See Results re: DVC in Industry Survey

[BeantownDisneyFan]

Market Metrix Announces First Quarter 2005 Hospitality Index Results
Customer Satisfaction with hotels drops for first time since 9-11

First-Ever Measure of Satisfaction With Vacation Clubs Places Disney Vacation Clubs on Top

Press Release: Market Metrix, LLC
May 18, 2005
SAN RAFAEL, CA -- Market Metrix, LLC, the leading provider of market research services for the hospitality industry, May 17 announced results of the Market Metrix Hospitality Index (MMHI) for the first quarter of this year. Ritz-Carlton, JetBlue Airways and Enterprise Rent-A-Car ranked number one in hotel, airline and rental car industry customer satisfaction, respectively.

For the first time since 9/11, in a year-over-year comparison, guest satisfaction was down or flat across all hotel segments except for Extended Stay. The biggest losers were in the Casino and Luxury segments with drops of -2.3% and -0.9% respectively.

Why the downturn? Has the industry simply recovered to pre-9/11 levels and is now starting to flatten out? Or, has the rather quick upturn in business caught hotels off-guard in terms of staffing and amenities? Probably a combination...but other industries are also down in customer satisfaction. In the past six months, retail, financial services, and e-commerce all have received dramatically lower customer ratings according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

For hotels, and especially companies and properties that are fighting to keep pace, continuing declines in customer satisfaction will further influence demand and consumer price tolerance. Dissatisfied guests are more price sensitive and less likely to return.

Vacation Clubs

To recognize their continuing growth, Vacation Clubs was added as a new category in Q1 2005. For Q1 2005, as a group, customer satisfaction with Vacation Clubs (87.4) was second only to the Extended Stay segment (87.9).

The winner was Disney Vacation Club (92.1) followed by Trendwest Resorts (88.6). Interestingly, vacation club travelers report feeling more 'Practical' (82.3) than Extended Stay customers (80.3) and more Welcome (90.5) than even Luxury (89.8) guests.

MMHI Top-Hospitality Rankings Q1 2005

Hotel - Overall
Ritz-Carlton

Airline
JetBlue Airways

Car Rental
Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Luxury Hotels
Ritz-Carlton

Upper Upscale
Kimpton Hotels

Upscale Hotels
SpringHill Suites

Midscale w/ F&B
Holiday Inn Select

Midscale w/o F&B
Wingate Inn

Economy Hotels
Jameson Inns

Extended-Stay Hotels
Homewood Suites

Vacation Clubs
Disney Vacation Club

Upscale Casino
Venetian

Casino
Rio

Hotel Reservations Website – Hotel Brand
Sleep Inn

Hotel Reservations Website – Travel
Yahoo! Travel
(w/o F&B = without food & beverage)
About MMHI
The Market Metrix Hospitality Index is a quarterly report of customer satisfaction with hotel, airline and car rental companies based on 35,000 in- depth consumer interviews. The MMHI ranks top hospitality brands by industry and, for hotels, by categories such as luxury, mid-price and economy. Detailed, in-depth and customized reports are available for subscribers. No other customer satisfaction index offers MMHI's reporting frequency, volume of customer interviews, cross-industry results or innovative satisfaction measures.

About Market Metrix
Market Metrix, LLC was founded in 1996 by partners Jonathan Barsky, Ph.D., and Lenny Nash to provide the hospitality industry with better customer and employee satisfaction measurement programs and management tools. In addition to MMHI, Market Metrix provides clients with award-winning survey systems and strategic services. Market Metrix also operates the Consumer Research Center, which provides focus group services, data entry services and a state-of-the- art specialty call center. Based in San Rafael, Calif., Market Metrix is partner-owned and has 50 employees. For more information, log onto www.marketmetrix.com or call 1-800-239-7515.
----------------------------

CONTACT
Krishna Amin
Phone: 415-721-1300

ORGANIZATION
Market Metrix
http://www.marketmetrix.com/
1299 Fourth Street Suite 402
USA - San Rafael, CA 94901
Phone: 1-800-239-7515
Fax: 1-415-721-1314
Email: info@marketmetrix.net
Source: Market Metrix, LLC

 

[dianeschlicht]

Interesting, but probably not surprising. I was a bit surprised Shell vacation culb wasn't part of that, because I know a lot of their sites are pretty good too. I believe that is what Kona Coast Resort is part of.

 

[Fenceman]

Our local news did a report on unscrupulous practices by Timeshares and they featured Fairfield sales people making up things just to sell the units. They also had a number of reports to state attorney generals stating that Fairfield did not give promised gifts to people that went through the sales pitch (free dinners, free nights, ect...). No wonder they did not make the list.

 

[Granny]

I'm not clear on whether they define "Vacation Clubs" as those set up only like Disney (points, reservations, etc) or if they are including traditional timeshares. I'm not familiar with TrendWest Resorts, the only other vacation club they mention.

 

[bcvillastwo]

Thanks to the OP for putting this information out for the rest of us to examine. It's interesting that DVC was at the top of it's category given some of the grumbling that goes on from time to time. In my view this "industry survey" reflects what I believe many of us alreay know and experience--DVC is a pretty good deal in most respects and that overall DVC members are content with DVC.

Does this mean there aren't problems, no not at all. Does it mean that we shouldn't express our concerns so that problems are corrected ASAP, no not all all. To me what it means is that sometimes even when things seem the worst (an in that moment for us may it is the worst) if we keep things in perspective (e.g., that DVC has the highest satisfaction rating in it's industry area) then perhaps it may just minimize our agravation and cause us to believe that overall the problem we are experiencing may just be a fluke, someone having a bad day, or simply circumstances beyond someones control (or all of the above).

Good job DVC.

 

[ColoradoBelle1]

Yea DVC!!!!! Always love hearing WELCOME HOME

As for Fairfield, I just toured their Bonnet Creek Resort. I got everything gift wise they promised. I was told my hotel stay would have 2 Queen beds and it didn't ....so when I went to pick up my voucher ($50 for 3 nights, $25 food coupon, 2 Disney 1 day passes with plus option...a great deal from SkyAuction) they asked if I wanted to be 'upgraded'....I said sure, for free, but they wanted money so I declined. The guy there wasn't all that friendly.

At the presentation, I was told that Fairfield was SMOKE FREE across the board by the salemen. When I met with an exec tho...he had the salesman come back to clarify that Fairfield is really nonsmoking requested from their guests, but that guests can do what they want. Which is a far cry from smoke free which would mean they enforce nonsmoking policy. There were one or two other exaggerations and misclaims, the most glaring that they only sold two options 300,000 or 400,000 points (which gave you a bunch of discounts like needing 25% fewer points than designated on the point chart.
But when I said I was interested in a smaller amount, the exec finally came up with one....84,000 which would be similar to DVC 150 points.

Then, when I said I 'd think about it, I was offered 300,000 points to try for almost free (the amount paid would be deducted from the sales price and I'd get to use 300,000 points over 18 months for virtually free. I sure almost bit at that, but then I went to the front desk of the hotel and tried to book something and there was just no availability in October!!!!! So what's the good of points if you can't use em, although I'm sure Fairfield would say that I could use them worldwide so .....

Anyway...I felt that Fairfield was better than Westgate which is th eonly other timeshare presentation that I've done. I'd do it again to get the 'gifts' especially the 3 nights that I only used 2 nights of before checking into Disney DVC. They don't like it that you might have researched and when they realize that you know the game, they pretty much don't try to hardsell ya and let you go with you your gifts!