Hotel guest media preferences

Enhancing the Hotel Guest Survey to include media preferences

Conducted in 35 countries worldwide, most of the world’s leading hotel companies use BVA BDRC’s Hotel Guest Survey (HGS) to track the health and competitive positioning of their brands as well as their competitors.

HGS is the definitive source of insight on hotel brand health and market dynamics, conducted across 30 major travel demand origination markets.  The HGS is now in its 25th year and the latest iteration, due for release in November 2015, will for the first time measure what hotel guests watch on TV when they travel and, more importantly, what they wish they could watch.  This will give hotel chains a solid basis for deciding which TV channels and content their guests desire the most.

Move to quarterly reporting & doubling in sample
In addition to measuring guests’ desired in-room entertainment, in 2015, HGS is transitioning from an annual to quarterly data collection methodology in most markets.  Quarterly tracking will be rolled out over the course of the year, beginning with Western European markets and following on from the next regular annual report in each territory. As a result, the overall sample size will more than double on an annual basis in many markets.

But why add media?
With hotels spending small fortunes on providing guests with the very latest in-room technology and UHD TV screens, this investment falls flat when the guest can’t find their favourite channel.  Of course, most guests already arrive with an entertainment device – either their smart device or laptop computer – where they can stream their favourite content, but it does beg the the question: “what’s that great big flat screen above the minibar for?”

Who caress
But do hotel guests really care about whether a certain TV channel is available in their room?  Well when analysing reviews from sites such as Trip Advisor it does not take much searching to find that it most certainly does. Whether it be leisure travellers complaining about the lack of children’s channels; or the business traveller unable to watch his or her news channel of choice.  In fact the issue of “TV Channels” was raised nearly 350,000 times on Trip Advisor alone. Many other travel forums also raise the issue.

What will the addition of media preferences bring to HGS clients?
The new additions of guests’ media preferences will bring several new and actionable dimensions to the already comprehensive HGS, including:

• Helping hotels choose the best channel options for their patrons
• Giving media owners the tools they need to sell their channels
• Providing insight that can form the basis of a dialogue between media owners and hoteliers
• Using the customer scorecard of the hotel to develop marketing campaigns to remedy problem areas and find the best media partners to broadcast their message

Find out more.