Hotel assessment through social media – TripAdvisor as a case study

Abstract

Hotel booking decisions are increasingly influenced by consumers’ feedback available on social media sites. Using data submitted by TripAdvisor users, this study provides four key contributions to knowledge. Firstly, a comparative analysis was carried out of customer ratings received by hotels located on Spain’s coastal areas as well as Portugal’s southern coast. Secondly, significant differences were found in the number of comments as well as the average online review rating score awarded, which were found to be related to the geographical location of each tourism destination. Thirdly, it is found that customers tend to rate their experiences in hotels positively. Fourthly, the level of overall customer satisfaction with a hotel tends to increase proportionately to the number of customer feedback comments posted for that hotel. As a result of this, one of the findings of this study is that hotels should encourage their customers to post comments on online customer review websites to balance out any negative feedback received.