During my recent stay at a Marriott hotel in Tallahassee, Fl I encountered a few issues, but nothing out of the ordinary. For example, although I have Titanium Elite status there were no benefits at this hotel other than 500 welcome points. Also the desk lady was a bit short with me when I asked for a 2 pm check in and would not even try to accommodate. Again, nothing huge but things that set them apart from top notch service.
All else was fine. The room was clean and breakfast was good. Those are the main things, but also things I expect.
When I was sent the survey I filled it out as I always do. I gave them an overall rating of a 7 out of 10. In my mind a 5 out of 10 should technically be average, but I know people in the USA don’t think that way. Thus I rated a 7 thinking that would be more of an average score (which is what they were, average).
Soon after the survey I received an email from the hotel manager that read in part:
“Thank you for your stay. I'm sorry it was less than acceptable. I will review your comments with our team.”
I promptly replied to him that my stay was satisfactory and by giving him feedback for improvement I did not view it as a negative. To which he responded:
“Thank you. In the world of Marriott, an 8 or below is unacceptable. Thanks for your feedback.”
Well now I have a hard number. It seems a 9 out of 10 would be average and anything below 9 is unacceptable. How did it get like this? What is a scale of 1-10 for? Shouldn’t it be a scale of 8.0 - 10.0? If this is how it’s viewed?
I recall working with a Finnish engineer years ago. We were eating at a restaurant in the USA and the waitress asked how was the food. He replied OK. Dismayed, she asked him what was the matter. He told her nothing, it was ok.
When I educated him to the English language he was amazed that words don’t mean what they’re supposed to mean here. OK in the USA is simply unacceptable.
It amazes me that the service industry in the USA has such high expectations for feedback, yet compared to most of the world, a much lower level of service. If I was to rate most USA Marriotts to those I’ve visited in Asia, they would get an overall comparative 4 to an Asian 10.
I guess I really don’t know how to rate hotels properly. How do you rate them?