You’re sat at the computer, unable to decide which hotel to book for your recent trip. For whatever reason, the only rooms available are at chain hotels such as Travelodge and Comfort Inn. To you they’re all the same, but you suspect that some may be superior to others. So how do you know which one to plump for?
Customer satisfaction surveys carried out in the last twelve months reveal there is quite a difference in quality. In the Which? survey carried out in October 2012, Warner Leisure Hotels were top of the pile with 79% of respondents scoring them positively. But if you’re looking for a cheap getaway, Warner Leisure’s 13 branches may be too expensive, with their average room costing upwards of £350 a night. For that kind of price, you should hope people are satisfied.
The second best hotel chains turned out to be one of the cheapest. Hamilton by Hilton is the budget range of the global luxury hotel chain Hilton. They’ve kept their high standards even when scaling down on price, with three quarters of people coming away satisfied from their stays at the 14 branches across the UK.
That’s all well and good if you’re planning to go somewhere that has a branch of Hamilton by Hilton, which not everywhere does. Say you only have the choice of the UK’s biggest chains – Premier Inn and Travelodge? From the outside they’re virtually identical, often uninspiring box-like structures by the side of main roads or in city centres.
But on the inside, it seems there is quite a lot of difference. Customers rank all aspects of Premier Inn to be vastly superior to Travelodge, from cleanliness to value for money. In total, Premier Inn Scored 74 out of 100 – fourth in the league table, beating some much classier names such as Hilton, Radisson and Malmaison. Travelodge came third from bottom, with a score of just 46 out of 100. That’s even though Premier Inn is on average £34 more expensive per night.
So it just goes to show that price isn’t everything. The best hotels aren’t always the most expensive, and the best value ones aren’t always the cheapest.