Which State Has the Happiest Travelers?

Although the phrase "Laissez les bons temps rouler" (let the good times roll) has come to be synonymous with New Orleans, especially around Mardi Gras, it looks like the general joviality behind the sentiment could be more of a statewide ethos, rather than just another catchy slogan-turned-marketing phrase.

If you’re traveling, you’ll definitely want to do so in the company of Louisianans, who have been deemed the nation’s happiest travelers, according to a study by RewardExpert, a travel rewards analysis company.

The study, in which RewardExpert set out to determine which state has the grumpiest residents, was conducted using hard data from nearly one million TripAdvisor reviews of more than 4,000 hotels in the U.S.

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By tabulating the overall number of negative ratings that earned a one or two (on a scale of one to five), positive ratings (four and five), as well as other data-driven factors, RewardExpert determined which states’ residents were most likely to be happy (or not) with their hotel stay, with some surprising details emerging.

Among them, the happiest travelers in the nation tend to reside in the South Atlantic and Midwest regions, while many of the crankiest travelers can be found living along the west coast.

Based on both relatively high scores (an average hotel rating of 4.18 across the board) as well as a low number of negative reviews posted, Louisianans took the top spot for the state with the happiest and most-satisfied travelers.

Following right behind Louisiana, Mississippi clocked in with the second-happiest traveling citizens. Rounding out the list were New Hampshire, Delaware, Iowa, Alabama, North Dakota, New Jersey, Wisconsin and Florida, respectively.

While New Jersey is the geographical exception to the top ten list and seemingly an unlikely candidate for happy travelers, RewardExpert posits that perhaps the general contentment in New Jersey is driven by the fact that the state is the wealthiest in the nation as well as being home to the largest percentage of highly educated residents.

So where do the grumpiest travelers reside?

It turns out the most discontented travelers don’t technically even live in a state. That’s right, the denizens of Washington, D.C. were among the most likely in the entire country to file a one- or two-star rating—doing so for 14.25 percent of all TripAdvisor reviews they posted.

In second place, residents of Colorado also displayed a high level of dissatisfaction with their hotel accommodations.

A large number of people residing along the left coast also found themselves among the nation’s crankiest travelers, including those in Oregon (#3), California (#4) and Washington (#8.)

Completing the unhappy list, residents of Arizona (#5), Nevada (#6), Massachusetts (#7), New York (#9) and Kentucky (#10) were also the least likely to be satisfied with their hotel accommodations.

Interestingly, RewardExpert notes that seven of the top eight states with the grumpiest travelers also happen to be states that have recently legalized the use of recreational cannabis. Of all states legalizing marijuana use, only Alaska (#21) and Maine (#32) did not make the list of orneriest travelers.

To learn more about the study, view the RewardExpert methodology.