Catering Scotland

New research suggests that cleanliness routinely comes top in guests’ feedback about hotels and guesthouses.

P&G Professional, the away-from-home cleaning arm of Procter & Gamble, has teamed up with hotel search website trivago to help determine the impact that cleanliness has on a guest’s willingness to review positively and, in turn, to recommend a given establishment.

Likewise, results from trivago’s Quality Test – a mystery guest programme in which real guests receive a cash incentive for filling in a questionnaire regarding their stay – shows that 78% of guests expect an above average level of cleanliness, and that if they rate a hotel as clean, they are more likely to give the hotel a high rating overall.

So, while it is commonly understood that good online ratings boost the number of stays, the combined data clearly suggests that cleanliness is a crucial factor in securing positive recommendations and reviews.

The research also shows that an increase of 1 star rating in cleanliness is likely to increase the overall rating by up to one star. From a revenue perspective, if a hotel increases its review scores by one star on a total rating of five, the establishment could increase its price by over 11% and still maintain the same occupancy or market share.

Commenting on the findings, Denise Bartlett, UK Public Relations Manager at trivago, said: ‘We believe a hotel’s reputation should be based on the hotel’s strengths, and as feedback from our quality test has demonstrated, the cleanliness of a hotel plays a key factor in guest retention and can have a positive impact a hotel’s reputation.

‘With data from recent research indicating that over 60% of customers read online reviews before making e-commerce purchasing decisions, it’s likely that the very first impression a prospective guest has of a hotel is the opinion of a previous guest.

‘Consequently, a strong online presence is key in this industry, which is why we  support the Top Rated campaign and hope hoteliers from around the world will welcome these findings.’

For more information about P&G Professional, visit www.pgpro.co.uk.