Third-party hotel management companies play an integral role in the guest experience, and taking note of what they do well and not so well in regard to guest satisfaction can aid the evolution of their operations.
Several years ago, J.D. Power started a report to benchmark its hospitality data to zoom in on key elements for hotel operators that manage hotels for different owners. The latest report, the 2025 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark, came out this month with key findings on food-and-beverage programs, service and more.
"The third-party operators really are hiring the staff, they are managing the revenue, they are trying to put heads in beds," Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at J.D. Power, shared on a recent episode of the CoStar News Hotels podcast.
The report landed on three key findings, the first examining hotel guests' wavering experiences with food-and-beverage concepts at hotels. Stokes said that while guests are eating at hotel restaurants more lately than they were a few years ago during the pandemic, they aren't necessarily happy with their experiences.
"Prices have gone up — not only room rates, but prices at restaurants ... when that happens, I think hotel guests have higher expectations," she said. "When you're paying more, you expect more, and you expect better food, better service."
Consistent maintenance of hotel facilities — such as the lobby, hallways, pools and other areas — also remains in focus for guest satisfaction, the report found. Stokes acknowledged that in recent years, owners might have procrastinated on renovation projects, and the report found that guests are affected by the conditions of the property during their stays.
"It's really important that owners and operators make sure they're keeping up with these investments," she said. "I realize that it's difficult in this time of continuous inflation and rising costs, but it is important that hotel operators can make sure that these areas are being maintained properly."
On the positive side, guests are mostly satisfied with their guest room appearance and with staff service.
Stokes said that the report evolves every year to remain relevant, and her team has already added in questions about how guests are using artificial intelligence.
For the 2026 survey, "we actually have added a couple questions around our guests using AI to search for hotels or in researching hotels," Stokes said. "We've added a question about using online chat to make reservations, for example. ... Even if something is maybe really new and maybe not a huge trend yet, we'd like to start measuring it now so that we can follow that trend year after year as it might grow and become more important to the industry over time."
For more from J.D. Power's Andrea Stokes, listen to the podcast embedded above.