May 17th, 2024, Lesley Simeon
When travelling, a hotel room with a view of the mountains or the beach can really put you in the right wanderlust zone. But if that same room were to overlook a noisy construction site or a back alley, your vacation vibe could get crushed in no time.
So, when people book travel accommodation what do their rely on - feedback from other consumers, critics’ reviews or something else entirely?
According to a recent YouGov survey for which consumers across 17 international markets were polled, people favor consumer reviews considerably more than critic reviews. While more than two in five consumers (42%) rely on consumer reviews, just 5% give a preference for critic reviews and a third (33%) say they rely on both equally.
Interestingly, compared to those who refer to critic reviews, a larger proportion of travellers (12%) are likely to ditch both the opinions of consumers and critics. Perhaps, they rely on their own travel experiences and judgement?
Moving on to data from individual markets surveyed, we see that consumers in the UAE are most likely (11%) across all markets to check critic reviews when choosing travel accommodation, followed by those in India (10%) and Mexico (9%). In Europe, the French (6%) and Danes (6%) are most likely to do so, while consumers in Poland (2%) and the US (3%) are least likely across markets to rely on critic reviews for travel accommodation.
Spaniards account for the largest proportion (56%) of those across markets who say they rely on reviews from other consumers when it comes to travel accommodation. Italians (54%), Poles (49%) and Mexicans (48%) follow Spaniards in their choice of consumers reviews. In Asia, Indonesians account for the largest proportion of those 44%) who prefer going through consumers reviews for travel accommodation.
In the US, more than a third (35%) rely on consumers reviews for travel accommodation as well. Britons (45%) are more likely than Americans to do so. In an earlier piece, we discussed how a majority of Britons prefer staying in hotels when on holiday, followed by putting up with friends or family.
Nearly half of all Singaporeans (47%) like a bit of both worlds - they rely on reviews from consumers and critics equally for travel accommodation. Hong Kong (46%), Indonesia (42%), UAE (40%) and India (40%) are some of the other markets consumers are most likely to say they rely on both sources equally.
Finally, two in ten consumers in the US (20%) and Germany (20%) claim that they rely neither on consumer feedback nor critic opinion when choosing travel accommodation, followed by France (18%) and Sweden (17%). Consumers in the Asian markets we survey are less likely to say they don’t rely on critic reviews or consumer reviews for travel accommodation. Nonetheless, Singaporeans (7%) are the most likely in this region to say this.
Consumer reviews are evidently the chosen lot, followed by a mix of both consumers and critic reviews, when it comes to travel accommodation - an insight that brands in the travel and tourism sector could action by focussing on highlighting their consumers’ experiences, feedback and reviews.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 500 and 2002 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in February 2024. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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