Hotel Reputation Analytics Glossary

A practical reference for the terms used by hospitality analysts and reputation managers — from financial KPIs (RevPAR, ADR) to satisfaction signals (NPS, GuestScore) to analytical methodologies (Root Cause, Sentiment Analysis).

Index

ADR — Average Daily Rate

Average revenue per occupied room per day

The average revenue a hotel earns from each occupied room in a single day, net of discounts and promotions. Calculated as total room revenue divided by rooms sold.

When to use it? Compare pricing power across seasons or against competitors in the same city and category.

RevPAR — Revenue Per Available Room

The industry's headline KPI

The most important performance indicator in hospitality. Blends occupancy and ADR into one number. Calculated as ADR × occupancy rate, or total room revenue ÷ rooms available.

When to use it? To assess overall efficiency. A hotel with high ADR and low occupancy can have a worse RevPAR than one with lower ADR but higher occupancy.

GOP — Gross Operating Profit

Operating profit before rent, tax, interest, depreciation

Profit from operations, stripped of financing and ownership structure effects. Measures operational management efficiency fairly, independent of the owner's financing decisions.

When to use it? To evaluate the performance of a GM or operations team on a level playing field.

NPS — Net Promoter Score

Guest advocacy score from -100 to +100

Based on a single question: "How likely are you to recommend this hotel to a friend?" (0–10). Detractors (0–6) are subtracted from Promoters (9–10). Result ranges from -100 to +100.

When to use it? A strong predictive signal for repeat bookings and word-of-mouth referrals. +50 is excellent in hospitality, +70 is exceptional.

GuestScore / Review Score

Weighted average across review platforms

The average guest rating across review platforms (Booking.com, Google, TripAdvisor, Agoda). The most commonly benchmarked number because it's public and verified.

When to use it? Every 0.1 point gain on Booking.com is often associated with a lift in your page's conversion rate. Highly sensitive.

OTA — Online Travel Agency

Commission-based booking platforms

A platform that sells hotel bookings electronically on commission. Major ones: Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, Almosafer. Typically take 15–25% of the booking value.

When to use it? When planning a Direct Booking strategy aimed at reducing OTA dependence and building a higher-margin channel.

Review Velocity

Rate of new reviews over time

A measure of reputation “liveliness”. A hotel with a 4.5 average and ten fresh reviews a month reads to a searcher as an active place, unlike one with 4.7 and no review in a year. Booking.com states that the more recent the review, the bigger its impact on the total score.

When to use it? To tell whether a reputation is moving or stalled. Booking.com’s score is weighted toward recent reviews, so a new review moves the score faster than an old one — neither platform publishes a ranking weight for review velocity.

Sentiment Analysis

Classifying review tone

Classifying the tone of each review (or each sentence inside it) as positive, neutral, or negative. Some commercial platforms produce it automatically with topic tagging, at accuracy that varies with dialect and sarcasm.

When to use it? As a first input for ordering the review, never as the verdict: tone tells you the guest is angry, not which department angered them — and that needs a human read.

Root Cause Analysis (RCA)

Engineering methodology to reach the underlying cause

Rather than treating symptoms, RCA searches for the real cause. Example: repeated "room was dirty" complaints may be rooted in an unrealistic housekeeping schedule, not a careless employee.

When to use it? When the same complaint keeps recurring despite surface-level interventions. Our methodology at SIA Hub is built on this principle.

Review Response Rate

Share of reviews management has replied to

Measures how seriously a hotel engages with its guests. It is visible to the guest on the property page whenever management replies.

When to use it? The realistic target we apply in our reports: 80%+ for negative reviews, 30%+ for positive. Replying within 24 hours multiplies the impact.

Reputation Management

Structured process of monitoring, analyzing, influencing image

Wider than "responding to reviews". Covers: multi-platform monitoring, trend analysis, operational coordination to fix root causes, and inviting every guest to review, neutrally, with no selection and no incentive.

When to use it? As a standing responsibility of the hospitality manager, not a reactive task. Replies stay published on the property’s page for everyone who opens it later. The rule on selective solicitation is set out in the Booking score guide.

Brand Standards Audit

Periodic compliance check against chain standards

For hotels tied to a global brand (Marriott, IHG, Accor…), a periodic audit compares actual performance to the brand's standards manual. Results may affect the franchise license.

When to use it? Typically twice a year. Can be combined with review analysis to expose gaps between written standards and real guest experience.

Template Reply

A generic reply that fits any review and names nothing the guest wrote

A copied management reply that could be pasted under any review at any hotel without changing a word. Its opposite is the specific reply that names the issue and what was done about it. In case study 02, only 10 of 246 replies were written for a specific guest — 4.1%.

When to use it? When measuring reply quality rather than reply volume: a reply rate can look excellent while every reply is a template.

Operational Risk

A recurring issue owned by a named department, with an expected impact

In the methodology used here, every classified issue is routed to the department that owns it and given a severity level. A high risk is one that recurs and affects safety, revenue, or the classification category. Case study 02 produced 23 high, 26 medium and 108 low operational risks.

When to use it? When ordering the fix list: it is ranked by severity, not by complaint count.

Star Distribution

The share of reviews at each level from 1 to 5

An average hides the shape. Two hotels averaging 3.8 can be very different: one steady at 4, the other split between 5 and 1. The distribution shows which, and identifies the least-satisfied segment an improvement plan should target.

When to use it? Before reading any average: ask for the distribution. It measures something different from sentiment analysis and from qualitative classification, so the three percentages must not be added together.

Bimodal Distribution

Reviews clustering at both ends of the scale instead of the middle

A shape with two peaks: a mass at 5 stars and a mass at 1, with a hollow middle. It usually means an inconsistent experience — one guest gets exactly what was promised and the next hits the same fault — rather than a uniformly mediocre one.

When to use it? When interpreting an average that looks acceptable: a bimodal shape means the fix is operational consistency, not raising the general standard.

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To apply these terms to a platform score in practice, see how to improve your Booking.com score.