Mystery stays to check brand standards

What is shaping hospitality

Hotels, restaurants and travel brands are judged on every stay, meal and review. Guest experience, consistency and online reputation drive bookings.

• Online reviews strongly influence bookings
• Consistency across properties builds trust
• Guests expect personalised service

A luxury hotel brand, working in Switzerland, Italy, France & Spain. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A luxury hotel brand

Sector

Hospitality

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Offline data collection, Reporting & insights, Data analytics & dashboards

The brand promised a consistent luxury experience, but guests reported differences between properties, especially in personalisation and responsiveness. Management needed objective evidence before investing in training.

• Deliver on the brief: mystery stays to check brand standards.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of hotels.
• Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
• Set up a repeatable measure the client can track over time.

The work focused on 24 hotels.

• hotels24

Audiences we typically reach in hospitality

Guests and dinersCorporate travel buyersFront-line staffTravel agentsOnline reviewers

Coverage: Switzerland, Italy, France & Spain. Markets: Switzerland, Italy, France and Spain.

• Switzerland
• Italy
• France
• Spain

A structured quantitative design, so results could be compared across groups, locations and time.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Overnight mystery stays
3. 3Standard-by-standard scoring
4. 4Insight

Experienced assessors stayed overnight as normal guests, testing reservations, arrival, room readiness, in-room dining, concierge requests, spa and departure against more than 300 brand standards. Visits were conducted in the local language and in English. Detailed reports with photos were shared with general managers.

Offline data collectionReporting & insightsData analytics & dashboards

hotels

24

• Respondents were selected across Switzerland, Italy, France & Spain using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• Auditors and mystery shoppers followed a standard checklist, recording evidence at each visit.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Photo or document evidence for audit points
• Second-reviewer checks on scores
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking

• Physical standards were strong, but personalisation, such as using guests’ names and anticipating needs, was inconsistent.
• General managers also used the reports to recognise team members who delivered outstanding service.

Luxury depended on small human touches that only real stays could measure.

• Build on the core insight: luxury depended on small human touches that only real stays could measure.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: physical standards were strong, but personalisation, such as using guests’ names and anticipating needs, was inconsistent.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The brand introduced personalisation training and guest preference tracking, and scores in those areas improved in the following year.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interactive dashboard

• Continue the routine and review results every period.
• A natural follow-on question: are properties delivering brand standards?