- Benchmark finds ratings/guest sentiment gap.
- GRI rose to 87 percent; positive sentiment fell.
- Room complaints cut the index by 2.4 points.
HOTEL REPUTATION SCORES rose in the third quarter while guests became less positive about their stays, according to Shiji's Guest Experience Benchmark. The gap means a higher rating does not necessarily show whether a property is meeting guest expectations or strengthening guest advocacy.
The Shiji benchmark analyzed 11.9 million reviews and 45.7 million guest mentions. Review volume fell 3.9 percent year over year, while the Global Review Index rose 0.2 percentage points to 87 percent. The share of positive guest mentions fell to 69.8 percent from 70.5 percent in 2025 and 74.6 percent in 2024.
Hotels are accelerating responses, platform influence is evolving and rising reputation scores may mask declining guest sentiment, said Jessica Kurtz, Shiji Group's director of pre-sales and global enablement. Photo credit: Jessica Kurtz/LinkedIn
“The interesting story in this quarter’s data is not simply whether scores went up or down,” said Jessica Kurtz, Shiji Group's director of pre-sales and global enablement. “It is what is happening underneath those scores. Hotels are responding much faster, the platforms influencing reputation are shifting, and positive sentiment can fall even while reputation scores rise. For hoteliers, that means understanding the detail behind the score is becoming increasingly important.”
Shiji provides hospitality technology including property management, point-of-sale and guest-feedback systems to hotels worldwide, according to its website. The benchmark draws on data from Reviewpro, its reputation-management platform.
Lower tiers narrow the reputation gap
Lower-tier hotels narrow reputation gap as luxury properties face rising value expectations.Photo credit: iStock
The GRI rose across all hotel categories, with three-star properties gaining 0.3 points to 84.0 percent, four-star hotels 0.2 points to 87.2 percent and five-star properties 0.1 points to 90.5 percent, the report said. The narrowing gap strengthens the case for value-focused hotels, while luxury properties need to connect their rates to experiences guests value.
Room-related feedback was the largest negative contributor to reputation, cutting the index by 2.4 points, followed by cleanliness at 2.0 points. Experience and staff were the strongest positive contributors, adding 0.9 points each. For owners, fixing recurring room and cleanliness problems may deliver more reputational value than adding amenities.
JD Power data point the same way: guest satisfaction at third-party-managed hotels in North America rose 14 points to 696 in 2026, led by gains in guest rooms, Asian Hospitality reported.
Andrea Stokes, JD Power’s hospitality practice lead, said investment in franchised hotels is driving higher guest satisfaction year over year.
Asia led regional GRI at 90.1 percent, followed by Latin America at 87.3 percent, Africa and the Middle East at 86.5 percent each, Europe at 86.0 percent, North America at 85.7 percent and Oceania at 84.3 percent. Review volume rose in North America and Europe but fell elsewhere, led by the Middle East, down 17.5 percent.
Hotels responded faster but to a smaller share of reviews. Average response time fell to 3.1 days from 5.6 days in the third quarter of 2024, which Shiji said may reflect wider use of AI-assisted tools. Hotels answered 68.1 percent of reviews, leaving nearly one in three unanswered, and coverage fell in every category, to 53.3 percent for three-star hotels, 65.4 percent for four-star hotels and 73.6 percent for five-star hotels.
Beyond the rating
Review platform shares shift as guest sentiment diverges across regions, languages and major booking channels.Photo credit: iStock
Ctrip doubled its share of global reviews to 6 percent and rose to 19 percent from 12 percent in Asia, while Expedia’s share in North America increased to 45 percent from 41 percent. Booking’s global share fell to 33 percent and Google’s to 29 percent. Positive sentiment declined on Booking, Google, Tripadvisor and Agoda but rose 0.8 points on Expedia. English-language sentiment fell to 67.1 percent, while Chinese, Arabic and Spanish sentiment improved.
The global net promoter score rose to 56.26 from 55.74, with five-star hotels at 62.29 and four-star hotels at 54.45, but three-star hotels fell 0.7 points to 50.89. Three-star hotels thus posted the largest GRI gain while losing advocacy. Latin America made the largest regional gain, rising 3.1 points to 54.47, while North American five-star NPS fell to 39.85 from 57.39, a result Shiji said requires review of sample size and property mix.
Reaching guests remains the larger survey challenge: post-stay surveys recorded a 9.7 percent response rate and in-stay surveys 3.9 percent, though guests who started completed 95.1 percent and 97.2 percent of them, respectively.
“For hotels, the opportunity is to move beyond monitoring a single reputation score and understand what is driving it,” Kurtz said.
