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PurposeThis paper provides a framework of the indicators of the quality of text in online reviews and their influence on the perceived helpfulness of reviews. First, the authors assess the effects of concreteness, readability and credibility on review helpfulness. The authors then test whether these effects change, based on review valence and readers' personality traits (specifically, extraversion and neuroticism).Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an online experiment in the context of hotel reviews and tested our model using Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE).FindingsThe authors' findings indicate that consumers consider all three quality features – concreteness, readability and credibility when evaluating negative reviews. However, they assess positive reviews based only on how credible they seem to be. Consumers with the personality traits of neuroticism and extraversion value different review characteristics and this difference is dependent on review valence.Originality/valueTo the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the interactions between review valence and reader personality on review helpfulness. The authors' findings make important contributions to the literature on information diagnosticity and offer managerial implications related to customizing the presentation order of reviews based on their expected helpfulness for individuals with extraverted and neurotic personalities.