There are two types of traveller: one who has unrealistic expectations of the experience they desire on holiday and the other who leaves expectations at the door and is prepared for anything.
And from these two type of traveller there can only be two results: one grumpy and the other happy.
A report from rewardexpert.com has revealed the world’s grumpiest travellers – those who are most likely to leave one- or two-star reviews for hotels and accommodations.
To compile the report, researchers analysed 3.5 million reviews posted by guests from 83 countries, for 13,410 hotels in 70 countries.
Here’s the top 10.
1. Spain
While the Spaniards I know are pretty laid back, on the whole, it seems they’re a pretty picky bunch when it comes to accommodation. Maybe it’s because Spain is full of fine hotels and old architecture that sets a pretty high bar for the rest of the world. Whatever the case, Spanish tourists are the most likely to leave a one- and two-star reviews (11.73 percent), sixth most likely to leave three-star review (18.68 percent) and the fifth least likely to leave a five-star review, making them the world’s grumpiest tourists.
2. Ireland
Maybe the Irish have higher standards when it comes to hotel reviews, or maybe they’re just plain grumpy. Almost 12 per cent of 53,429 reviews left by tourists from the Emerald Isle were either one or two-star. However, they’re more than happy to give top marks, with 41.27 per cent posting five-star reviews.
3. Iceland
It seems half the world is flocking to Iceland, but not so many Icelanders are heading offshore. When they do, they’re highly likely to leave one-star reviews at a clip of 11.13 per cent – the highest in all but six other countries.
4. Italy
Italians, it seems, are in the same boat as the Spaniards when it comes to standards. Not surprising, really, the cities are similar in many ways, architecturally and culturally and their lifestyle is also comparable. Of the 215,438 reviews left by Italians, 11.17 were one or two star, 29.18 per cent were five stars and they ranked 11th and 8th respectively for three or four-star rating.
5. Bulgaria
Of the Eastern European nations rated in this report, Bulgarian fared the worst in the grumpiness stakes, with 252 of the 2360 reviews counted from this country being one or two stars. However, they were the tenth most likely to leave a five-star review, but quite stingy on three- or four-star ratings.
6. Zimbabwe
While there weren’t a lot of reviews to count from Zimbabweans, almost 12 per cent of the 1059 counted were one or two-star reviews, making them a rather grumpy lot.
7. Denmark
Being the 67th country most likely to leave a five-star review, it’s fairly safe to say that the Danes are not ones to leave positive ratings, or they have unbelievably high expectations, or they really hate leaving home. They may be the world’s third happiest country, but that won’t leave them out of the top-ten grumpiest once they leave home.
8. Turkey
When Turkish tourists leave home they’re highly likely to leave a bad review, with 11.03 per cent of 9618 ratings being one or two stars. They’re also 54th most likely to leave a five-star review. To balance things out, though, visitors to Turkey were also pretty nonplussed with their lodgings …
9. Iran
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Iranian tourists would just be happy to get out of the somewhat tumultuous region for a little while. Still, that tension may follow them across their borders, as evidenced by the 11.39 per cent of 1326 reviews that were one or two stars. Iranians were also the tenth least likely to leave a five-star review.
10. Lithuania
Of the 1320 reviews left by Lithuanians, 10.53 per cent were one or two-stars and, given the lower than average occurrence of five-star reviews and the non-existent rate of three- and four-star reviews, Bulgaria now has an Eastern European neighbour in the top 10 world’s grumpiest travellers.
Do you leave hotel reviews? Have you ever had such a bad experience that you would leave a one-star review? If you had to average your star ratings over all your hotel stays in your lifetime, how many stars do you think it would be?
Related articles:
We love hotels, but …
Handy hotel hints you need to know
Hotel room fails
