Hotel Ratings Are Rising, but Guests Are Becoming Less Positive, Shiji’s Q3 2026 Global Benchmark Finds

Shiji, the global leader in hospitality technology, announced the findings of its Q3 2026 Guest Experience Benchmark, revealing that hotel reputation scores are improving, but what guests actually say about their stays is moving in the opposite direction.

That is one of the clearest shifts emerging from Shiji’s Q3 2026 Guest Experience Benchmark, based on 11.9 million hotel reviews and 45.7 million guest mentions worldwide. The Global Review Index™ (GRI) increased to 87.0%, up 0.2 percentage points year over year, while the proportion of positive guest mentions fell from 70.5% to 69.8%.

The divergence suggests that headline ratings alone are becoming an increasingly incomplete measure of the guest experience. Beneath relatively stable reputation scores, the data reveals changes in what guests are saying, how quickly hotels respond, and where those conversations are taking place.

One of the most tangible changes is the speed at which hotels respond to guest reviews.

Average global response time fell to 3.1 days in Q3 2026, compared with 5.6 days in Q3 2024. Across three-, four- and five-star hotels, average response times now range from 2.9 to 3.2 days, compared with 4.7 to 5.4 days in the previous year.

The global review response rate reached 68.1%, although nearly one in three reviews still receives no response.

The acceleration may reflect the growing adoption of AI-assisted tools in reputation management. More importantly, it represents a significant operational change: hotels are increasingly able to engage with guest feedback within days rather than allowing reviews to sit unanswered for much longer periods.

The second major shift is happening in the distribution of reviews.

Ctrip doubled its share of global hotel reviews from 3% to 6%. In Asia, its share increased from 12% to 19%. In North America, Expedia increased from 41% to 45% of reviews.

These changes matter because a hotel’s reputation is increasingly shaped across a different mix of platforms depending on the market. Understanding where guest feedback is being generated is therefore becoming as important as monitoring the overall score.

Five-star hotels continue to record the highest reputation scores globally, but three- and four-star hotels are narrowing the gap.

The findings reinforce the importance of consistent service and perceived value across categories rather than star rating alone. At the same time, room-related issues continue to generate a significant share of negative guest sentiment across multiple regions.

“The interesting story in this quarter’s data is not simply whether scores went up or down. It is what is happening underneath those scores. Hotels are responding much faster, the platforms influencing reputation are shifting, and positive sentiment can fall even while reputation scores rise. For hoteliers, that means understanding the detail behind the score is becoming increasingly important,” said Jessica Kurtz, Director, Pre-Sales & Global Enablement at Shiji.

Global Net Promoter Score increased from 55.74 to 56.26, but the headline number hides significant differences by region and hotel category.

Five-star hotels recorded a global NPS of 62.29, while three-star properties declined to 50.89.

Latin America saw the strongest regional improvement, with NPS increasing from 51.41 to 54.47, supported by improvements across all three hotel categories.

One result stands out in particular: NPS among five-star hotels in North America fell from 57.39 to 39.85. The result warrants further examination of sample size and property mix before broader conclusions are drawn.

The benchmark also highlights the difference between asking guests for feedback and getting them to provide it.

Globally, post-stay surveys achieved a 57.1% email open rate and 9.7% response rate, while survey-behavior analysis recorded a 95.1% questionnaire completion rate.

The figures point to a critical distinction for hotel feedback programs: once guests begin a questionnaire, completion can be extremely high, but encouraging them to participate in the first place remains the bigger challenge.

Regionally, Asia recorded the highest GRI at 90.1%, followed by Africa and the Middle East at 86.5%, Europe at 86.0%, North America at 85.7%, and Oceania at 84.3%.

Together, the Q3 findings point to a hotel reputation landscape that is becoming more complex. Overall scores remain strong, but the sentiment beneath them, the speed at which hotels engage with guests, and the platforms where reputation is built are all changing.

“For hotels, the opportunity is to move beyond monitoring a single reputation score and understand what is driving it. Connecting review sentiment, operational feedback and channel data enables hoteliers to identify where the guest experience is changing and where action can have the greatest impact,” added Jessica Kurtz, Director, Pre-Sales & Global Enablement at Shiji.

Shiji’s Q3 2026 Guest Experience Benchmark analyzes 11.9 million hotel reviews and 45.7 million guest mentions to benchmark reputation, guest sentiment, review-channel performance, response behavior, Net Promoter Score and regional guest-experience trends.

Download the Q3 2026 Guest Experience Benchmark

About Shiji

Shiji is a global technology company dedicated to providing innovative solutions for the hospitality industry, ensuring seamless operations for hoteliers day and night.

Built on the Shiji Platform, the only truly global hotel technology platform, Shiji’s cloud-based portfolio includes Property Management System, Point-of-Sale, guest engagement, distribution, payments, spa, golf and experience management software, and data intelligence solutions for over 91,000 hotels worldwide, including the largest chains.

With more than 5,000 employees across the world, Shiji is a trusted partner for the world’s leading hoteliers, delivering technology that works as continuously as the industry itself.

For more information, visit www.shijigroup.com.