The effect of online reviews on hotel booking intention: The role of reader-reviewer similarity

Due to the experiential nature of travel-related products, online reviews have become an increasingly popular information source in travel planning and have a profound effect on consumers’ buying decisions, particularly in hotel booking. On the basis of homophily and similarity-attraction theory, we posit that review valence is positively related to consumers’ hotel booking intentions, and expect this relationship to be moderated by surface- (demographic) and deep-level (preference) similarities. The findings from two experiments conducted in Germany and Macau indicate that review valence significantly affects hotel booking intention, and that reader-reviewer demographic similarity moderates this effect. This three-way interaction reveals a substituting moderation effect between demographic similarity and preference similarity. One practical implication is that travel websites should find methods of exposing users to reviews written by those with either similar demographic characteristics or preferences, which facilitate travelers’ decision-making processes.     

The impact of latent topic valence of online reviews on purchase intention for the accommodation industry

This study utilizes machine learning (ML) natural language processing (NLP) algorithms and statistical methods in order to measure the impact that qualitative textual reviews have on booking intentions for accommodations. Using over 400,000 online reviews from 1256 accommodations in South Korea, latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) is used to determine the topic of the review content, convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are used to identify the valence of the reviews, and spatial probit models are used to determine the impact of the review content and valence on booking intention, while controlling for several other variables. It is found that positive reviews about an accommodation’s ambiance, value, service, front office, accessibility, surrounding neighborhood and room capacity result in significantly higher booking intentions, while negative reviews in the service, front office and surrounding neighborhood result in lower probability of booking. A number of explanatory variables also have varying effects on booking intentions.     

Strategic consumer behavior in online hotel booking

This study investigates strategic consumer behavior in online hotel booking. Free cancellation policies enable consumers to rebook the hotel room at a later time should the price drop prior to the date of stay. A discrete choice experiment is used to infer consumer preferences for free cancellation and non-refundable rates under different scenarios. The study also examines the moderating role of the risk attitude of consumers. Risk-seeking consumers show preference for a free cancellation rate that increases with the availability of an automatic rebooking service. Although a higher booking window increases the utility of the free cancellation rate, such impact decreases as risk propensity increases. The identification of four distinct consumer segments provides clear implications for industry practitioners.     

When online reviews meet virtual reality: Effects on consumer hotel booking

This study examines the direct and interaction effects of online reviews (quality and quantity) and virtual reality on consumer hotel booking. Data were collected from two 2 × 2 experimental studies. The results show a direct effect of both online review and virtual reality's application on behavioral intention, and the influence of online reviews on behavioral intention was weakened when virtual reality was applied. Moreover, online reviews and virtual reality had a significant combined effect on behavioral intention, with greater strength than that of online reviews alone. The findings provide insights for travel and tourism managers to enhance marketing communication effects by proper use of virtual reality to complement online reviews.     

住客酒店点评对调节焦点个体的说服效果

网络Web 2.0时代,游客在预订酒店时常常通过查询先前住客点评内容来了解酒店情况。住客生成的网络点评内容是影响口碑效果的重要因素,但点评内容正负性和详略性的作用现有研究还存在一些争议。以调节焦点理论为基础研究酒店预订中住客点评的说服效果,通过2×2×2实验研究发现,负向酒店点评对预防焦点个体的说服效果更优,正向酒店点评对促进焦点个体的说服效果更优,详尽的酒店点评内容对预防焦点个体的说服效果更大,简略的酒店点评内容对促进焦点型个体的说服效果更大。     

Web reviews influence on expectations and purchasing intentions of hotel potential customers

The objective of the paper is to study the impact that hotel guests reviews posted on consumer-generated websites have on the consumer decision-making process and service expectations.An experimental study has been conducted to test the hypotheses and the research question. 349 young adults were involved in an online survey that asked to imagine searching for a hotel and reading other customers’ reviews of a hypothetical chosen hotel. Three scenarios were created by studying a few comments posted by customers on the main websites used by tourists.Results show a positive correlation between both hotel purchasing intention and expectations of the customers and valence of the review. On the contrary, the presence of hotel managers’ responses to guests’ reviews has a negative impact on purchasing intentions.The study enriches the stream of research on word-of-mouth in the hospitality industry and analyses a new operational problem for lodging managers. Hotels should reply to online customer reviews or not?     

Online reviews and purchase intention: A cosmopolitanism perspective

In recent years, marketing managers have realized that online reviews are an essential element in customer decision-making. However, there has been little valid measure of online reviews and no systematic analysis of their effect on consumer purchase intention. Drawing on the uses and gratification (U&G) and consumer culture (CCT) theories, this study develops a valid measure of online reviews and analyzes their effect on purchase intention. With a sample of 1112 hotel customers from three countries (Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam), this study validates the positive effect of online reviews on purchase intention through the perceived effectiveness of social media platforms (PESMP) and online trust while confirming the moderating role of cosmopolitanism.     

Unraveling the interplay of review depth,review breadth,and review language style on review usefulness and review adoption

To examine whether long reviews are uniformly more useful to readers, this study utilizes the experimental design approach to investigate the interplay of review depth, review breadth, and review language style on readers’ perceived usefulness and adoption intention of online hotel reviews. Drawing on the results from two experiments, review depth is proven to exert a positive impact on readers’ review usefulness and adoption intention. The moderating role of review breadth is verified, and the positive effect of review depth on review usefulness is attenuated (accentuated) when review breadth is high (low). The moderating role of review language style is also confirmed, and the result shows longer reviews written in literal language are considered more useful to readers than those written in figurative language. Being one of the first studies examining the interplay of review content and review style on review usefulness, this study provides important theoretical and practical contributions.     

Reducing perceived health risk to attract hotel customers in the COVID-19 pandemic era: Focused on technology innovation for social distancing and cleanliness

As an essential risk-reduction strategy, technology innovation is likely to play a key role in the hotel industry’s recovery from the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. However, its impact on customer decision-making behavior is unknown. Focusing on technology innovation for reducing guest interaction with employees and enhancing cleanliness, the purpose of this research was to examine the impact of expected interaction and expected cleanliness on perceived health risk and hotel booking intention. Three experimental studies were conducted using online consumer samples. The studies found that low levels of expected interaction through technology-mediated systems lead to low levels of perceived health risk. Perceived health risk mediates the relationship between expected interaction and hotel booking intention. In addition, high levels of expected cleanliness through advanced cleaning technologies moderate the impacts of expected interaction on perceived health risk. Importantly, the proposed perceived risk mechanism was effective in post-pandemic scenarios. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

This hotel is family-run! Enabling positive consumer response via perceived hospitableness

Family-run businesses are key players in the hotel industry and provide accommodations in many tourism regions such as the Austrian Alps. To date, research has failed to see the family firm status as a source of competitive advantage for the hospitality industry, despite often being used in practice to attract customers. Through the theoretical lens of signaling theory, this study therefore conducted experiments using fictitious hotel websites with participants from a German online panel (Austria’s largest incoming market) to investigate the effectiveness of family firm brand signals. The results confirm positive effects of communicating the family firm image on consumer response such as word-of-mouth, willingness to pay a price premium, and booking intention. We highlight that this effect is explained by perceived hospitableness. As such, we demonstrate that hotels can capitalize on their unique status by communicating their family firm image.     

Towards a Model of Electronic Word-of-Mouth and Its Impact on the Hotel Industry

ABSTRACT

Scholars and practitioners recognize that spreading word-of-mouth can play an important role in the formation of a hotel’s image. However, the relationships among various measures of online customer engagement are relatively unknown. The present study analyzes the relationships and quantifies the impacts of various measures of online engagement including the number of online reviews, overall rating, and relative ranking. The researchers used path analysis on a sample of 178 hotels to study the relationships among relevant variables and build a model to explain the impact of such measures (Figure 2). The results reveal there is a positive direct effect of the number of reviews on a hotel’s TripAdvisor rating. A negative direct effect was found between TripAdvisor rating and a hotel’s comparative ranking. Finally, the researchers discovered that TripAdvisor rating fully mediates the relationship between the number of reviews and a hotel’s comparative ranking. This article concludes with a discussion of both the theoretical and practical implications of such findings.     

You’re the Only One,or Simply the Best. Hotels differentiation,competition, agglomeration,and pricing

Drawing on competition, signalling and agglomeration perspectives, we investigate how vertical and horizontal differentiation influence price, and how hotel competition and agglomeration may moderate any such effects. We argue that vertical differentiation should include online reputation to complement category, and that hotel clustering can provide benefits for incumbents. Hypotheses are tested using quantile regression on a sample of 1870 hotels. In order to account for any service dimensions, an index of differentiation is estimated. We found that local competition and agglomeration moderates the relationship between differentiation and pricing. Furthermore, online reputation effects are more intense for low priced hotels. Indeed, when competition is intense, the positive effect of horizontal differentiation is lower for low priced hotels. Similarly, hotel clustering reinforces the impact of category on price, but it reduces the benefits of offering more services.     

Determinants of consumers’ choices in hotel online searches: A comparison of consideration and booking stages

Using a stated choice experiment, this study uncovers how hotel review- and price-related attributes affect consumers’ formation of consideration sets and hotel bookings based on online search results alongside a two-stage model of consideration and choice. Empirical findings indicate that consumers’ evaluations of certain attributes vary across these stages. During the consideration stage, the listed hotel price, promotional discount, overall rating, review volume, and booking popularity are significant attributes for prospective guests, whereas price disparities across websites are not. Insignificant interaction effects among these determinants imply that in this stage, consumers employ fast-frugal heuristics and a noncompensatory strategy. During the booking stage, listed price, promotional discount, overall rating, and review volume inform consumers’ booking decisions. Furthermore, the interaction effects point to consumers’ adoption of a compensatory strategy in making a final booking decision. Finally, this study concludes with implications for hotel pricing and system optimization of online platforms.     

The power of design: How does design affect consumers’ online hotel booking?

Emphasizing experiential appeals to consumers through design is most notable in the emerging lifestyle hotel segment of the lodging industry. This study identifies which lodging design mechanisms evoke consumer responses and provides a novel understanding of the relationships among consumer perception of hotel product/service design and booking intention by incorporating consumer emotional arousal and quality expectations in a theoretical model. The findings of this study suggest that aesthetics and symbolism in hotel design shape booking intention through emotional arousal and quality expectation. The functional dimension of design affects booking intention only through quality expectation. The findings will be particularly meaningful to the lodging industry because online booking requires both emotional and cognitive responses on the part of consumers.     

Compliance with eWOM: The influence of hotel reviews on booking intention from the perspective of consumer conformity

This study conducted two experiments to determine the influence of review valence, review quantity, and the interaction effects between the two among consumers designated as conformist and non-conformist.⁴ The results show that positive reviews are more effective than negative reviews in enhancing booking intentions and increasing the number of reviews can magnify the influence of review valence on booking intentions. Our analysis of valence indicated that reading positive reviews can have a stronger effect on booking intentions among individuals who are strongly inclined toward conformity. In addition, a greater number of reviews proved to be more persuasive among individuals displaying a low degree of conformity. Finally, the interaction effects among the three independent variables revealed that a larger number of negative reviews can be more damaging to the booking intentions of conformist individuals. In contrast, a larger number of positive reviews were shown to have a greater impact on non-conformists.     

Impact of hotel website quality on online booking intentions: eTrust as a mediator

Growing competitiveness in the marketplace pushes hoteliers to fully take advantage of their websites as a marketing tool. This study proposed that a trusting relationship with customers could be developed by investing in hotel website development. A research model that incorporates hotel website quality, eTrust, and online booking intentions was put forward. The software AMOS 20.0 was adopted to analyze the proposed inter-variable relationships. Statistical results demonstrated that hotel website quality is a strong predictor of eTrust which then also mediates the relationship between website quality and consumers’ online booking intentions. Implications were offered for practitioners based on the results.     

Exploring the antecedents of intentions to leave the job: The case of luxury hotel staff

The aim of this study is to assess the antecedents of employee’ intentions to resign from their jobs in luxury hotels in India. Two aspects are considered in this context: firstly, the employees’ enthusiasm for the profession and organisation, the nature of the work and its impact on social and family life. Secondly, their level of satisfaction with the job in terms of organisational loyalty, relationship with supervisors, job security, earnings and additional benefits. A theoretical model (see Fig. 1) and seven hypotheses are tested to indicate whether the employees’ level of agreement with statements about the job and their level of satisfaction with the job will impact their intentions to quit. The study further examines if any current employees intend to leave their job. The term luxury hotel is used to represent 5 star and 4 star hotels of India.Findings from the analyses of 884 responses suggest that, when considering intentions to resign from the job, a negative relationship is found between professional and organisational enthusiasm and perceptions about the work being stimulating. No support was found for a positive relationship between the extent work impacted social and family life and the intention to quit. However, results supported the notion that the employee's organisational loyalty has a negative effect on his/her intention to resign from the job. Our findings contradict several other studies in that they suggest the employee's intention to resign from the job increases as job security and earnings improve. The study is distinctive as it explores intentions luxury hotel employees in India to leave their jobs; three is little evidence in the wider literature of similar attempts in the context of the Indian hotel industry. The outcomes have implications for both theory and practice as this is the first such major study in the context of the hotel industry in India where there is a population of over a billion people and an expanding hotel industry.     

The impact of online reviews on hotel booking intentions and perception of trust

A growing reliance on the Internet as an information source when making choices about tourism products raises the need for more research into electronic word of mouth. Within a hotel context, this study explores the role of four key factors that influence perceptions of trust and consumer choice. An experimental design is used to investigate four independent variables: the target of the review (core or interpersonal); overall valence of a set of reviews (positive or negative); framing of reviews (what comes first: negative or positive information); and whether or not a consumer generated numerical rating is provided together with the written text. Consumers seem to be more influenced by early negative information, especially when the overall set of reviews is negative. However, positively framed information together with numerical rating details increases both booking intentions and consumer trust. The results suggest that consumers tend to rely on easy-to-process information, when evaluating a hotel based upon reviews. Higher levels of trust are also evident when a positively framed set of reviews focused on interpersonal service.     

Consumers’ responses to ambivalent online hotel reviews: The role of perceived source credibility and pre-decisional disposition

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is prevalent in today's lodging market and has potential to influence consumers’ decision making. This study investigated how the presence of online reviewers’ personal identifying information (PII) may affect consumers’ processing of ambivalent online hotel reviews and hotel booking intentions. The results of an experiment with a sample of 274 undergraduate students indicate that the presence of PII positively affects the perceived credibility of the online reviews. When coupled with ambivalent online reviews, the presence of PII significantly lowers consumers’ hotel booking intentions.