Benchmarking

In order to assure that all boards are of similar length, carpenters used to carve a mark into their working bench. ‘The benchmark’. Nowadays a benchmark has become a score number that should be matched or exceeded in order to be registered as sufficient or good.

Companies that look for excellent service, are often focused on achieving benchmarks. However, when the benchmark was introduced within a hotel chain, hotel directors would typically say: ‘But my hotel is different!’ And indeed, they are right! Because, hotels in different types of locations have to cater to different customers and different customer needs. Take for instance an Airport hotel where guests typically leave with the crack of dawn. For them a breakfast is not that important, especially not when it is laid out around 8:00 a.m. However, for the holiday guests of a beach hotel a big breakfast is part of their ultimate holiday experience. In other words, it is not realistic to apply one standard for all different types of hotels.

The application of a benchmark can, however, be applied with some adjustments for hotel types. The benchmark than functions as the minimal score that must be achieved for each aspect. Fortunately there exists also an ‘Overall’ benchmark, like the NPS, that measures objectively the ‘overall guest experience’.

Based on 10 years of research among hotel chains, Market Vision has developed a unique benchmarking system, whereby hotel performances within ‘hotels chains’ are made comparable.