Better no breakfast in a #budget hotel

For years they are one of the top hot topics in tourism talks: Budget hotels seem to turn over the whole industry and make even high standard properties rethink their strategies.

A German market research institute has done a study of the budget hotel market to evidence the striking success of the cheap challengers. Nine popular central European budget hotel groups were checked by mystery shoppers.

What mainly impressed the inspectors was that you cannot lump them all together. Five times each group was visited unheraldedly at different locations.
The focus of the study is on service conditions: Can one expect the same friendly personnel and good quality as with renowned premium products? Yes and no: For example, the quality of breakfast was varying strongly. 45 percent of the checks resulted in "not sufficient" coffee and etc.
Another key problem is communications: An in-room phone was available only in 55 percent of the hotels, and this is a feature widely expected even among budget travellers.
Another deficit the study points out is missing facilities such as lockers, minibar or fridge. More than 30 percent of the checked locations did not have any of those convenience features.

On the contrary, TV and towels after all have been registered everywhere.

To read the full article, click here.

The upcoming event – the 4th Annual Economy Hotels World Asia, taking place in Singapore this Sep 10-12th, will bring together over 100 property developers/owners, investors international and local operators and hospitality solution providers to identify development and partnership opportunities in economy hotel segment. Download the preliminary program and find out what you could expect from this economy hotel industry gathering.