Customer Reviews of Hotel Experiences through Consumer Generated Media (CGM)

ABSTRACT As consumer generated media (CGM) are burgeoning online marketing techniques as a form of interpersonal and informal communications, many hotel guests have a chance to provide their candid and voluntary reviews of hotel experiences through these channels. However, little research has been documented to evaluate the overall theme of guests' reviews posted through CGM such as Tripadvisor. com. This study explores how consistent the posted reviews (i.e., compliments and complaints) were with the expected level of service and room rate. Examining guests' reviews of hotels in New York City posted on TripAdvisor. com, this study attempts to uncover generalizable suggestions for hotel management. Results of this study indicated that value was one of the key predictors for guest satisfaction, which leads to return intentions. Regardless of hotel classes and average daily rate (ADR), location appeared to have the highest mean value among seven performance attributes. Obviously, hotel classes (i.e., star ratings) and ADR appeared to influence the relationships of selected hotel performance attributes with both overall guest satisfaction and return intentions. Some managerial implications surrounding this new online marketing media are discussed.