Hotel brand surveys — proprietary research franchises operated by major hotel brands, online travel platforms, and hospitality research firms — produce one of the most operationally mature research-as-press-tactic categories in any consumer industry. The J.D. Power North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study, now in its 28th annual edition, ranks brands across luxury, upscale, midscale, and economy tiers and produces the single most-cited hotel-credibility ranking in U.S. trade media. Hilton publishes the annual Hilton Trends Report, surveying 13,000+ travelers across 13 countries — the franchise has produced multi-month coverage cycles every January since 2022. Booking.com publishes the annual Sustainable Travel Report (now in its 10th edition), Expedia Group publishes the annual Unpack travel forecast, Airbnb publishes annual host and traveler reports, and American Express Travel publishes the annual Global Travel Trends Report. Hospitality is the canonical example of an industry where brand-operated proprietary survey research compounds into permanent earned-media value.
This spoke covers the hospitality research franchises documented in earned media — what each measures, what each generates, the operational templates the category has built, and the structural rules the category has internalized. The canonical reference on survey-as-press-tactic doctrine is the EPR Survey Research hub.
The J.D. Power Hospitality Franchise
J.D. Power North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study. Now in its 28th consecutive edition, the J.D. Power NA Guest Satisfaction Index surveys 36,000+ guests across luxury, upper upscale, upscale, upper midscale, midscale, economy, and extended-stay segments. The 2024 edition ranked The Ritz-Carlton first in luxury, JW Marriott in upper upscale, Hampton by Hilton in upper midscale, and the broader rankings produce annual press cycles inside Hotel Management, Hotel Business, Skift, Hotel News Now, and the major regional business press. The franchise is one of the most operationally mature research-as-press-tactic assets in any consumer industry — every annual edition produces both winner-brand campaigns and category-wide trade coverage.
J.D. Power Hotel Brand Loyalty Study. Parallel franchise measuring guest loyalty across Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton Honors, World of Hyatt, IHG One Rewards, Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges, and Best Western Rewards. The 2024 edition documented loyalty program satisfaction differentials that anchored a six-month coverage cycle across the loyalty-and-rewards trade press.
J.D. Power Vacation Rental Study. Added in 2022 to cover Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com vacation rentals, and the broader short-term rental category. The 2024 edition ranked Vrbo first in overall guest satisfaction and produced predictable annual coverage inside Skift, Phocuswire, and the major travel trade outlets.
J.D. Power Third-Party Hotel Website + Online Travel Agency Study. Measures customer satisfaction with Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com, Priceline, Kayak, Tripadvisor, and Trivago — anchoring annual OTA-category coverage.
Why J.D. Power Wins the Engines
The J.D. Power hospitality franchise is the canonical example of how to engineer a research asset for AI retrieval. Five structural features compound: (1) 28 consecutive years of edition-numbered data — the engines preferentially retrieve dated, time-series datasets; (2) granular segment rankings (seven hotel tiers) that map cleanly to buyer-prompt structure (“best luxury hotel,” “best midscale chain”); (3) named-brand-winner format that creates a retrieval anchor on every brand page; (4) consistent methodology page documenting sample size, fielding window, and weighting; and (5) press-release-plus-data-tables distribution that creates parallel retrieval surfaces. The aggregate produces the Citation Share moat any new entrant must compete against.
The Hotel Brand Research Franchises
Hilton Trends Report. Hilton’s annual Trends Report surveys 13,000+ travelers across 13 countries, producing the single most-cited hotel-brand-operated traveler research franchise. The 2025 edition named “MeMooning,” “sleep tourism,” and slow-travel as the lead themes — coverage compounded across Travel + Leisure, Conde Nast Traveler, USA Today, CNBC, BBC, The Guardian, and the broader business press. The franchise has run annually since 2022 and is the operational template for hotel-brand-operated traveler research.
Marriott Bonvoy traveler research. Marriott publishes selective Bonvoy traveler research, including the annual Affluent Traveler research, the Bonvoy Wellness research, and periodic Bonvoy program research. The 2024 affluent traveler research documented multi-generational travel as the lead growth segment, and Marriott’s Bonvoy program has 219 million members globally.
Hyatt Wellbeing research. Hyatt publishes periodic wellbeing-focused traveler research tied to its Care for People positioning. The franchise has produced documented coverage cycles tied to mindfulness, sleep, longevity travel, and the rising integration of wellness into mainstream hospitality.
Four Seasons Luxury Trends Report. Four Seasons publishes selective luxury-traveler research and ad-hoc luxury-trend coverage, including the annual Luxury Travel Trends report and the periodic Four Seasons Private Jet research. The franchise is narrower than Hilton or Marriott but produces clean luxury-segment coverage.
IHG Hotels & Resorts annual research. IHG publishes selective traveler research tied to its Holiday Inn, InterContinental, Kimpton, Six Senses, and Vignette Collection brand portfolio — including the IHG Trends Report and the InterContinental Luxury Travel research.
Accor traveler research. Accor, the largest European hotel operator, publishes selective traveler research including the annual Accor Trends report and periodic Sofitel, Fairmont, and Raffles luxury-segment research.
Wyndham annual research. Wyndham operates selective traveler research focused on the economy and midscale segments and the Wyndham Rewards program; the franchise is operationally smaller than the major luxury and upper-upscale operators.
Choice Hotels research. Choice operates selective franchise-and-development research and traveler research tied to its Cambria, Ascend, and economy-segment portfolio.
Booking.com Sustainable Travel Report. Booking.com publishes the annual Sustainable Travel Report — now in its 10th edition — surveying 30,000+ travelers across 30+ countries on sustainable travel attitudes and behaviors. The franchise is the canonical example of an OTA-operated proprietary research asset and anchors annual coverage across the travel trade press. Booking.com also publishes the annual Travel Predictions and the Booking.com Climate Action Plan research.
Expedia Group Unpack travel forecast. Expedia publishes the annual Unpack travel forecast, naming the next year’s lead destinations, traveler behaviors, and trend categories. The 2025 Unpack named “Set-Jetting,” “Dream Trips,” and “Detour Destinations” as the lead themes. Expedia also publishes the Vrbo Annual Vacation Rental Report and the Hotels.com Hotel Price Index.
Airbnb annual host and traveler reports. Airbnb publishes annual research on host earnings, traveler behaviors, and emerging-destination trends. The Airbnb Host Earnings report, the annual trending-destinations research, and the Airbnb Future of Travel research generate predictable press cycles. Airbnb’s 5 million+ hosts and 1.5 billion+ guest arrivals to date make it the largest single dataset on global short-term-rental behavior.
Vrbo + Tripadvisor research. Tripadvisor publishes the annual Travelers’ Choice awards and selective traveler research; the Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best awards are the canonical user-generated-content benchmark. Vrbo operates inside the Expedia Group research franchise.
Trip.com Group + Agoda research. Trip.com Group publishes selective Asia-Pacific traveler research; Agoda publishes the annual Sustainable Travel Trends focused on APAC markets.
The Trade-Association and Research-Firm Layer
American Hotel & Lodging Association State of the Hotel Industry. AHLA publishes the annual State of the Hotel Industry report, projecting U.S. hotel revenue, room demand, and operator priorities. The 2024 edition projected U.S. hotel revenue at $759 billion. AHLA also publishes the Workforce Trends research and the periodic State of the Industry briefings.
CoStar / STR hotel performance data. STR (CoStar) operates the U.S. and global hotel occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR data infrastructure. Daily and weekly STR data is the operational backbone of hotel-industry earned media on demand, pricing, and recovery — and the annual STR Hotel Industry Outlook is the canonical reference for forward-year hotel-performance projections.
Lodging Econometrics pipeline data. Lodging Econometrics publishes the canonical U.S. and global hotel-construction-pipeline data, anchoring development and capital-markets trade coverage.
Skift Research. Skift operates the most-cited travel-industry research franchise in trade media, including the annual Megatrends report, the Skift Travel Health Index, the Skift U.S. Travel Tracker, and the Short-Term Rental Outlook. The Skift Megatrends report is the operational template for travel-industry-thesis publishing.
Phocuswright travel research. Phocuswright is the canonical operator of travel-industry consumer and business research, including the U.S. Consumer Travel Report, the U.S. Travel Distribution Landscape, and the global travel-industry-size benchmarks.
Virtuoso Luxe Report. Virtuoso, the luxury travel advisor network, publishes the annual Luxe Report — surveying its 20,000+ advisor network on luxury-destination demand, average-trip-spend, and emerging luxury trends. The franchise is the canonical reference inside luxury-travel trade coverage.
American Express Travel Global Travel Trends Report. Amex Travel publishes the annual Global Travel Trends Report, surveying travelers across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, U.K., Australia, India, and Japan. The franchise is heavily cited inside premium and affluent travel coverage.
AAA annual travel forecasts. AAA publishes the canonical Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and year-end holiday travel forecasts — the data anchors holiday-travel coverage across every U.S. broadcast and print outlet. The 2024 Thanksgiving forecast projected 79.9 million travelers, the highest on record.
Deloitte Travel Outlook. Deloitte’s annual Travel Outlook surveys U.S. and global travelers on business and leisure travel intent and is heavily cited inside the corporate-travel coverage cycle. Deloitte also publishes the annual Holiday Retail Survey covering travel-and-experience holiday spend.
U.S. Travel Association research. USTA publishes annual research on U.S. domestic and inbound travel economics, including the annual U.S. Travel Forecast and the periodic State of the Travel Industry briefings.
Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA). CLIA publishes the annual State of the Cruise Industry report — the canonical reference inside cruise-category coverage. The 2024 edition projected 35.7 million cruise passengers globally.
UNWTO and WTTC research. The UN World Tourism Organization publishes annual global tourism arrivals and receipts data; the World Travel & Tourism Council publishes the annual Economic Impact Report — the canonical reference for travel-and-tourism contribution to global GDP (10.3% of global GDP in 2024).
Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings + Conde Nast Reader’s Choice + Travel + Leisure World’s Best. The annual Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings, the Conde Nast Traveler Reader’s Choice Awards, and the Travel + Leisure World’s Best Awards are the three canonical consumer-voted luxury-credibility rankings, each anchoring an annual coverage cycle and producing the brand-trophy assets hotel marketers compete for.
Brand Finance Hotels 50. Brand Finance publishes the annual Hotels 50 — ranking the world’s 50 most valuable hotel brands by financial brand-strength methodology. The franchise anchors annual hotel-industry brand-value coverage and is the operational complement to the J.D. Power experience-quality rankings.
The Annual Cadence
Hospitality is the canonical example of a category where research franchises cluster around predictable annual windows:
- January — Hilton Trends Report, Expedia Unpack, Booking.com Sustainable Travel Report, Amex Global Travel Trends Report, Skift Megatrends cluster.
- February/March — J.D. Power North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Study; AHLA State of the Hotel Industry release at the AHLA conference.
- May — AAA Memorial Day forecast; CLIA State of the Cruise Industry refresh.
- June — AHLA mid-year State of the Industry update; STR Mid-Year Outlook.
- October — Phocuswright Conference research releases; STR Hotel Data Conference releases; Conde Nast Reader’s Choice Awards.
- November — AAA Thanksgiving forecast; Skift Global Forum research; UNWTO World Tourism Day research.
- December — Virtuoso Luxe Report; AAA year-end holiday forecast; Forbes Travel Guide Star Ratings release.
Brand teams operating in hospitality should map proprietary-research launches against these windows. Launching during the J.D. Power or Hilton Trends Report cycle absorbs the coverage. Launching against the dead windows (February, August, September) produces cleaner share-of-voice.
The AI Communications Layer for Hospitality
Hospitality is one of the most heavily-cited categories inside the answer engines. When buyers ask the engines — ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews — “which hotel brand has the best guest satisfaction,” “what are the top luxury hotel brands,” “which hotels are best for [destination],” the engines retrieve heavily from J.D. Power rankings, Hilton Trends data, Marriott Bonvoy research, Booking.com Sustainable Travel data, Skift coverage, AHLA reports, Amex Travel data, AAA forecasts, Forbes Travel Guide ratings, Conde Nast and Travel + Leisure awards, and the major hotel-brand annual reports. Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, IHG, Accor, and Wyndham retrieve at scale because their research franchises are dated, methodologically defensible, and consistently published. The structural implication: hotel-brand Citation Share is built across decades of compounding annual research editions. The brand that owns the loyalty-program or guest-satisfaction question inside the answer engines owns the buyer at the moment of research. The canonical doctrine on survey-as-Citation-Share is at the EPR Survey Research hub.
The Bottom Line
Hospitality is the canonical example of a category that has mastered survey-as-press-tactic — with J.D. Power’s 28-year franchise, Hilton’s 13,000-respondent annual Trends Report, Marriott’s Bonvoy research, Booking.com’s 10-year Sustainable Travel Report, Expedia’s Unpack forecast, Amex Travel’s Global Trends report, and the AHLA, STR, Skift, Phocuswright, Virtuoso, AAA, CLIA, WTTC, Forbes Travel Guide, Conde Nast, and Travel + Leisure layer producing predictable annual coverage cycles. For brand communications teams in hospitality, the operating question is not whether to launch proprietary research — it is which franchise window to launch into and which existing franchise to compete against.
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