Hoteliers understandably focus a lot on improving the guest experience, but the truth is that many teams are still working with guesswork. You can pour money into renovations, change amenities, redo the breakfast offering, or refresh your rooms… and still watch your rating move in strange ways.
That uncertainty is frustrating, and it leaves teams without a clear sense of what actually matters.
The reality is that guests are already telling you. They explain what they love, what bothers them, and what affects their willingness to return. The problem is that this information is buried inside thousands of reviews, scattered across the internet, written in different languages, and mixed with edge cases that do not reflect the bigger picture.
This is where TrustYou CXP’s Impact Scores feature becomes the missing piece. They reveal what truly influences your rating and what has little effect at all. Once you see the data, the picture becomes very clear.
Guest Feedback Has Become a Decisive Factor
Travelers rely heavily on reviews when they choose where to stay. In fact, 95% read reviews before booking a stay. What’s more, 76% of travelers would pay more for a hotel with higher review scores. If two properties are offered at the same price, guests choose the one with a higher rating far more often.
If you are not using your feedback, your competitors are.
TrustYou CXP gathers every survey, every online review, and every social mention in one place. The platform analyzes the text using semantic AI-powered intelligence that understands both context and emotion.
Still, the Impact Scores feature within the platform goes deeper. It swiftly identifies which categories such as bathrooms, service, WiFi, location, beds, etc., have the strongest pull on your score. Some categories lift your rating, while others quietly drag it down.
Why Impact Scores Cut Through The Noise
A general review score does not tell you what needs fixing or your staff’s attention. A hotel might receive hundreds of comments about service and only a few about specifics like the pool or mattress quality. Without context, you have no sense of where to prioritize.
Impact Scores, however, evaluate based on several factors, including:
- They look at how often something is mentioned;
- They measure the sentiment of the feedback and comments;
- They identify natural biases that appear in guest comments;
- They benchmark and consider what is normal in your competitive market;
- They calculate how much each category affects your overall score.
This approach avoids classic mistakes. For instance, one picky guest who only complains about a small detail will not ruin your rating. On the other hand, recurring negative feedback carries serious weight, because it tends to affect satisfaction more strongly than many teams expect.
Impact Scores surface the truths that are hidden in plain sight. Sometimes those truths are uncomfortable, but they are exactly what helps a hotel improve its customer experience and grow sustainably.
What The Data Shows About Guest Satisfaction
Across hundreds of properties, two categories show the strongest positive impact.
Location and Service.
Location Leads the Chart
Our data shows that location appears as a main positive driver and what guests care the most about. What surprises many teams is that the effect is not based solely on geography. It is based on how well the hotel sets expectations for their location.
Guests do not dislike being outside the city center if that is what they wanted. Simply put, they dislike surprises. Clear and honest communication shapes perception, and perception shapes sentiment.
Service Still Matters a Great Deal
Strong performance in this area reliably improves overall satisfaction. Even small gestures make a difference. A warm greeting, quick support in moments of stress, smooth check-ins, and a staff culture that genuinely cares create real loyalty. Guests notice it and they reward it with higher scores.
This is also where AI support makes a measurable difference. Smart tools like AI Agents help teams react faster and spot problems while staying consistent even when staffing levels fluctuate.
Related read: 7 Ways AI Bridges the Gap Created by Staff Shortages in Hospitality
On the negative side, the strongest score drops almost currently come from three categories: price, maintenance and Wifi/internet.
A few negative bathroom mentions alone can pull down your score by several points. That is huge. A dip directly affects ranking, booking decisions, revenue, and AI search discoverability.
If you have ever struggled to justify renovation budgets, your Impact Scores will finally give you the evidence you need. The return is real and measurable.
Fewer negative comments in these categories often lead to a noticeable lift in the overall score. This, in turn, leads to LLMs (such as ChatGPT and Gemini) recommending your properties to guests doing research and, at the same time, more bookings. It’s a win-win situation.
How Hotels Can Use Impact Scores Strategically
Focus On What Moves The Needle
Impact Scores show you where investment matters. Maybe your bathrooms need attention. Maybe your room experience does not match your positioning. Or maybe your guests consistently praise your team and you should highlight that strength more boldly across your marketing.
This is direct, actionable insight that enables your teams to leave the guesswork behind.
Build A Stronger Reputation Management System
AI-driven CXPs help a whole lot with your reputation management. Specifically, platforms created for the hospitality industry such as TrustYou’s help you:
- Collect all your feedback in one single inbox;
- Interpret the meaning behind every comment;
- Respond accurately and instantly with AI support
- Run pre-stay, on-site, and post-stay surveys;
- Understand sentiment across more than seven hundred categories;
- Compare your performance to your competitors;
- Set and track goals for each property and the entire portfolio.
Impact Scores connect this entire process by showing you what matters most.
Turn Strengths Into Marketing Proof
Positive Impact Scores spotlight what makes you stand out. If guests repeatedly praise your service or your location, those are the stories you want to share. When potential guests hear real feedback from real travelers, trust grows and direct bookings follow.
Hospitality Is Moving Toward Guest-Centric AI-Powered Strategy
Hotels that effectively use data move faster; hotels that understand sentiment make smarter decisions; and hotels that act on the right insights win more bookings and drive loyalty.
Your guest experience is not a mystery anymore. It’s actually written in your feedback and surveys. Impact Scores translate it into a clear action plan.
If you want to stop guessing and start acting with confidence, you can. And the shift starts with seeing your own data in a new way.
Want to See Your Own Impact Scores in Action?
Book a demo and we will show you what is truly driving your ratings, where your biggest opportunities are, and how your hotel can lift satisfaction while growing long-term revenue. Let your feedback work for you.
