The third article in YouGov’s U.S. hotel rankings 2026 series follows Anyone’s guest: U.S. hotel brand rankings 2026 and the generational follow-up, turning from booking consideration to customer experience: which hotel brands leave their current and former customers most satisfied?
A hotel brand may prove to be popular based on consideration to book, but customer satisfaction highlights how current and former customers rate the brand after having stayed at a hotel.
Based on daily brand tracking data from YouGov BrandIndex, we explore the U.S. hotel brands with the highest customer satisfaction scores in 2026, how scores have changed year-over-year, and how satisfaction differs between current and former customers.
Hotel brands with the highest customer satisfaction scores in 2026
Beaches Resorts leads the ranking, with a net Satisfaction score of 73.5 among current and former customers.
Mandarin Oriental, the multinational luxury hotel group, ranks second at 70.6, while Kimpton, IHG’s lifestyle luxury brand, has the third-highest Satisfaction score at 69.7.
Ritz-Carlton and Marriott each record a net score of 67.3, with Ritz-Carlton claiming the fourth spot by decimal point difference.
Courtyard by Marriott follows at 66.9, with Sandals Resorts, Shangri-La, Hilton, and Waldorf-Astoria rounding out the top 10.
These rankings span resort, luxury, lifestyle, full-service, and major portfolio brands rather than clustering in a single part of the hotel market.
How does satisfaction differ from broader hotel consideration?
The hotel brands people are most likely to consider booking are not always the same brands that receive the highest customer satisfaction ratings from current and former customers.
When comparing the top 25 of the satisfaction rankings to the top 25 of the hotel consideration rankings, we see interesting differences. While Beaches Resorts, Mandarin Oriental, and Kimpton have the three best Satisfaction scores, none of these brands rank in the top 25 for consideration.
Meanwhile, Marriott, the leader for consideration, ranks fifth for net satisfaction, highlighting that the brand strikes a valuable balance: it is top of mind and leaves its guests satisfied with their experience.
Which hotel Satisfaction leaders changed most year-over-year?
Among the current top 25 brands in this year’s satisfaction ranking, several brands moved meaningfully compared with the previous year, while others saw negative movements in their customer satisfaction.
Kimpton posts the largest year-over-year increase among the current top 25 satisfaction leaders, rising by 6.2 points from a net score of 63.6 to 69.7. Beaches Resorts, this year’s top-ranked brand for customer satisfaction, also recorded improvement, increasing by 3.2 points to 73.5.
Mandarin Oriental sits second in the overall ranking with a net Satisfaction score of 70.6, but this is down by 5.5 points year-over-year. Park Hyatt declined by 4.9 points, while Four Seasons, Hotel Indigo, and Shangri-La also recorded declines of roughly three points.
Taken in combination, these rankings provide an insight into the hotel brands driving satisfaction among consumers overall – as well as how the numbers are trending year on year.
Methodology
YouGov BrandIndex: July 1, 2025 – June 30, 2026 compared with July 1, 2024 – June 30, 2025; U.S. adults who are current or former customers of each brand: n> 250.
Customer Satisfaction (Net): Of which of the following hotels or accommodation services would you say that you are a satisfied or dissatisfied customer?
Airbnb and VRBO are excluded from the rankings.
Disclosure: The data analysis in this article was conducted by YouGov with the assistance of AI tools.
About YouGov BrandIndex
YouGov BrandIndex is an always-on, daily brand tracking tool that measures consumer perceptions of thousands of brands across sectors and markets. It helps marketers monitor brand health, benchmark competitors, identify audience-specific strengths and weaknesses, and understand how perceptions change over time.
Explore more hotel brand data
This customer satisfaction ranking is one view of the broader hotel-sector data available in YouGov BrandIndex. Additional analysis can include competitor benchmarks, customer-group comparisons, audience cuts, year-over-year movement, and other relevant BrandIndex measures.
Request a hotel brand briefing to explore how customer satisfaction compares with consideration and other brand-health measures for the competitors and audiences that matter most.