America's Worst Hotel

Companies and Brands

Published: April 22, 2023 7:55 am

There are about 91,000 hotels in the U.S. It has been one of the most profitable parts of the travel industry for most of the last several decades. The COVID-19 pandemic nearly destroyed it. Travel activity nearly halted. Hotels laid off tens of thousands of people. The problem, which started in March 2021, persisted for the rest of the year. As the industry recovered, one trend was that Americans favored some hotel chains over others. That is the conclusion of a new American Customer Satisfaction Index.

ACSI recently released its Travel Study 2022-2023. The research covered airlines, car rentals, hotels, and online travel agencies. It was based on interviews with 10,588 customers, chosen randomly and contacted via email between April 2022 and March 2023.

The ratings were based on check-out experience, room cleanliness, quality of amenities and hotel services, mobile apps, ease of making reservations, and experiences of call centers.

The study reviewed 15 hotel brands on a scale of zero to 100. Most hotels had ratings in the mid-70s. The highest-rated brand was AC Hotels, which Marriott owns. It received a grade of 82. Marriott owned three of the top four brands–AC Hotels, Marriott, and Aloft.

The brand on the bottom was Days Inn, owned by Wyndham. It also had the second-lowest brand, which was Baymont. It received a grade of 71. (This is the least successful hotel chain.)

Days Inn is a budget hotel chain. In general, the rate per night is under $200.

It may be that the price point of Wyndham Hotels sets a low bar. Even with that low bar, people don’t like it. (These are America’s most hated insurance companies, ranked.)