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possessives

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by gocoder » Wed Sep 06, 2017 6:03 am
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
B. with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall
dissatisfaction with the hotels' service
C. ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service
D. in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service
E. with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service

I have heard that it is bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives for inanimate objects but in the official question above, right choice does so. Is there any rule for such exceptions ?
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by DavidG@VeritasPrep » Wed Sep 06, 2017 8:05 am
gocoder wrote: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
B. with the goal to ultimately reduce the number of guests who end up expressing overall
dissatisfaction with the hotels' service
C. ultimately with the goal to reduce expressions of overall dissatisfaction by the guests with the hotel service
D. in an ultimate attempt to reduce the number of guests that ends up expressing overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service
E. with the ultimate goal of reducing the number of guests who express overall dissatisfaction with the hotels' service

I have heard that it is bad form to use apostrophe -s possessives for inanimate objects but in the official question above, right choice does so. Is there any rule for such exceptions ?
Interesting question. So far as I know, there is no formal rule forbidding such usage. Phrases such as "the house's facade," or "the room's lighting" seem fine. I was able to dig up this interesting essay about why the misconception about possessives and inanimate objects exists. Fun little read: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/educat ... ossessives
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by Vincen » Mon Oct 02, 2017 9:50 am
It is really interesting what you said about possessives. Thanks for that.

But, I don't know how to determine the correct option here. Can you help me?
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