Greek hotels lead the Mediterranean in customer reviews

Greece occupies the first place in a set of six tourist markets in the Mediterranean region based on hotel customer reviews for the summer season of 2024. In fact, Greek hotels have improved their score compared to the previous year.

Greece's potential as a leading tourist destination with very good hotel infrastructure is confirmed by the latest analysis of the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (INSETE) entitled "Evaluation of hotel customer satisfaction in Greece and in competing countries".

As it turns out, overall guest satisfaction reflects our country's competitive advantage in the hotel experience, especially in terms of service, cleanliness, breakfast, and location. Where appropriate, there is room for improvement in categories such as cleanliness, service, and management of infrastructure, public and private, during periods of high demand, as well as in food and beverage.

The study focuses on the summer season of 2024 (April-October), presenting Greece's performance in the field of hotel satisfaction compared to competing countries, such as Spain, Italy, France, Cyprus, and Turkey, while the data comes from Shiji Review Pro, a company specializing in online hotel reputation. The most popular review platforms are Booking.com (56%) and Google (23%).

Ranking against competitors

Greece maintains a consistently high ranking, occupying first place in most months of the period under review (April-October), followed by Cyprus, Spain, and Italy. The alternation between these three markets is intense during the summer season. France and Turkey are in the last positions.

In particular, our country with 87% maintained first place in the general satisfaction index (GRI) during the summer season of 2024 (April-October), marking an improvement compared to 86% in 2023 and surpassing Cyprus (86%) and Italy/Spain (85%). High performances in the service (90%) and cleanliness (92%) categories are key elements of this distinction. However, the country is lower in the room category (86%) and value for money (87%) compared to Turkey, which holds a leading position in these categories.

The positive experience of visitors is reflected in specific categories, with the following being dominant:

Food & Drink: The majority of reports concern “breakfast”.

Facilities and Staff: These are recognized as elements that enhance the overall experience.

Cleanliness: Despite the positive reports, some comments raised hygiene issues.

In the negative reports, the main causes of dissatisfaction include the quality of drinks, technical issues such as air conditioning, and in some cases also cleanliness. In addition, challenges were highlighted in the management of facilities and services during peak periods.

Ratings by destination, category, and market

The Cyclades and Epirus emerged as the top regions. It is noteworthy that both of these regions are characterized by small-sized hotels and a strong element of “authenticity”. The Ionian Islands and Attica had the lowest scores but remained clearly above the threshold for a good score. In general, all regions had a score higher than 80%, which is considered the threshold for a very good score.

In particular, in mainland Greece, Epirus and Western Macedonia led the quality indicators with top scores in cleanliness (96%) and value for money (91%). Attica recorded lower performances, with a GRI of 84%.

In insular Greece, the Cyclades stood out with the highest GRI (91%) and top performances in areas such as cleanliness (97%) and location (95%). In contrast, the Ionian Islands presented the lowest performance (GRI 84%).

In terms of specific destination categories, in the most luxurious ones, Mykonos and Santorini led the ratings, with Mykonos recording the highest GRI (92%) among international “premium” destinations. In the most mass destinations for the “Sun & Sea” product, Paros, Naxos, and Halkidiki ranked significantly higher than the domestic and international competition.

By star category, 5-star hotels in Greece stood out with the highest satisfaction index (89%), followed by 4-star (88%) and 3-star (87%). 1-2-star hotels, although lower in the overall GRI (86%), recorded impressive performances in the quality-price ratio (89%) and cleanliness (96%).

It is noted here regarding the origin of the comments/ratings that most of the reports were from Greece (8.2%), followed by the United Kingdom and France. Countries such as Colombia and Iceland stood out for their high satisfaction index (91.9% and 91.7% respectively), while lower performances were recorded by visitors from Turkey (81.6%).

Mr. Elias Kikilias, General Director of INSETE, stated:

“Even during peak months, Greek hospitality confirms its ability to effectively respond to the needs of visitors in both popular and developing destinations such as Epirus and Western Macedonia. Greece’s consistently high ranking in hotel ratings in the Mediterranean highlights accommodation as our competitive advantage. After all, the country’s hospitality in general and the sector’s workers in particular are the strongest dimensions of the Greek tourist experience. The aim, however, is to simultaneously strengthen the competitiveness of the overall experience in destinations by improving points that we have been lagging behind over time, such as destination management, the cleanliness of public spaces, regional road networks, anarchic urban planning, ease of navigation, visitor information and the cultural experience offered.”

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations, Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report