Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Questions & Template

A guest satisfaction survey is a short set of questions that asks guests how their visit went, while the experience is still fresh. Done well, it catches problems before they become public reviews, turns happy guests into advocates, and gives managers one number they can track week on week.

This guide is written for UK hospitality: hotels, restaurants, golf clubs, cafes and event venues.

Key takeaways

Keep surveys under ten questions and under three minutes - shorter surveys get several times more responses.

Ask during or immediately after the visit; response rates collapse once the guest is home.

Use one required star rating (CSAT), one open question, and make everything else optional.

Route by sentiment: happy guests get a Google review invite, unhappy ones alert your team privately.

Act weekly. A survey nobody reads trains guests to stop answering.

What is a guest satisfaction survey?

Definition: A guest satisfaction survey measures how well your venue met a guest's expectations, usually with one rating question, one open question, and a handful of optional follow-ups.

The rating gives you a trackable score. The open question tells you why the score is what it is.

The best hospitality surveys share three traits:

Short. Under ten questions, under three minutes. Most good ones are far shorter.
Timely. Asked during or immediately after the visit, not days later.
Actioned. Someone reads the answers and does something about them.

Why guest satisfaction surveys matter

You hear it before the internet does. A guest who tells you about a cold room or a slow starter rarely also posts it on TripAdvisor.
Happy guests become public reviews. The moment a guest says they loved their visit is the best moment to invite a Google review.
Managers get a signal, not anecdotes. One score per site, tracked weekly, beats a binder of comment cards.
Teams improve faster. Specific, same-day feedback ("breakfast queue at 9am") is coachable. A one-star review three weeks later is not.

The 30 best guest satisfaction survey questions

Copy what fits, cut the rest. Never ask all thirty - pick one rating question, one open question, and at most three or four follow-ups.

Arrival and check-in

How easy was it to find us and get settled in?
How would you rate your welcome on arrival?
How long did you wait to be seated or checked in?
Was everything ready as you expected when you arrived?

Room or table

How would you rate the comfort of your room?
How would you rate the cleanliness of your room or table area?
Did everything in your room work as it should?
How was the noise level during your stay?

Staff and service

How friendly and welcoming was our team?
How quickly did our team respond when you needed something?
Did any team member make your visit better? Who?
Did you feel looked after from start to finish?

Food and drink

How would you rate the quality of your food?
How would you rate the drinks selection?
Was your order right, and did it arrive promptly?
How well did we handle any dietary requirements?

Cleanliness and facilities

How clean were the shared areas (lobby, toilets, bar)?
How would you rate the condition of our facilities overall?
Was anything not as clean or well-kept as you expected?

Value

How would you rate value for money?
Did the experience match the price you paid?
Would anything have made the price feel more worthwhile?

Overall and loyalty

Overall, how would you rate your visit? (1-5 stars)
How likely are you to recommend us to a friend or colleague? (0-10, this is your NPS question)
How likely are you to visit again?
What was the best part of your visit?
What one thing should we improve?
Is there anything we could have done differently today?
Did anything surprise you, good or bad?
Any other comments for the team?

Tip: The overall rating, "what one thing should we improve?" and "any other comments" alone make a complete, high-response survey.

A free guest satisfaction survey template

This five-question template works for almost any hospitality venue and takes a guest under a minute:

Overall, how was your visit? (1-5 stars, required)
What did we do well? (open text, optional)
What one thing should we improve? (open text, optional)
How likely are you to recommend us? (0-10, optional)
Want us to follow up? Leave your email. (optional, with a clear privacy note)

Rules that make it work:

The star rating is the only required question.
Never ask for a name or email before the feedback itself.
If the rating is high, invite a public review. If it is low, route it to your team instead. This is exactly what smart routing automates.

How long should a guest survey be?

Under ten questions, under three minutes, and shorter is better.

Every extra required question costs responses: a two-question survey can see several times the completion rate of a ten-question one. If an answer would not change what your team does tomorrow, cut the question.

CSAT vs NPS vs CES: which metric should you use?

Metric	The question	Scale	Best for
CSAT	"How was your visit?"	1-5 stars	Measuring a specific visit; spotting day-to-day problems
NPS	"How likely are you to recommend us?"	0-10	Tracking loyalty over months, not single visits
CES	"How easy was it to...?"	1-5 or 1-7	Testing one journey, like booking or check-in

A practical setup for most venues:

CSAT on every survey as the required question.
NPS as an optional final question.
CES only when you are testing a specific process.

Tip: NPS is promoters (9-10) minus detractors (0-6) as a percentage, giving a score from -100 to +100. Anything above +50 is strong for hospitality. Work yours out with our free NPS calculator.

How to send it: QR, email or kiosk

Channel	When it works	Watch out for
QR code at the table, in the room, at reception	Highest response rate - catches guests mid-experience, no app needed	Print quality and placement matter; one code per location tells you where feedback comes from
Kiosk at exit or checkout	Natural pause; good for high-footfall venues	Needs a visible prompt or staff nudge
Email after the visit	Fine as a follow-up for bookings	Weak as the only channel - response rates collapse once the guest is home

How to act on the results

Route by sentiment, immediately. Happy guests get invited to leave a Google review while they are still delighted. Unhappy guests trigger an alert to the manager on shift, who can recover the situation before it becomes a public review.
Review the pattern weekly. One person owns the number. Every Monday: what is the score, what moved it, which location or shift is the outlier, what one fix ships this week.
Close the loop with the guest. If a guest left contact details and a complaint, someone replies the same day. A recovered guest is more loyal than one who never had a problem.

FAQ

What is a good guest satisfaction score?

On a 1-5 CSAT scale, most well-run hospitality venues average between 4.2 and 4.6. Below 4.0 usually signals a recurring operational problem. For NPS, anything above +50 is strong for hospitality; the more useful habit is tracking your own trend month on month.

How many questions should a guest satisfaction survey have?

Five or fewer for most venues, with only the overall rating required. Under ten questions and under three minutes is the ceiling before response rates fall sharply.

What is the 5-point satisfaction scale?

A rating scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied), usually shown as stars in guest-facing surveys. It is the standard CSAT format: simple for guests, easy to average, and consistent across venues and time.

When is the best time to ask for guest feedback?

During or immediately after the experience: at the table via QR code, at checkout, or within a few hours of departure. Response quality and volume both drop steeply once the guest is home.

How do you handle a guest complaint from a survey?

Acknowledge it fast, ideally the same day. Thank the guest, apologise without excuses, say specifically what you will do, and follow up once it is done. Handled well, a private complaint is a public review prevented and often a repeat guest earned.

Try it with Sentoma

Sentoma builds this whole loop for you: a branded survey from this exact template, QR codes for every table or room, and smart routing that invites happy guests to leave a Google review while alerting your team to unhappy ones before they go public. It is free to start on one venue.