Hotel Guests' Most Common Complaints

IMAGECAPTION] PHOTO: Your complaints have been heard. (photo via Flickr/Elizabeth Greene)

Thanks to a sleek app, we have a unique look at the kinds of complaints logged by travelers.

ALICE is a hospitality app that streamlines performance and maintenance efficiency throughout hotels, luxury residential locations, co-working spaces, vacation rentals and concierge services.

It recently made findings available of the top ten most prevalent requests and complaints from guests at hotels running the ALICE app.

The list illustrates that guests have a very real expectation of comfort when it comes to their rooms. Far above things like extra towels and Wi-Fi is the temperature of the room, which was the top complaint of this app’s findings.

Essentially, ALICE pulled hundreds of thousands of  “tickets”—various guest requests that inevitably turn into work orders. For example, a ticket might stem from someone asking for the room to be cleaned. This would inevitably make its way to the cleaning staff that would see the request through the app.

ALICE President and Co-Founder Alex Shashou explained the impetus behind the innovation back in 2015: 

“What we realized is there’s a lack of mobile technology on the guest side but the real inefficiency you’re experiencing is coming from the back end. The hotel could be running anywhere from three to five systems and they’re all disconnected legacy systems. So, we started out making a guest app, but we really quickly realized that there was an equivalent if not greater need to solve the back end piece at the same time.”

CNN took a close look at ALICE and explained the process in a piece from 2016.

Guests can also use the app, witnessing first hand when their request is being worked on and also getting the opportunity to chime in throughout the process.

ALICE took the tickets marked as “guest complaints” and compiled them together, highlighting the 10 most common occurrences in its app:

—24% of guests feel too hot or too cold in their rooms

—14% of guests are unable to connect to the Wifi or feel that it is too slow

—11% of guests feel that there is too much noise heard from the room

—10% of guests feel that in their rooms are not clean enough

—9% of guests experience slow or unsatisfactory service

—6% of guests experience problems with charges, payment and booking expectations

—6% of guests feel that their room is too small

—5% of guests feel that there was a security lapse in their room

—3% of guests encounter maintenance issues in their room (radiator breakdowns, air conditioner leaks, TV spoilt)

—3% of guests encounter maintenance issues in their bathroom (sink clogged, pipes are dripping)

With data flowing freely nowadays, it makes sense that Wi-Fi would be a priority—albeit not the biggest one when most people simply peruse social media on their phones with unlimited plans.

The real shock is that nearly a quarter of people think they are either melting or freezing in their room.

It’s really surprising when you consider most hotels allow you to control your own thermostat. Then there’s the fact that there is nothing, and I mean nothing, like bundling up under the covers as you pump up the AC. (You have never slept so well.)

Slow service is well down the list, encountered just about 10 percent of the time someone complains, which might be a testament to the efficacy of the system.

READ MORE: The Only Difficult Thing About This Hotel is Leaving

As it has shown over the last couple years, staff can correspond with one another far more seamlessly than with classic methods.

Guests also get the transparency they desire in seeing that their needs are being met in an expedient manner.

Sadly, there is nothing the app can do about reminding you to pack a sweater for the room that occasionally feels like a freezer.

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