Emiratis named toughest critics for online hotel reviews
A new survey by accommodation booking site Agoda.com reveals that Emirati travellers are the toughest critics when it comes to how they rate hotels in the site’s online reviews.
Agoda’s Travel Smarts survey shows the nationalities that give the best and worst hotel review scores on average. In order to leave a review for a property on Agoda, guests rate hotels in six categories, scoring them 0 out of 10, which is aggregated to create the final review rating.
The global average review that guests leave on Agoda.com is 8.52 (out of a possible 10). The results of this year’s survey (conducted in July) showed that guests from the UAE gave scores a full .32 points lower in their reviews than other travellers, Hotelier Middle East reported.
Japanese, Omani and Indian guests also give hotel review scores significantly lower than the norm.
Guests from Russia were the most generous with their reviews, giving hotels .56 review points higher than average.
Egyptian, Irish, Polish and Chinese guests also give significantly higher scores.
Travelers from Spain, Denmark, Canada, South Africa, Bahrain, Taiwan and South Korea submit reviews with scores closest to the global average. Their scores fall within .04 points of the norm.
John Brown, chief operating officer at Agoda.com said: “Our customers are from all over the world so our ratings will reflect the average. Travelers from different countries tend to have different review rating standards depending on their travel patterns, spending power, and just general likes and dislikes.”
