Best questions for hotel guest survey about booking experience

Here are some of the best questions for a hotel guest survey about booking experience, plus tips to craft them for real insight. You can build your own conversational survey in seconds with Specific.

10 best open-ended questions for hotel guest booking experience surveys

Open-ended questions let your hotel guests share what really matters to them—details, frustrations, and surprising joys. They're perfect when you want to understand the actual reasons behind choices or impressions, not just a score or ticked box. Given that 65% of bookings are influenced by online reviews, understanding guest narratives is crucial [1]. Here are the top 10 open-ended questions you should ask about the booking experience:

1. Can you describe your overall experience booking your stay at our hotel?

2. What stood out to you—positive or negative—during the booking process?

3. Was there anything confusing or unexpected while booking your room?

4. What made you choose our hotel instead of others?

5. Did you use our website, a third-party site, or a mobile app to book? What worked or didn’t work?

6. If you hesitated to book, what were your main concerns?

7. How easy was it to find and understand our rates and room availability?

8. Were there any options or features missing that you expected?

9. Is there something we could have done to make booking easier or more enjoyable for you?

10. Do you have recommendations for improving the booking experience for future guests?

Single-select multiple-choice questions for booking experience surveys

Single-select multiple-choice questions are super useful when you want to quantify specific guest behaviors, preferences, or bottlenecks. If you’re starting a conversation, these questions can quickly orient the guest without overwhelming them. It’s less mental effort for the respondent and you can follow up with tailored questions—especially if you want to spot trends or measure impact. In fact, about 90% of hotel guests expect personalized experiences [1], so quick choices let you personalize follow-ups.

Question: How did you book your stay with us?

• Hotel website

• Third-party booking site (e.g., Booking.com, Expedia)

• Hotel mobile app

• Phone/email

• Other

Question: Was it easy to find the room type and rate you wanted?

• Very easy

• Somewhat easy

• Somewhat difficult

• Very difficult

Question: What was the most important factor in choosing to stay with us?

• Room price

• Location

• Online reviews

• Loyalty program

• Amenities (e.g., free Wi-Fi, breakfast)

• Other

When to follow up with "why?" If a guest chooses “somewhat difficult” when rating how easy it was to find a room, immediately prompting “Can you share what made it difficult?” uncovers actionable details you’d never get from the rating alone. This approach surfaces what slows your guests down and guides real improvements.

When and why to add the "Other" choice? Always add “Other” when there’s a chance your predefined options won’t cover everyone’s experience—especially for booking channels or decision factors. Follow-up questions triggered by “Other” often reveal new platforms or unexpected motivations you hadn’t considered, driving continuous improvement in your guest journey.

Should you ask NPS questions in hotel guest booking surveys?

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a staple for tracking loyalty—asking, “How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague?” on a 0-10 scale. For hotel guests, it fits beautifully right after questions about the booking experience. NPS captures a guest’s likelihood to spread the word, which is major—74% of travelers are influenced by loyalty programs, and word-of-mouth drives future bookings [2]. You can instantly generate an NPS survey for hotel guests about booking experience here. Consider pairing the NPS score with a short follow-up: “Why did you choose that score?” to dig into what’s driving promoters and detractors.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-ups are where good surveys become truly conversational and insightful. Instead of guessing why someone rated an experience poorly, the AI interviewer asks clarifying or probing questions tailored in the moment. We use automated follow-up questions to make every interaction richer, saving time and building true understanding fast. Thanks to AI, you don’t need a researcher sitting by their email—all the context emerges in real time, while it’s fresh for the guest.

• Hotel guest: "The booking site was frustrating."

• AI follow-up: "What specifically about the booking site was frustrating or unclear?"

How many follow-ups to ask? In practice, asking 2–3 targeted follow-up questions is optimal for depth and quality. Any more, and it starts to feel like an interrogation. Specific lets you adjust this for your needs and gives respondents the option to skip ahead when you have enough detail.

This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of static forms, you’re running a natural, AI-powered chat interview—getting to the root of guest experiences in a friendly, engaging way.

Easy AI-powered survey analysis: Even when you collect thousands of open-ended replies, AI makes it simple to quickly analyze hotel guest survey responses about booking experience, distill key themes, and spot patterns that drive real business decisions.

Automated probing questions are a fresh concept—try generating a conversational survey and see how much deeper your feedback can go.

How to prompt ChatGPT or other GPTs for better hotel guest booking experience questions

AI is a powerful ally for brainstorming survey content, but you get much better questions when you give it rich context. Here’s a basic open-ended prompt you can use:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for Hotel Guest survey about Booking Experience.

Want great questions? Brief the AI about your audience, business goals, and what you hope to improve. Example:

I'm the manager of an urban boutique hotel where most guests book online. Generate 10 open-ended questions to uncover friction points and favorite moments from the booking process, focusing on digital channels and how guests compare us to competitors.

After generating some initial questions, try this prompt:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

This makes it easier to spot gaps and prioritize topics. Once you see meaningful categories (like “Website experience,” “Comparison with other hotels,” or “Mobile app feedback”), prompt the AI for more depth:

Generate 10 questions for the “mobile app feedback” and “website experience” categories.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey is miles beyond a traditional form. Instead of static question lists, you have a live, chat-like exchange where AI tailors follow-ups just like an expert interviewer. It feels less like an interrogation, more like a friendly conversation—so guests elaborate, clarify, and give you real stories, not just checkboxes.

Here’s a quick comparison:

Why use AI for hotel guest surveys? You dramatically boost completion rates and depth of feedback (especially on mobile), all while decreasing the time and energy it takes for both staff and guests. An AI survey example doesn’t just collect data—it drives actionable improvements and better experiences, from the moment of booking through loyal return visits. Want to see this for yourself? Check our guide to creating a conversational survey in under five minutes.

Specific is built from the ground up for conversational surveys, giving you the best-in-class experience for both creators and guests—with a smooth, engaging journey that captures what static forms miss.

See this booking experience survey example now

Don’t settle for guesswork. See how conversational surveys capture the bigger picture and unlock feedback you can actually act on—try a survey built for real guest booking experiences today.