Does Indianapolis have terrible hotels? One study say so, but here's what's wrong with it.
Indianapolis hotels are terrible — if you believe a recent survey conducted by PlanetWare Inc., which analyzed millions of hotel reviews on TripAdvisor to determine what U.S. cities had the least favorable places to unpack your suitcase.
The dubious honor of first place went to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina for having the worst hotels in the country, according to the study.
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PlanetWare analyzed nearly 8 million TripAdvisor hotel reviews in April from more than 9,000 hotels across 95 U.S. cities. Its research was conducted independently of TripAdvisor, the company said.
Analysts with PlanetWare tabulated results by digging through roughly 800,000 one-star and two-star hotel customer complaints, searching for phrases like "smell of smoke" in rooms, "not enough toilet paper" and "bed bugs." The U.S. cities with the most amount of poor reviews were ranked accordingly.
Indianapolis tied for 11th place with Lexington, Phoenix and Nashville for the most disgruntled hotel guests.
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Gris Gahl, executive vice president of Visit Indy, expressed his doubts Wednesday the survey was an accurate reflection of Indianapolis' tourism industry.
"Their research is a bit weighted because it's looking at one and two-star TripAdvisor reviews, or the areas that need improvement," Gahl said.
If a hotel guest finds a roach on the floor or runs out of toilet paper, they might feel more inclined, he said, to share their bad experiences online than someone else whose stay at a hotel was glowing.
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The number of people who travel through each city can't be discounted either, Gahl said. Indianapolis is slated to welcome 30 million visitors in 2023 and the hotel occupancy rates run at 65-75% daily.
"With the sheer volume of visitors checking in and out of our hotels, inevitably there will be a hiccup," Gahl said. "Feedback is always a gift, but like everything, the job is to make sure we're hospitable, to take constructive criticism well and work to be better."
A perusal by IndyStar of TripAdvisor's listings for Indianapolis area hotels showed more than a dozen with thousands of reviews each. Most had overall rankings of "Good" to "Excellent."
In May, a downtown Indianapolis hotel was ranked among the best in the country, according to Yelp. The business review site ranked Bottleworks Hotel No. 1 on its annual Top 100 Places to Stay in the U.S. list for 2023.
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John Tufts covers evening breaking and trending news for the Indianapolis Star. Send him a news tip at JTufts@Gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: PlanetWare ranks Indianapolis with bad hotels; study could be flawed
