The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels.

(A) with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels-> why we would like to reduce guests, rather reducing the number of guests, makes sense.

(B) with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service-> "Ultimately reduce the number..." It is incorrect. Ultimate goal is better.

(C) ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service-> "Reduce expression" it is changing the meaning.

(D) in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service-> "that" refers to "the number". Let's re-read it, the number ends up expressing overall....It doesn't make sense.

(E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service-> Ultimate is placed close to goal. That's okay. and who modifies "guests". Let's re-read it, guests express overall dissatisfaction with...that makes sense.

So, I think E.

The tourism commission has conducted surveys of hotels in the most popular resorts, with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels.

(A) with the ultimate goal of reducing the guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the service in the hotels

“Reducing the guests” is utter blasphemy …in a vacuum you don’t reduce people more generally, but in this sentence the idea that you can reduce people by conducting surveys is utterly nonsensical.

(B) with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service
-“to ultimately reduce” is non idiomatic in this sentence…
-“who end up” is also unnecessary, just say “who express overall…”

(C) ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service

“to reduce” is not idiomatic…why the infinitive?
“dissatisfaction by the guests” is also wordy

(D) in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service

-“in an ultimate attempt” is TERRIBLY wordy
-“ends” is singular but should be plural I believe…typically number is singular, but here guests are acting as individual entities?
-can someone remind me of this? Please confirm.

(E) with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service
Correct. Clean and concise. Be careful of the usage of ‘with’ …sometimes it’s wrong other times it’s not…here it’s correct.
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GMATNinja
Thanks for the nice explanation.
It seems that 'expressing' is modifying the verb 'end up' as there is no comma between 'end up' and 'expressing'. I did not see any official sentence where VerbING modifies verb!
Could you clarify the matter, sir?
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Hi Honorable Experts,
MartyTargetTestPrep, GMATNinja, GMATGuruNY, AjiteshArun, VeritasPrepHailey, AnthonyRitz, BrightOutlookJenn, DmitryFarber,

In choice E, it seems that The tourism commission is reducing the number of guests NOT directly reducing the guests. But, 'dissatisfaction' is shown by 'guests' NOT 'the number of guests'. It is absurd to see that 'dissatisfaction' is cause by 'guests' but we're NOT reducing 'guests'-we're reducing 'number'! Isn't it weird?
Thanks__

Hi TheUltimateWinner,

Who refers to guests, not the number of guests:

... the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction...

One way to confirm that is to look at express, which is a plural verb. The number is singular, and we would have used a singular verb like expresses with it. Here's another quick example:

... reduce the number of accidents that involve large vehicles... ← This is ~ "bring down the number of {accidents of a particular type}".
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AjiteshArun
Could you check question again-I've edited that part. Actually, my question was something different!
Thanks__

Hi TheUltimateWinner,

I understand that you feel E sounds a little strange, but I'm not able to see why. Let's take another look at the example in my previous post:

... reduce the number of accidents that involve large vehicles... ~ reduce [the number of {accidents that involve large vehicles}]

If we're looking at reduce accidents vs. reduce the number of accidents, I'd say that both are possible. But between reduce guests and reduce the number of guests, I'd go for reduce the number of guests, because I don't think I've ever heard "reduce guests" before.

... reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service ~ reducing [the number of {guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels’ service}]

I understand that I may not have answered your question. This is the sort of thing that I would anyway advise you to get a second opinion on, so you may have to tag everyone again. My apologies for that.
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AjiteshArun,
No issue. Thank you so much for the inputs.
Yes, I'm waiting for some other experts' explanation.

Hi AjiteshArun
This one is too convincing.....kudos to banta he....
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Didn't get why goal to reduce is wrong. An infinitive shows intent and even a goal is an intent so they are a perfect match.

Also which one is a correct idiom in general too? Goal to or goal of?