By Catharine Hamm, Los Angeles Times

Hear that thunderous applause? As Pharrell Williams would say/sing, “Clap along if you know what happiness is to you.” If you’re a traveler, happiness apparently is a hotel, judging by a J.D. Power report released Wednesday.

The 2014 North American Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study shows satisfaction with accommodation hit a record: 784 points on a 1,000-point scale.

The results were collected between June 2013 and May of this year from more than 67,000 respondents in the U.S. and Canada who had stayed in a hotel in North America between May of last year and May of this year.

So what irks hotel guests most? It’s not a stingy loyalty program or noise or long lines at the front desk; it’s cleanliness — or lack thereof. Those guests who perceived their rooms as not clean generally were a whopping 213 points less satisfied than those who thought their rooms were clean.

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