Hotel surveys.... hmm....

I'm sure the "very satisfied" goes towards some sort of spiff from HI global, or at the very least, the staff get some reward from the property owner for high marks. However, it sounds like its very simple for you to mark "satisfied" and just copy your last paragraph above into the comment section. Once they reach the level of the HI Ontario, then you can give them a great rating.

I would agree that "satisfied" seems more appropriate. As a hotelier in the IHG system, I can tell you that they equate to scores from which the hotel is graded (by IHG). Very Satisfied = 100, Satisfied = 75, etc. If they don't meet the brand averages or standards they go into default and will eventually be pushed out of the chain due to failure. Most of this seems to be common sense but those surveys are how word gets out and progress is made. The only thing I would add is be sure to include how good the service was, so that sub-par services isn't confused with the need to renovate the rooms.

Would you be willing to pay $10 more per night if they refreshed the furniture?

Writing surveys to get valid statistical measurements is a very difficult and costly endeavour. In a two to five question survey it is very difficult to create questions that do not lead or infer anything to the subject.

That being said, perhaps if enough people responded that it was a pleasant stay, but a refresh of the rooms is in order, if it was something they were already contemplating, your responses just might push trends over the edge! If everyone just says that everything was fine, without specifics, then they might continue with the status quo!

@ Mike -- Agreed, obviously trying to meet some corporate "threshold."

@ Bret -- Thanks for the insight, very interesting!

@ Oliver -- I don't know, I'd have to review the options more closely. If there weren't a better alternative I probably would, but at that price I might just have stayed downtown at a nicer hotel. While I totally agree that the money has to come from somewhere (especially in a recession when many hotels don't have much money sitting around), there are plenty of other hotels that have very reasonable rates yet are renovated. Hell, United's renovating their cabins and they're not charging a premium. 😉

I'm sure that their goal as an airport hotel would actually be to build loyalty and get more customers like me (that pay the published rate) as opposed to those that Priceline hotels, which has to be a good percentage of people nowadays, especially at airport hotels.

@ Darren Mak -- No doubt it's tough to get anything valuable out of a short survey like that, but it's the term "very" that I didn't like. And I totally agree on the second part.