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June 6, 2014 Reviews, Owner & Franchise Communications, GSS

GSS Returns to Accountability July 1; Read About Revised GSS Thresholds and New Marriott Verified Reviews

I wanted to share two important updates with you regarding GSS, the guestVoice platform, and guest reviews:

Earlier this year, guestVoice introduced a shorter, mobile-friendly guest feedback survey with revised measures. The GSS component of the Quality Assurance program was suspended January through June 2014 to allow time for properties to learn guestVoice and to provide time to assess the impact to key GSS metrics. Accountability to GSS thresholds will resume July 1 for the July through December 2014 tracking period using the following thresholds:

 Green Clear Yellow Red
 68.0+ 67.9-54.0 53.9-51.0 Below 51.0

For more details about the logic behind the new thresholds and future updates, jump down.

In an effort to further leverage customer feedback and improve business results, around the same time as returning to accountability we will launch the newest enhancement to guestVoice: Marriott Verified Reviews. Starting in July, we will leverage the guestVoice survey by appending an optional Verified Reviews form upon survey completion. These reviews will be publicly viewable on Marriott.com starting in September.

For more details about Verified Reviews, jump down.

If you have any questions or concerns after reading through the details, please feel free to let myself or your account executive know.

Thank you,
Liam Brown
President, U.S. & Canada, Select Service & Extended Stay Lodging and Owner & Franchise Services

Return to Accountability

Revised Measurement
Among other changes with guestVoice, Overall Satisfaction and all other survey rankings are now calculated based on the top two box score (9/10) instead of the top three (8/9/10). Guests giving a score of 9 or 10 are much more likely to ‘definitely recommend’ a property (50% and 89% respectively) vs. only 16% for guests rating an 8. Striving for 8’s is not strong enough to drive guest loyalty or exceptional hotel performance. More information about the revised measurement is available on MGS.

New GSS Thresholds Overview
Thresholds for 2014 were set to achieve a distribution of scores similar to 2013 across brands and continents based on the guestVoice data available through mid-May. Our understanding of guest satisfaction as measured in the new survey will become more robust as data accumulates; therefore, GSS Thresholds will be re-evaluated in Q4 2014 to assess whether emerging trends warrant stronger or differentiated brand thresholds.

Should you have questions regarding the new GSS thresholds, please contact lqa@marriott.com.

What are Marriott Verified Reviews?
Reading traveler-generated reviews has become an important decision-making component of the online shopping process, especially among Gen Y customers. In fact, recent Marriott-sponsored research indicates nearly seven out of ten younger Gen Y’s (22-29) use review sites prior to booking.

These consumers can find many sources of review content about our hotels, primarily on OTA or review sites like TripAdvisor. And now, like other major hotel companies, Marriott will be making this relevant content publicly viewable on our hotel websites in the form of Verified Reviews – our own rating and review initiative for Marriott.com. Posting verified stay reviews on Marriott.com benefits Marriott’s digital strategies in many ways:

  • Improving site engagement and conversion, especially among Gen Y
  • Providing credible, easy-to-use and relevant website content to our users
  • Boosting our site’s natural search rankings, as search engines are placing greater relevance on user-generated content like reviews

How do Marriott Verified Reviews work?
Verified Reviews consists of three important touch-points: Collect, Respond & Distribute

  • Collect (Early July): Leverages the guestVoice survey by appending an optional Verified Reviews form at survey completion. This form provides guests the ability to write a public-facing review and rate their stay.
  • Respond (Early July): Once collected, Verified Reviews feedback will appear as a new source within the guestVoice Social Media dashboard. Hotels can review all Verified Review feedback, and any authorized associate will be able to create a public-facing response in-platform. Response criteria is consistent with existing guestVoice workflows and guidelines:
    • Alerts will trigger on negative/neutral reviews (rating of three or below). Response to some positive reviews is encouraged as well.
    • 48-hour response time.
    • Estimated alert volume is an additional one-three alerts per month, based on current guestVoice survey completion quotas.
  • Distribute (Beginning September): Verified Reviews will appear on Marriott.com hotel websites. Before going live on Marriott.com, every review submission will undergo a rigorous moderation process. Hotels must have at least five “moderation-passed” reviews before they appear on the hotel’s website.

Verified Reviews will only be collected through English-language guestVoice surveys at this time. Reviews will be posted on Marriott.com only.

Action Items and Next Steps
To prepare for the launch of Verified Reviews, properties will need to participate in training (mid-June) and review all Verified Reviews materials on MGS.

Please read the FAQs for additional details