Most hotel operators still think guest satisfaction is mainly about service.
But new research shows something more fundamental: the indoor environment itself quietly drives up to one-third of guest ratings.
A recent study analyzing Booking.com reviews with NLP and behavioral theory found that indoor environmental quality (IEQ) explains 32.8% of ratings in budget hotels and 23.9% in luxury hotels. Cleanliness, air quality, acoustics, and space were especially decisive.
Interestingly, many of these factors are “basic expectations.”
Guests rarely praise them when they work well—but quickly complain when they don’t.
Another insight: after COVID-19, sensitivity to air quality, cleanliness, and spatial comfort increased significantly.
For anyone working with buildings, hospitality, or smart environments, this reinforces a simple point:
Indoor environmental quality isn’t a technical detail.
It’s a business variable.
And as monitoring technologies improve, IEQ is likely to become increasingly measurable—and therefore manageable—in real time.
Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036013232500616X?via%3Dihub