The Hotel Chains With the Best Customer Satisfaction Ratings

According to the American Customer Satisfaction Index’s new travel report, people are generally more satisfied with hotels than they were a year ago. Services like Airbnb and the general fragmentation of the hotel market give travelers plenty of options for places to stay, so hotels have to stay at the top of their game to retain customers. According to the report, the hotel companies with highest customer satisfaction are:

1. Hilton with a score of 81
2. Hyatt with a score of 80
3. Marriott with a score of 80
4. Starwood (Marriott) with a score of 79
5. InterContinental with a score of 78

Following close behind is Best Western, La Quinta, Choice, Wyndham, and at the bottom is G6 Hospitality (Motel 6). But knowing the best companies doesn’t necessarily help you pick the best hotels while you’re traveling. If we narrow things down to the top five hotel chains, the breakdown looks like this:

1. JW Marriott with a score of 85
2. Hilton Garden Inn with a score of 84
3. Hyatt Place with a score of 84
4. Aloft with a score of 83
5. Embassy Suite Hotels with a score of 83

Just below those is AC Hotels, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, and Best Western Premier hotels. In terms of quality of service, it seems you get what you pay for. JW Marriott takes the top spot in customer satisfaction, but it’s also considered a “luxury” hotel, costing anywhere from $400 to $500 a night for a standard room. Hilton Garden Inn, an “upscale” hotel, has room prices that hover around $300, and Best Western Premiere rooms range from $150 to $200 a night. Both offering similar levels of satisfaction for a lot less.

The lowest scoring “upscale” hotel is Sheraton by Starwood (Marriott). It barely beats out “midscale” and “economy” hotels like Quality, Ramada, Days Inn, and Econo Lodge, even though it still costs $150 to $300 a night depending on the location. At the very bottom is two “economy” hotels, Motel 6 and Super 8, but that’s probably not too surprising if you’ve ever stayed in one on a long road trip. Then again, they aren’t really meant for leisure and long stays, so it’s hard to ding them when they cost so little comparatively. You can read the full ACSI Travel Report 2017 here.