Competition in hospitality is fierce. Especially after the major hit suffered throughout the majority of 2020, the way in which we travel, along with the top priorities and expectations that we, as travelers, have from a hotel stay in 2021 and beyond, are different than what they used to be. This is why we integrated the TrustYou Comp Index within our tool’s analytics dashboard.
Essentially a comparison index that leverages the largest database of guest reviews in the world to measure your hotel review scores against others in the industry, the Comp Index is a top opportunity to make sure you outshine the competition and reach some new heights beyond the pandemic. With the playing field wide open as hotels reopen and recover at various rates, we wanted to give hotels the means to benchmark their performance against their competitors in order to have a better understanding of their position in the market and the exact KPIs that need to be enhanced or improved to win over guests.
The TrustYou Comp Index enables hoteliers to choose specific KPIs that are of high value to their business and track them as compared to their competitors. For example, the Comp Index can be computed on overall guest review scores, TrustYou Performance Scores, or total review counts – all of these KPIs highlighting therefore the hotel’s current performance, as well as its strengths and weaknesses. The KPIs are obtained by dividing the hotel’s own value by the average of the competitors and rounding to two decimal places. Example: 1.08 means the hotel is 8% better than its competitors, 0.80 means it’s worse.
We took the time to look into some interesting overall figures from the TrustYou Comp Index, as well as some examples of how the KPIs for a focus group of three large global hotel groups performed over the course of 2020:
Number of reviews as compared to another hotel
The TrustYou Comp Index allows for comparing the number of hotel guest reviews for your property with that of other properties in order to see how you are performing against the competition. Out of curiosity, we had a quick look into our data to find out what was the highest amount of reviews for a single property in 2020. In the graph below we extracted the top ten highest guest review amounts. The top-performing single hotel property received a whopping 247431 reviews in 2020, a clear sign that all is not quite lost for the hotel industry.
TrustYou Performance Score comparison
The TrustYou Performance Score is a calculation of the overall performance, as perceived through guest reviews that highlight certain Impact Scores. For example, the impact score in the housekeeping category, or the one reflecting the quality of the breakfast, contributes to the calculation of the hotel’s total Performance Score and enables a general overview of the hotel’s strength and positioning on the market. The average performance score of large global hotel chains stayed relatively stable throughout 2020, showing no hardly any significant decline in performance due to the pandemic.
Guest review response rate in comparison to other hotels
Responding to reviews can lead to an increase in Performance Score. That’s why it is interesting to track this KPI as compared to other hotels and in relation to the above-mentioned KPIs. Response rate reports can be split by source, by languages, by star rating, or guest sentiments. This is based on reviews that can be responded to, excluding all sources that do not allow for responses. The sample hotel response rate as calculated below shows the average monthly data from a focus group of global hotel chains for the year of 2020. During this time the KPI showed a significant drop on the TrustYou Comp Index, as the global COVID19 pandemic caused hotel lockdowns across markets. This shows an upwards trend as several destinations start opening up and then dropping down again at the end of the year as the second wave causes lockdowns once more.
At TrustYou, we believe in the power to listen to feedback and we constantly strive to provide hoteliers and industry workers with the best possible tools of doing so. Analyzing guest feedback in a granular way is absolutely essential, especially during trying and uncertain times, when the traveler behaviour and expectations are constantly shifting. Not only that but achieving and maintaining a strong position against competitors can ultimately prove to be the thing that differentiates a winning hotel business from a failing one.
It’s important to keep track of your performance against the competition, especially within the current changing landscape. Contact us today to find out more about the TrustYou Comp Index and how your hotel can benefit in keeping an eye on the competition.
Also, make sure to stay up to date with our Travel Health Index and join The Recovery Race campaign for access to key trends and information.