127 – Top 5 Guest Sentiment Trends of 2023

Suite Spot: A Hotel Marketing Podcast

In this episode, Suite Spot host Ryan Embree sits down with TMG Director of Product - Respond & Resolve™, Jackie Avery, to discuss the top 5 guest sentiment trends of 2023. It has become an annual tradition to take a look back each year and analyze which guest sentiment tags were mentioned the most and what aspects of the hotel guest experience resonated with travelers. Episode Transcript Our podcast is produced as an audio resource. Transcripts are generated using speech recognition software and human editing and may contain errors. Before republishing quotes, we ask that you reference the audio. Ryan Embree: Welcome to Suite Spot, where hoteliers check-in and we check out what's trending in hotel marketing. I'm your host, Ryan Embree. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Suite Spot. This is your host, Ryan Embree, here for the first episode of 2024 and one of my favorite annual traditions. We've got the same episode, but a new face and voice that's gonna be joining me today. Jackie Avery, Director of Product for our Respond and Resolve™, which is our review response solution for hotels. Jackie, not the first time on The Suite Spot, but this is the first time we're going through this list together. Jackie Avery: Yeah, I'm so excited. I can't wait to kind of talk through everything with you. We had a really busy year, so in slower seasons last year, I'd say our team was responding to and analyzing anywhere between 18,000 and 20,000 reviews a month. And then, yeah, once we got into the busy season, we were hitting, you know, over 26,000 reviews. So it was a great year, and I can't wait to share some of the exciting things that we saw. I think everyone's gonna be happy to hear that. Last year after looking at the sentiment, not only were more people traveling, but they were happy. They left positive sentiments. You know, everyone just kind of takes a sigh of relief when they hear that, and it's really fun to think about. They were making informed decisions and then they were pleased with those. So I think we all just kinda take a second to celebrate that there was lower dissatisfaction and an increase in satisfaction among travelers all over. Ryan Embree: That's amazing. And it's a lot more fun, I would imagine, to respond to someone that's had a really great experience at your hotel. It's at your hotel than someone that may have not had that great experience. So we respond to both either way, but I'm always amazed, Jackie, by the sheer numbers when we talk through this episode, because it's really incredible. You know, we talk to hoteliers that ask us, you know, are reviews becoming less relevant? Our sites like TripAdvisor, you know, really fading from the public eye and really the opposite's true. You think about how reviews have really incorporated into our life from movies to Amazon products everywhere is a review or a rating, right? And hotels have been one of the longest industries where reviews have been relevant and people are making informed decisions, as you mentioned, based on that feedback. And that's what this episode's about. So if this is your first time listening to this annual episode, like I said, it's, it's a tradition. Now, our first time with you here, Jackie, but we review the top five sentiments in 2024. So what do I mean by that? Each review is compiled. Each review includes subjects and topics that the guest leaves either positive, neutral, or negative sentiment. So we go into those reviews and we actually tag that, that type of sentiment and organize that information and data. We share a lot of that through our industry reporting that we, that you can find on LinkedIn or our website, travelmediagroup.com. But this is just really an all, all-encompassing episode that counts down the top five. I can't wait to hear it and I'm sure you're ready as well, Jackie. Jackie Avery: Yeah, I can't wait to share what we uncovered. So in 2023,