The Influence of TripAdvisor Consumer-Generated Travel Reviews on Hotel Performance

Many consumers consult online reviews before making (online) travel arrangements. Yet, little is known about the impact of these reviews on hotel performance, and therefore managing on-line reviews has been widely neglected by the hospitality industry. The basis of the study has been obtained from the existing literature combining the Xiang et al.’s (2008) model of online tourism domain and the Consideration Set Model created by Roberts & Lattin (1991). The consequences of user generated travel reviews and ratings are also largely undefined and unrehearsed within the hospitality industry and the author attempts to rectify this situation by reporting the insights obtained in an extensive exploratory investigation of 1752 reviews, and hotel performance data on 77 hotels in six different cities. The results show that there are correlations between hotel performance and the number of reviews given as well as with the ratings of the reviews. The paper gives suggestions for further research which could shed light on the possibilities for managing reviews and the level of service quality described in customer-generated reviews and ratings.