Results from Redesigned Owner & Franchise Satisfaction Survey
Feedback from our owner and franchise partners is crucial to our continued mutual success. As you know, we seek feedback on an ongoing basis through informal conversations with you, as well as through our owner and franchise advisory boards and the annual Owner & Franchise Satisfaction Survey.
This year’s survey was designed to be significantly shorter and easier to complete than in past years. It was available via mobile and, given the length reduction, should have taken respondents only 10-15 minutes to complete versus an estimated 60+ minutes to complete with the previous survey format. Also as a result of this new format, we saw an increased response rate as compared to prior years, and we’d like to thank those of you who completed the survey for your valuable feedback.
We use the results from this survey, along with other feedback we receive, to identify what is working well and where there are opportunities for improvement and additional collaboration.
Key Themes
Strengths
We were pleased that this year’s survey results showed positive feedback on the strength of our brands. We also heard your strong preference for our brands and – if given the opportunity – preference to develop a Marriott ‘flag’ nearly 4 to 1 over other choices.
Additionally, we have worked to improve our account structure to ensure that all accounts have a point of contact within Marriott. We were pleased to see that relationships continue to stand out as a positive area, as evidenced by your satisfaction with our ongoing partnership and support.
Opportunity Areas
This year’s survey validated our need to continue to focus on revenue management systems and tools, distribution strategy, and technology. We continue to be thoughtful and purposeful on where we invest time and resources, and appreciate your support of our Digital and Mobile Strategies. As our target customer evolves, we have been focused on digital and mobile and have seen positive guest feedback on these strategies, particularly from next gen travelers.
We also understand your need for access to data to support and manage your hotels. With that in mind, we have deployed tools that enable reporting, tracking, planning and a platform for communications, including:
- guestVoice: Marriott’s global guest feedback program provides a dashboard to measure performance and track responses, and enables users to understand root causes and themes of guest issues across their portfolio of hotels.
- Quarterly Game Plans: These brand-specific “radar screens” are developed to provide a 90-day view of what Marriott’s brands and disciplines will be asking of hotels, including action items and webinars.
- mi360: This site is intended for above-property owners and franchisees and provides a platform for sharing brand, marketing, social media, and industry news as well as information on Marriott’s owner & franchise advisory councils, webinars & events, and important owner & franchise communications.
We continue to look for opportunities to improve access to reporting and other information to help you support your hotels and hope to launch additional tools as well as enhancements to tools such as mi360 in the coming months.
Next Steps
We value and encourage your feedback throughout the year. The next Owner & Franchise Satisfaction Survey will be sent out this fall and we encourage all of you to participate. Thank you once again for your feedback, and please let us know if you have any thoughts or questions prior to the survey this fall.