Guest rankings can make or break hotels
Auckland and Christchurch boasted the top four luxury resorts in the country.
Smaller hotels and motels dominate a list of Loved By Guests awards compiled by hotel booking agency Hotels.com.
The list included hotels, motels and motor lodges and was based on millions of guest reviews of more than 2500 hotels in 87 countries.
Twenty-two New Zealand hotels achieved gold awards with a score of 4.7 stars or more.
Among the top five achieving 4.9 stars was Bluestone on George in Dunedin, whose owner Neville Butcher said it was very important to obtain good reviews to be competitive.
‘‘People look at the reviews all the time and that’s how they make their decisions. You can even search by the review rankings on the online booking agencies.’’
Butcher said the rankings don’t affect room pricing.
‘‘We put a lot of hard work into our operation. We’re a smaller property so we’re more closely involved and interact more with guests. Possibly it’s because we’re less reliant on staff so the standards are set by myself and my wife Sandra.’’
He acknowledged the major shift in guest bookings via the main agencies such as Expedia and Booking.com, which take a commission from each booking.
‘‘They produce marketing material in several languages to a world audience which we couldn’t do,’’ he said.
But Butcher also thought accommodation outlets were making more of their own direct marketing efforts.
The others in the top five included Kaikoura Cottage Motels, Equestrian Lodge Motels in Motueka, The Sails in Nelson, and Platinum Queenstown Villas.
Queenstown and Wanaka featured strongly, with seven hotels among the 22 winners.
Auckland and Christchurch boasted the top four luxury resorts in the country, while the Hilton Queenstown Resort and Spa took the spa category.
Overall, New Zealand took 23rd place in the world for top-rated hotels as voted by Hotels.com guests.
Hotels in the United States took most awards, with 969 properties being recognised. Other top countries included the United Kingdom (171 hotels), Italy (153), Canada (86) and Spain (70).