Global Hotel Survey Statistics: Russians Are Generous, Arabs the Most Demanding

Reported by You T-Ru / Taipei

After receiving a service, many customers express their feelings by filling out surveys. Which nationality’s travelers are the most generous when rating hotels, and which are the most stingy and strict about hotels? According to the latest survey by booking website “Travel Smart Survey,” on average, Russian travelers can be described as having angelic hearts, giving out more lenient scores, while the strictest guests come from the United Arab Emirates.

This survey was conducted in July 2015, analyzing hotel reviews from around the world on Agoda.com and comparing the rating trends of travelers from different countries. Guests could rate hotels on six criteria—value for money, location, service, overall condition and cleanliness, room comfort, and dining—on a scale of 0 to 10. The overall rating of each hotel on Agoda is the average of all guest evaluations currently listed.


▲ Illustration of a hotel. (Photo / Reported by You T-Ru)

Overall, Russian travelers were the most generous, giving hotel ratings that were 0.56 points higher than the global average. Travelers from Egypt, Ireland, and Poland followed closely, while Chinese tourists also made it into the top ten “angel” group, ranking eighth with a score 0.27 points above the average.

In contrast, the world’s most demanding travelers come from the United Arab Emirates, with overall hotel ratings 0.32 points below the average. Neighboring visitors from Hong Kong and Macau also rated lower than average, giving 0.22 and 0.13 points less respectively. Taiwanese travelers are relatively easy to please—although their ratings were slightly below average, the difference was only 0.03 points. However, Japanese guests were much stricter, rating 0.3 points below average, with standards only slightly more lenient than those of guests from the UAE.

John Brown, CEO of Agoda.com, said: “Travel habits, spending power, and preferences vary among consumers from different countries, hence the differences in rating criteria.” He added that with guests coming from all over the world, diverse ratings can reflect the true quality of a hotel.

Difference Between Hotel Ratings and Global Average (Ranked by Nationality)*
1 Russia  0.56
2 Egypt      0.47
3 Ireland  0.43
4 Poland     0.42
5 Israel  0.33
6 Sweden     0.30
7 Philippines 0.29
8 China     0.27
9 Finland     0.19
10 USA  0.18
11 Switzerland   0.13
12 UK  0.11
13 New Zealand   0.09
14 Netherlands  0.07
15  Australia  0.06
16 Italy 0.05
17 Thailand     0.05
18 Spain  0.03
19 Denmark  0.03
20  Canada  0.02
21 South Africa  0.02
22 Bahrain  -0.02
23 Taiwan  -0.03
24 South Korea  -0.04
25 Brunei  -0.06