Here are some of the best questions for a hotel guest survey about digital key experience, plus expert tips for designing your own. You can quickly generate a digital key survey with Specific—no effort, just results.
Best open-ended questions for hotel guest survey about digital key experience
Open-ended questions are the cornerstone of conversational surveys when you want genuine feedback—not just a rating. They let guests describe their digital key experiences in their own words, surfacing issues and delights you might never have imagined. With digital key adoption accelerating in hotels (67% of guests say mobile keys enhance their hotel experience [2]), it's crucial to understand not just what’s working, but why.
Can you describe your overall experience using the digital key during your stay?
What aspects of using the digital key did you find most convenient or helpful?
Were there any challenges or frustrations you experienced with the digital key?
How did the digital key change your check-in or room entry experience compared to traditional methods?
In what situations did you use the digital key most often during your stay?
Is there anything that surprised you about using a digital key?
How did the digital key affect your sense of security or privacy while staying with us?
If you could improve one thing about the digital key, what would it be?
How did you learn to use the digital key—was the process clear enough?
Would you recommend the digital key option to future guests? Why or why not?
Best single-select multiple-choice questions for hotel guest survey about digital key experience
Single-select multiple-choice questions shine when you need structured, easy-to-analyze data. They're ideal for quantifying trends (like satisfaction or feature usage) or kicking off a deeper conversation. Sometimes, it’s just easier for guests to pick an option than craft a whole answer—especially if you’re aiming for high completion rates and actionable benchmarking.
Question: How satisfied were you with the digital key feature during your stay?
Very satisfied
Satisfied
Neutral
Dissatisfied
Very dissatisfied
Question: Did you encounter any issues using the digital key?
No issues, it worked perfectly
Minor issues (e.g., connection or access delays)
Major issues (e.g., could not access room)
I didn't use the digital key
Question: What influenced your decision to use (or not use) the digital key?
Convenience
Security concerns
Didn't know about it
Other
When to followup with "why?" Use a “why” follow-up when you want to unlock context behind a choice—for example, if a guest says they had “minor issues,” ask: “Can you describe what those minor issues were?” That additional layer is often where actionable insights live. Hilton saw "efficiency of arrival" ratings jump by 10 points after launching digital keys, but without follow-up, it’s hard to pinpoint which aspects (speed, reliability, convenience) drove that gain. [1]
When and why to add the "Other" choice? Offer an “Other” option when you suspect there could be reasons for a response not captured in your primary choices. Follow this up with an open-ended prompt—sometimes the real breakthrough feedback appears here, revealing needs or obstacles you hadn’t even considered.
Should you ask the NPS question about digital key experience?
If you want a snapshot of how digital key features impact overall guest loyalty, the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is your power move. NPS asks guests to rate, on a 0-10 scale, the likelihood that they’d recommend your hotel's digital key experience to others. This simple but mighty question is a global benchmark for guest satisfaction—and a predictor of word-of-mouth growth. With rising adoption of mobile keys among travelers, NPS offers an immediate sense of whether your investment is building raving fans or leaving guests cold. You can instantly generate an NPS survey for digital key experience—making feedback collection a breeze.
The power of follow-up questions
Let’s be honest: open-ended responses alone aren’t always enough. The best conversational surveys dig deeper, probing for “what, why, how,” and clarifying where needed. Specific’s AI-powered follow-up questions are designed for this. They transform static answers into a meaningful conversation, asking smart followups in real time based on what your guest just said—mirroring how an expert interviewer would react.
Hotel guest: "The digital key wasn't working one evening."
AI follow-up: "Can you tell us what happened when you tried to use the digital key? Did you receive any error messages, or was there a specific situation where it failed?"
How many followups to ask? In our experience, asking 2-3 followups is usually the sweet spot. You can always set a limit, or enable skipping to the next question once you feel the insight is clear. Specific lets you fine-tune this so guest experience stays smooth.
This makes it a conversational survey: Instead of grilling guests with a list, you build a dialogue. This boosts engagement and makes feedback feel like a friendly chat—not a chore.
AI analysis, summaries, and chat with responses: Even if dozens of guests share long, story-filled answers, AI makes it easy to quickly analyze responses, summarize key takeaways, and even chat with your survey data. No more digging through piles of unstructured text—AI does the heavy lifting, so you act faster.
These automated followup questions are a new way to elevate guest research—try generating a survey and see how Specific can make your interviews truly conversational.
How to compose a prompt for GPTs to generate great hotel guest survey questions
If you want to use ChatGPT or other GPT tools for crafting digital key survey questions, start simple and build context as you go. For a quick brainstorm, begin with:
"Suggest 10 open-ended questions for hotel guest survey about digital key experience."
You’ll get better results if you add more context about your objectives, hotel type, or target guest. For example:
"I'm designing a digital key experience survey for guests at a luxury business hotel. Our goal is to understand the impact on convenience and security, and identify areas to improve. Suggest 10 open-ended questions."
Next, sort the questions by asking:
"Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them."
Once you have the categories, double down on areas of interest. For instance:
"Generate 10 questions for the category 'guest security perceptions' related to digital key usage."
This iterative prompt-first approach is a natural fit for Specific’s AI survey generator: just describe what you want in plain language, and get a high-quality, ready-to-launch survey in moments.
What is a conversational survey?
A conversational survey is a survey that feels like a natural chat—letting the AI engage your guests the way an attentive front desk staffer would. Instead of dumping a static list of questions, it responds to guest answers in real time, clarifies unclear feedback, and probes for details that matter.
Why is this a game-changer? Traditional survey forms often get ignored or filled in without much thought. AI survey makers like Specific engage guests with a warm, adaptive flow, boosting participation and surfacing the “why” behind every response.
Manual Surveys | AI-Generated (Conversational) Surveys |
---|---|
Boring forms, fixed sequence | Adaptive chat, relevant followups |
Low engagement | Feels personal—high completion and honesty |
Hard to analyze unstructured data | AI summaries, instant analysis, chat with results |
Takes time to build and edit | Survey generated in seconds with natural language prompts |
Why use AI for hotel guest surveys? Guest adoption of digital keys is rising, but their needs and obstacles change fast. Only AI surveys can keep up—learning from responses, asking timely followups, and making sure you get actionable insight every time. This unlocks richer, more reliable feedback, enabling hotels to stay ahead of guest expectations.
For anyone wanting an AI survey example, try Specific for a best-in-class conversational survey experience. Whether you’re running a one-off study or ongoing feedback, the interaction feels smooth for both creator and respondent. If you want to see step-by-step tips, read our guide on how to create a hotel guest survey about digital key experience.
See this digital key experience survey example now
Ready to engage your guests and uncover exactly how digital keys shape their stay? Create your own conversational survey in seconds—unlock richer guest insights, better decisions, and seamless analysis with Specific’s AI-powered survey maker.