Art Series Hotels reviews guests: Research shows badly behaving hotel guests flash passers-by and steal

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This was published 8 years ago

Art Series Hotels reviews guests: Research shows badly behaving hotel guests flash passers-by and steal

By Kylie McLaughlin
Updated
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An Australian hotel chain has devised a novel concept to punish hotel guests for their bad behaviour, and reward those who conduct themselves well.

A new study, conducted by independent company Galaxy Research, revealed that while guest behaviour is better than what most people expect, some still get cheap thrills out of parading naked in front of windows and commit petty theft under the veil of anonymity.

It also showed that the wealthiest guests were also the most rude.

Women are generally the best hotel guests.

Women are generally the best hotel guests.Credit: iStock

Commissioned by the Art Series Hotel Group, the survey's interesting results have propelled the Group into action, trialling a TripAdvisor-style system whereby hotel staff review the guests.

Those with the best behaviour will be rewarded a five star review, earning them a free stay.

The system, called Reverse Reviews, will be trialled at Art Series Hotels from April 17 to May 31 and guests can opt in to participate.

If you're a male from Sydney, you're more likely to leave your hotel room looking like this.

If you're a male from Sydney, you're more likely to leave your hotel room looking like this.

Reverse Reviews will help formalise the process of upgrades: meaning the further you go to improve a hotel staff member's day, the more likely you'll be rewarded with an upgrade to a penthouse, for example.

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Their behaviour will be assessed and ranked using a point system and published online.

It's the little things that count: hotel guests potentially looking to charm staff for a good review should begin with day-to-day pleasantries, such as putting a sign outside your door when you are ready to have your room cleaned.

If you want to go that extra mile, opt to have your linen changed less frequently, and keep your dirty towels in a pile.

Art Series Hotel Group Marketing Director Ryan Tuckerman said the program is in response to the huge uptake of online review sites such as TripAdvisor.

"With more than 40 million reviews of hotels and restaurants on TripAdvisor alone, Reverse Reviews flips the process on its head and provides a way for us to recognise and reward good behaviour in a fun and light-hearted way.

"We are really proud of our review results and it's no secret that hotels are incredibly competitive on these sites. We think our guests will respond in the same way.

"More than 60 per cent of our penthouse stays are already deriving from upgrades and 'comps', so now we're looking at rewarding our best customers in a more formal and structured way."

What the new study found:

- Women are (slightly) better behaved than men

- It is widely believed the most common acts of bad behaviour are stealing items (19 per cent) and not declaring mini bar items on departure (18 per cent).

- 30 per cent of hotel guests surveyed have participated in some form of anti-social behaviour, such as walking in front of windows naked (20 per cent) and small scale hotel theft (10 per cent)

- Women from Queensland with incomes less than $40k are less likely to trash hotel rooms than men from Sydney

- The wealthier you are the more likely you are to be rude to hotel staff (76 per cent of people with incomes of $90K and more)

- The poorer you are the less likely you are to take an item without paying.

According to the results of this survey, women make better hotel guests than men in general. They are less likely to steal from the mini-bar, trash the room of flash themselves to passers-by.

The perfect hotel guest is ideally a woman aged 50 plus, from regional Victoria or Tasmania, married with no children, working in blue collar jobs with income of $40k or less per year.

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