Abstract
Online reputation is a strategic aspect of lodgings’ image and commercialization. Websites containing tourism reviews have increased their influence on customers’ decisions, leading to the effective management of Internet social media accounts. Customer evaluations of lodgings vary across websites because of differences in the scales used, the variables measured, and the reliability of opinions. The diverse information available on the Internet can produce communication problems in lodgings because the evaluations on online portals can differ. The objective of this paper is to propose an indicator to establish the rating of the online reputation balance, so that lodgings can determine the level of coherence of their communication and image on the Internet. One target for lodging community managers should be to converge different evaluations around a similar value that defines a coherent and real online reputation. The indicator proposed is tested on lodgings of distinct categories in different tourism destinations. Among the aims of the study is to try to provide a simple and practical method for directors to improve the management of hotel communication on the Internet. This is an issue for which research should propose methodologies because it is a new challenge for the competitiveness of accommodations.
Highlights
The consolidation of digital technology in tourism is influencing the communication and image strategies of lodgings and destinations (Law et al 2014; Rodríguez-Díaz et al 2015; Kim and Park 2017; Baka 2016)
The average score (AS) was included because it is the main measure used by online reputation websites
A one-way ANOVA was applied to find out whether there are differences between the Rating of Online Reputation Balance (RORB) calculated in the three tourism destinations
Summary
The consolidation of digital technology in tourism is influencing the communication and image strategies of lodgings and destinations (Law et al 2014; Rodríguez-Díaz et al 2015; Kim and Park 2017; Baka 2016). Social media distributes tourist information through different platforms, such as review websites (e.g., Booking.com, TripAdvisor, HolidayCheck, Expedia.com, Hotels.com), social networks (e.g., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube), and leading opinion blogs (Kim and Park 2017). These platforms share experiences, evaluations, conversations, images, and information (Chan and Guillet 2011), offering a new way to promote word-of-mouth communication through the Internet (E-WOM) (Filieri and McLeavy 2014; Chen et al 2011; Leung et al 2013; Chevalier and Mayzlin 2006; Litvin et al 2008).
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