According to research covering the last decade, the average number of

Question

According to research covering the last decade, the average number of rooms added by high-end hotel chains was lower  than what the hotel industry average did for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than  the average hotel.

(A) than what the hotel industry average did for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than

(B) than the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates grew faster for these chains than for

(C) as compared to the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates for them grew faster than with

(D) as compared to what the hotel industry average had been for this period, but occupancy and room rates for these chains grew faster than did

(E) as compared to the hotel industry average for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than they did for

daagh · Accepted Answer

According to research covering the last decade, the average number of rooms added by high-end hotel chains was lower  than what the hotel industry average did for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than  the average hotel.

(A) than what the hotel industry average did for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than ----   than the average hotel is a wrong comparison.  
(B) than the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates grew faster for these chains than for ---aster for these …  than for the average hotel is the correct comparison; best choice.  
(C) as compared to the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates for them grew faster than with ---  for them than with is un//.  
(D) as compared to what the hotel industry average had been for this period, but occupancy and room rates for these chains grew faster than did ---  what had been is wrong tense; for these chains grew faster than did the average hotel is a wrong comparison.  
(E) as compared to the hotel industry average for this period, but 'their' grew faster than they did for' --- problem with the pronoun 'they'.  'Their' stands for the chains while 'they' stands for occupancy and room rates; 'they' standing for the chains is still worse

GMATNinja · Answer

Bumping this one up! Not necessarily GMAT's most exciting work, but let's see if it sparks more interest this time...

AR15J · Answer

Hi  GMATNinja ,

First thing that came to my mind after looking at answer choice B is-- the number of rooms of high end hotel chains are compared with average hotel industry(while correct comparison should be between the number of rooms of two hotels). However, if we look for other errors in other options, this choice is perfect. How can we sure that this comaprison in this case is correct?

GMATNinja · Answer

In a way, I think you answered your own question, AR15J! You can be sure that this comparison is correct because the other four answer choices are very thoroughly wrong.

On GMAT verbal questions, your job is always to find four wrong answers -- not necessarily one perfect, wonderful, correct answer. Other than process of elimination, I'm not sure how to be 100% certain that the comparison is correct, but it might help to separate out some of the language in the comparisons. Here's (B) again: That first one (in green) looks pretty good: "the average number of rooms added was lower than... the hotel industry average ." Not bad! The second comparison (in blue) is arguably even better: "rates grew faster for these chains than for the average hotel." I'm not sure that these could possibly be a whole lot better. I hope this helps!

leanhdung · Answer

According to research covering the last decade, the average number of rooms added by high-end hotel chains was  lower   than what the hotel industry average did for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than  the average hotel.

(A) than  what  the hotel industry average  did  for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than

(B)  than  the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates grew  faster for  these chains  than for

(C)  as compared to  the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates for them grew faster than with

(D)  as compared to  what the hotel industry average had been for this period, but occupancy and room rates for these chains grew faster than did

(E)  as compared to  the hotel industry average for this period, but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than they did for

VKat · Answer

Hello expert,
somewhere i studied that options using "these" word should be discarded outright..as it is not of GMAT kind.. is it correct?

GMATNinja · Answer

I don't think that's true at all. There's nothing wrong with using the word "these." "These" is just an article that indicates specificity: "These OG explanations drive me crazy sometimes." That's perfectly fine.

If you find the reference, let me know. It's possible that whatever you read was simply saying that you can't use "these" in some specific context. But "these" certainly isn't automatically wrong.

VyshakhR1995 · Answer

I will go with option B
As compared to is wrong when another comparison element is there.
What the hotel industry average did for this period----->"than the hotel industry average for this period" is better

Hence B

VyshakhR1995 · Answer

One average is compared to another....I think its confusing for you as you are taking "Rooms" as one object and hotel industry average as the other

GGMU · Answer

In this question we can see a 2-3 split containing than vs as compared to! Can someone explain when to use 'than' and when to use 'as compared to'?

Though I got answer as B I can't seem to find really whats wrong with option E.

GMATNinja · Answer

For answer choice (E), look at the pronouns, as daagh explained nicely above: https://gmatclub.com/forum/according-to ... l#p1831939 In general, I don't recommend obsessing over idioms: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41848.html. In this case, "was lower than" is a whole lot clearer than "was lower as compared to." But as is often (but not always!) the case on official GMAT questions, you don't even have to pay any attention to the idiom to get this one right, since there are tons of other issues.

septwibowo · Answer

Dear  GMATNinja  , from this question, we find "lower" in the non-underlined part. Since "lower" is a comparative word, so it must be followed by "THAN".

Is this enough to eliminate answer choice C,D,E, which do not have THAN?

Thanks in advance!

kunalsinghNS · Answer

Based on all the options B is the best

but i have question - There is a "comma" before "but" so shouldn't there be a independent clause following "but" with a subject ?

GMATNinja · Answer

Technically speaking, the "but" makes the clause dependent, for whatever it's worth. But in (B), there certainly is a full clause (subject + verb) following the comma and "but": "... occupancy and room rates   grew  faster for these chains than for the average hotel." (Subject in bold, verb in blue.)

I hope this helps!

GMATNinja · Answer

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that you're correct about that. Another way of putting it is that the correct idiom is "lower than", not "lower than opposed to." I do, however, get nervous about making generalizations about idioms, since they are -- by definition! -- pretty damned arbitrary. I think it's safe to eliminate (C), (D), and (E) in this case, because the idiom is so clearly wrong on those. But whenever you're not 100% sure about the idiom, look for other errors first, just to be safe. More on "idiom safety" here: https://gmatclub.com/forum/experts-topi ... 41848.html

Abhishek009 · Answer

1. Lower.........than {Correct usage, left with only options (A) & (B)} 2. Comparison is between high-end hotel chains vs average hotel chains... {Thus A looks better than (B)} According to research covering the last decade, the average number of rooms added by high-end hotel chains was lower than the hotel industry average for this period, but occupancy and room rates grew faster for these chains than for the average hotel. In one word, Super Awesome question

mk96 · Answer

Is "as compared to" an incorrect idiom? It is even mentioned in the official explanations? @e-gmat also mentioned somewhere that as compared to a correct idiom. Can someone confirm?

saby1410 · Answer

VeritasKarishma   AjiteshArun  can u explain the comparison in option A

Posted from my mobile device

mSKR · Answer

According to research covering the last decade,  the average number of rooms  added by high-end hotel chains  was lower  than what the hotel industry average did  for this period , but their occupancy and room rates grew faster than  the average hotel.

2 compairsons:
1. average number of rooms was lower than hotel industry average DID
2. rate grew faster than average hotel

Both these comparison are wrong
1. average number vs DID -- should be number vs number
2. rate vs hotel --> should be rate vs rate

in B
comparison :
1. average number vs hotel industrey average ( noun vs noun | average vs average)
2. these chains vs average hotel( noun vs noun| hotel vs hotel)

During comparisons we pay attention:
same parts of speech (e.g. noun vs noun) 
same logical comaprison ( e.g. hotel vs hotel , not hotel vs rate)

I hope it helps.

According to research covering the last decade, the average number of

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According to research covering the last decade, the average number of

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