Skift Take
There's a very careful consideration to be made here by hoteliers, and even if guests don't use a particular amenity as much as they think they will, that doesn't necessarily mean that a hotel should get rid of it.
Our anticipated use of certain hotel amenities is often greater than our actual use, according to the findings of a new study from the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration's Center for Hospitality Research.
More often than not, researchers found, guests expect to use certain amenities such as an alarm clock, spa, and in-room dining than they actually do use them. And for other amenities, such as lobby seating, valet parking, and concierge service, guests tend to underestimate their use.
To calculate anticipated versus actual use of amenities, researchers gathered data from a total of 724 guests who stayed at 33 different hotels in the U.S., operated by six different hotel brands that are all owned by the same undisclosed hotel company. The six brands included one upscale hotel brand, two upper upscale brands, and three luxury hotel brands.
The study examined a total of 50 different hotel amenities, which could be loosely divided into in-room amenities (bottled water, Internet access, a safe) and hotel-service amenities (valet parking, bellhops, a concierge desk), as well as into amenities that serve utilitarian purposes (such as a safe or a working desk), versus those that are more hedonic (such as a spa or a bar) in nature. Researchers also looked at whether there were differences in anticipated versus actual use of certain amenities among females and males, and among business and leisu
