Scores Improve Significantly In Results Of Annual J.D. Power Hotel Survey Of Guest Satisfaction
from 2009,” according to J.D.
Power and Associates global
hospitality and travel practice
director Mark Schwartz.
In the luxury tier, Ritz-Carlton scored 861 on a 1,000-point
scale, besting last year’s top
brand, Four Seasons Hotels
and Resorts, which scored 848
points. Marriott International’s
JW Marriott brand also secured
a score above the tier average of
830, while Fairmont Hotels &
Resorts, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, W Hotels and
Loews Hotels all drew scores
below the tier’s average.
Omni Hotels topped the upscale segment with a score of
817. It was followed by Hilton
Worldwide’s Embassy Suites
brand, which had led the tier
for three years prior. Other
high scorers in the tier included
Marriott’s Renaissance brand
and flagship brand and Starwood Hotels & Resorts’ Wes-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6.
tin brand and newly introduced
Aloft brand.
In the extended stay tier, Hilton’s Homewood Suites brand
overtook last year’s top brand,
InterContinental Hotels Group’s
Staybridge Suites, though both
improved their scores compared
with last year, Schwartz said.
Marriott’s Residence Inn brand
rounded out the top three in
that tier.
Hilton Garden Inn topped the
midprice full-service tier for
the second year in a row, scoring 817 points. Hyatt Hotels and
Resorts’ rapidly growing Hyatt
Place brand was close behind,
and Marriott’s Courtyard brand,
Starwood’s Four Points by
Sheraton brand and Wyndham
Hotels & Resorts’ Wyndham
Garden Hotels also scored above
the tier’s average.
In the midprice limited-service
tier, Drury Inn & Suites scored
the highest in its tier for the
fifth year in a row. Several other
Luxury
Upscale
Extended
Stay
Midprice
Full-Service
Midprice
Limited-
Service
Economy
Ritz-Carlton Omni
Homewood
Suites
Hilton Garden
Inn
Drury Inn &
Suites
Microtel Inns & Suites
Four Seasons
Hotels &
Resorts
Embassy
Suites
Staybridge
Suites
Hyatt Place
SpringHill
Suites
Howard Johnson
JW Marriott
Renaissance
Hotels &
Resorts
Residence Inn
Courtyard by
Marriott
Hampton Inn Red Roof Inn
Source: J.D. Power and Associates’ 2010 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study
brands also received scores that
were above the tier’s average.
They included Marriott’s Sprin-
gHill Suites and Fairfield Inn,
Hilton’s Hampton Inn, Wynd-
ham’s Wingate and InterConti-
nental’s Holiday Inn Express.
AA, BA Get Antitrust Immunity
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4.
were competitors and econom-
ically we still are competitors.
That move from competitive
working to partnership is eas-
ily said, and relatively difficult
to deliver.”
American CEO Gerard
Arpey added, “While we’ve
had a very impactful and great
partnership with British Air-
ways, we have been fighting a
huge battle to get customers to
ride on American and not ride
on British Airways, even though
they’re our partner. So, one of the
first seminal things that happens
in that deal is that we don’t care
about that anymore.”
The Oneworld partners were
the last to apply for antitrust
immunity in the latest round
of efforts, though the carriers
have not had good luck with
regulators prior to that attempt.
British Airways and American
Airlines in January 2002 re-
tracted their second applica-
tion for antitrust immunity
after regulators demanded they
surrender 224 weekly slots at
London Heathrow Airport. The
two carriers also failed in 1999
to obtain what they considered
acceptable terms for antitrust
immunity.
DOT’s final antitrust immu-
nity approval last month, how-
ever, maintained the conditions
placed on the carriers’ tentative
approval, requiring American
and British Airways to relin-
quish to competitors four daily
slot pairs at Heathrow Airport
“with two pairs to be used for
Boston-London service and
the other two for service from
any other U.S. cities,” DOT said,
while prior European Commis-
sion conditions required the
carriers to make slots available
“to facilitate the entry or expan-
sion of competitors on routes
between London and New York,
Boston, Dallas and Miami.”
“We’re obliged to
make slots available
to new entrants or
existing players, but
making available and
giving up are two
different things.”
“We’re obliged to make slots
available to new entrants or existing players on the routes, as
specified by the DOT and EU
rulings, but making available
and giving up are two different things,” BA’s Talling-Smith
said, noting the timing for such
a transaction would come next
summer and the carriers could
maintain the slots if competitors don’t come forward. ■
