J.D. Power’s Ranking Sees Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel Highest in Customer Satisfaction
Tokyo’s landmark, 126-year-old Imperial Hotel has been ranked the highest luxury-class hotel in Japan for customer satisfaction in J.D. Power’s “Japan Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study in 2016.” The Imperial was ranked top in the segment of guestroom rates of over 35,000 Japanese yen per night, the first time since the studies began in 2006. Guests identified The Imperial’s Front Desk Services and the attention of its staff as favorable points. The quality of staff attention extended to patrons is extremely influential in forming guest evaluations regardless of room rates.
The Imperial was acclaimed by respondents for the quality of care provided by the staff, the accommodations themselves, and the hotel hardware in general. The Imperial was recognized as providing a very high caliber of staff attention. Comments were evaluated highest in the areas of Hotel Services, Hotel Facilities, Reservation, Check-In/Check-Out and Cost & Fees. This year marked the first year The Imperial took this position as the highest-ranking Japanese hotel, as well as ranking first in a separate Japanese Customer Satisfaction Index (JCSI) for eight consecutive years. The Imperial brand was ranked far above other first-class city properties in the JCSI, to which some 120,000 respondents replied. Rankings related to tourism include budget hotels, airlines and travel agents, in addition to major city hotels. Only The Imperial Hotel and a delivery service company have ranked in the top place for eight consecutive years.
The hotel’s “Imperial Club” was also highly evaluated in the J.D. Power study for 2016 for the high degree of customer service, maintaining its top position for the second straight year.
Tokyo’s Imperial was founded by Japanese aristocracy in 1890 as a venue to receive an increasing number of foreign dignitaries visiting Japan in the Meiji Period. It initiated many new services and facilities which have since become standard services for major Japanese hotels, such as all-inclusive Shinto and Christian wedding services, shopping arcades, and in-house laundry service, and introduced diverse Western cuisine to the Japanese public. It is the traditional favorite of dignitaries and celebrities from abroad visiting the Japanese capital.
