Satisfaction Up, Volume Flat, What’s Driving the Divide?

The first quarter of 2025 offered a nuanced picture for the global hospitality industry. Analysis reveals continued growth in global guest satisfaction, measured by the Global Review Index™ (GRI). Indeed, satisfaction levels briefly surpassed the 2019 benchmark of 86.4% in June of 2024.

Despite a typical seasonal dip in January, strong performance, particularly in March, pushed the Q1 2025 GRI to 86.7%, the highest in four years. However, this positive achievement contrasts with near-stagnant growth in review volume and significant regional variations. This analysis explores the crucial Guest Experience Trends Q1 2025, dissecting the data driving performance.

GRI Reaches New Heights

Global guest satisfaction (GRI) grew for the second consecutive year, showing sustained recovery. Q1 2025 saw a +0.4-point increase compared to the previous quarter’s end. Explore all key trends and insights in Shiji’s latest Guest Experience Benchmark Report here.

Review Volume Growth Falters

However, the picture for review volume is less robust. The first three months of 2025 showed only slight volume growth (+0.7%) compared to Q1 2024. This is considerably less than the 2.2% growth recorded in Q1 2024 versus Q1 2023. Several factors likely contributed to this meager growth. For instance, a reported 3% decrease in global demand, influenced by the timing of Chinese New Year and tourism slowdowns in key European cities like Barcelona, played a part.

Shifting Sands: Review Source Performance

Consequently, review generation varied significantly across sources compared to Q1 2024. Some sources experienced marked declines, notably Agoda (-16.6%) and Tripadvisor (-11.0%). Booking.com, which saw declines throughout 2024, dropped only 2.2%. Smaller sources, grouped as “Other,” lost substantial volume (-16.9% vs Q1 2024, and -23.5% vs Q1 2023). Conversely, other platforms showed strong growth: Hotels.com surged +38.2%, Expedia increased +27.0%, and Trip.com grew +18.4%.

Departmental Scores Show Mixed Results

Despite volume challenges, guest satisfaction trends were positive across most platforms. All major sources except Google (-0.4 points) showed GRI growth compared to Q1 2024. Key departmental indexes also improved over the past 15 months (comparing Q1 2025 to Q1 2024): Cleanliness rose significantly (+1.8 points), Room improved (+0.8 points), and Service edged up (+0.3 points). Only the Value index stalled, dropping slightly (-0.02 points) over the same period. Positive mentions also increased, growing +1.0 points year-over-year to reach 76.6%.

Global Review Index (GRI) Evolution, 2019 – Q1 2025, peaking at 86.7% in March 2025.

Engagement Efficiency: Management Response Soars

Furthermore, hotels continued to improve their engagement with reviews. The global management response rate saw impressive growth, increasing by 4.2 points to reach 69.2%. The improvement in average response time is even more striking. Hotels that previously took around 6 days to reply have drastically cut this time. The global average now is just 3.1 days, likely boosted by adopting artificial intelligence tools. Nonetheless, the negative trend in the Value for Money index across many markets warrants attention, as market uncertainty could heighten price sensitivity.

Regional Deep Dives

Asia

Asia remains the top-performing region based on GRI for 3-, 4-, and 5-star hotels. However, it was one of only two regions where review volume fell (-1.9% vs Q1 2024). This decline was primarily driven by volume decreases on Google (-13.7%) and Agoda (-12.1%). Notably, this marks Agoda’s first global volume decline in this region in three years (except in Oceania, where it grew +11.3%). The region’s 5-star segment showed signs of a slowdown, with GRI growth (+0.2 points) slightly below the regional average (+0.4 points) and minor index dips in Service (-0.1 points) and Value (-0.4 points).

Europe

The European market demonstrated solid performance. GRI increased by 0.5 points compared to Q1 2024, and review volume grew by 2.2%. This volume growth occurred despite significant drops from Tripadvisor (-8.8%), HolidayCheck (-12.5%) and Agoda (-31.6%). Booking.com continues its dominance with a 64.4% market share, followed by Google at 18.5%. Similar to Asia, Europe’s 5-star properties showed signs of pressure. Compared to Q1 2024, 5-star indexes declined for Service (-0.2 points), Cleanliness (-0.4 points), Room (-0.8 points), Value (-0.2 points), and Food & Beverage (-0.8 points).

Seasonal peaks characterize global review volume (2022-Q1 2025), but the slight increase in early 2025 reflects the slower growth noted in the Q1 2025 benchmark.

Latin America

This market faced challenges in Q1 2025. GRI growth stalled (+0.1% vs Q1 2024), and review volume significantly decreased (-4.2%). This volume loss stemmed from widespread negative trends across major sources: Agoda (-59.2%), Trip.com (-29.2%), Tripadvisor (-13.2%), Google (-9.9%), and Booking.com (-1.5%). Despite these difficulties, the percentage of positive mentions increased by 0.6 points to 73.8%. Also, the review response rate rose considerably by 7.7 points to reach 69.5%.

Africa

Africa was the only region with a negative GRI trend this quarter (-0.2% vs Q1 2024), mainly due to its 4-star category performance (-0.4 points). Conversely, it experienced strong review volume growth (+6.9%). However, key performance indicators declined compared to Q1 2024: Service dropped by 0.4 points, Value by 0.5 points and Cleanliness by 1.1 points. The review volume increase possibly contributed to a slight dip in the response rate, which fell 0.7 points to 71.1%. Interestingly, HolidayCheck’s positive global growth (+14.6%) was almost entirely driven by its performance in Africa (+43.0%), as it stalled or declined elsewhere.

Middle East

This region showed a significant performance divergence between 5-star hotels and other categories. The overall Q1 GRI growth (+0.4% vs Q1 2024) was primarily driven by 4-star hotels (+0.8 points), double the growth rate of 5-star properties. Review volume grew minimally (+0.4%), which is low for what is typically high season. Contributing factors include significant volume losses from Agoda (-43.9%), HolidayCheck (-22.9%), Tripadvisor (-16.4%), and Booking.com (-10.4%). In contrast, Hotels.com volume grew substantially (+34.4%). Encouragingly, the review response rate continued climbing, increasing 4.3 points to an impressive 83.1%.

North America

North America carried its positive 2024 momentum into Q1 2025. GRI showed strong growth (+0.7 points vs Q1 2024) alongside robust review volume growth (+6.3%). This volume increase was powered by positive performances from Google (+3.5%), Expedia (+28.4%), and Hotels.com (+37.3%). As a result, Expedia now commands over 30% (31.2%) of the review market share. Meanwhile, Booking.com lost 2.7 percentage points, settling at 24.0%. Similar to other regions, the 5-star segment showed signs of slowing down. Five-star hotel index scores dropped compared to Q1 2024 for Cleanliness (-1.1 points), Room (-1.5 points), and Value (-1.3 points).

Oceania

Oceania’s peak season partially overlapped with Q1, but performance remained positive. GRI grew by 0.6 points compared to Q1 2024, and review volume increased by 4.6%. Most major sources saw growth; only Tripadvisor (-23.6%) and HolidayCheck (-25.9%) registered declines. However, the region lags in review engagement. Its management response rate is relatively low at 55.4%, compared to the global average nearing 70%. Furthermore, its average response time still hovers around 4 days, while most other markets average below 3.5 days.

Conclusion

In summary, Q1 2025 affirmed the hotel industry’s capacity for guest satisfaction growth beyond pre-pandemic benchmarks. All-star categories contributed positively to this trend. Clear, distinguishable patterns led by regional trends are also evident, marking a shift from the more variable post-pandemic recovery phase.

While the minimal growth in review volume is a point to watch, improvements seen in February and March offer a potentially positive sign. Key operational indicators like Cleanliness, Room, and Service have shown marked improvement over the last 15 months. However, the stalled Value for Money index is a critical takeaway. Heightened price sensitivity, potentially exacerbated by recent world trade tariff developments, could challenge hotels.

Therefore, the upcoming quarter, encompassing major holidays, will rigorously test the industry’s ability to maintain satisfaction while effectively managing value perception. Continuing to monitor these guest experience trends will be essential.

Free Report: Guest Experience Benchmark Report 2025

The Guest Experience Benchmark Report 2025 provides a comprehensive analysis of global guest sentiment and hotel review performance, establishing 2024 as the new benchmark for the industry.

Click here to download the “Guest Experience Benchmark Report 2025”.