. Hilton and Marriott scores respectively dropped by 1%, though second-place Airbnb saw no year-on-year change.
The rise of Airbnb poses a challenge to traditional lodging brands, since its solid satisfaction ratings meet and often exceed those of the midscale brands that frequently share its price point, per ASCI.
G6 Hospitality, parent company to Motel 6, took last place in the ASCI’s lodging rankings, with a score of 67.
The study also ranked individual brands, with Marriott Hotels scoring first place for satisfaction, followed by Hilton Hotels & Resorts, IHG’s Holiday Inn Express, Hampton by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn. The lowest-ranking hotel brands were Wyndham Hotels & Resorts' Days Inn, Motel 6 and Wyndham's Baymont.
According to the ASCI, the lodging industry’s legacy business model is changing due to the rise of boutique properties and bleisure travel, causing customer expectations to shift.
"With spending patterns under pressure and pricing power fading, providers are going to need to work harder to deliver consistent value across all customer segments,” Morgeson said.
Guests traveling for business were the principal driver of declining satisfaction in lodging, particularly for midscale and upper midscale brands, whereas economy brands were able to boost guest satisfaction by improving amenities and food, per the report.
Complaints from guests traveling for business, though, are a “valuable opportunity for brands to create a positive customer interaction” by resolving the issues, per ASCI.
Spanning lodging, guests were most likely to be satisfied by the ease of making a reservation and least likely to be satisfied with the quality of food services at a hotel.
Online travel agencies also saw declines across the board, though Booking.com maintained its top spot for customer satisfaction, per the report. Orbitz was in last place in the ASCI’s ranking.
Data in the ACSI Travel Study 2025 was based on 16,771 completed surveys conducted between April 2024 and March 2025.
