Abstract
The main purpose of this study was to analyze and compare the online complaining behavior of Asian and non-Asian hotels guests who have posted negative hotel reviews on TripAdvisor to voice their dissatisfaction towards a select set of hotel service attributes. A qualitative content analysis of texts which relied on manual coding was used while examining 2020 online complaining reviews directed at 353 UK hotels and posted by visitors originating from 63 countries. The results from the word frequency analysis reveal that both Asian and non-Asian travelers tend to put more emphasis on Booking and Reviews when posting complaints online. Based on a manual qualitative content analysis, 11 different major online complaint categories and 65 sub-categories were identified. Among its important findings, results of this study show that non-Asian guests frequently make complaints which are longer and more detailed than Asian customers. Managerial implications and opportunities for future studies are also discussed.
Highlights
Advanced technologies like the Internet and Web 2.0 applications have led to the rise of a wide range of consumer-generated media platforms, which, in turn, have allowed word-of-mouth (WOM) communications to reach untold numbers of people within electronic communities and virtual networks
Previous studies on online consumer reviews in the hospitality and tourism industry have highlighted the importance of the role played by online reviews in relation to online booking intentions [7,8], consumer decision-making [9], consumer attitudes [10,11], and perception of trust [12]
We assumed that the travelers may have read the online reviews prior to booking the rooms, and upon arrival found that the actual situations did not meet the expectations that the reviews had inspired
Summary
Advanced technologies like the Internet and Web 2.0 applications have led to the rise of a wide range of consumer-generated media platforms, which, in turn, have allowed word-of-mouth (WOM) communications to reach untold numbers of people within electronic communities and virtual networks. While consumer complaining behavior has received some previous empirical attention in the tourism and hospitality industry, only a few researchers have conducted cross-cultural studies in this area based on data acquired through text mining Examples of these include Au, Buhalis, and Law (2014), who employed text mining to acquire data on Chinese and non-Chinese customers in an attempt to examine the relationship between culture and other factors which may affect intentions to post online complaints. The second step involves the analysis of the types of complaints found in the online hotel reviews on TripAdvisor in order to identify potential differences in complaining behaviors exhibited by Asian and non-Asian guests in regards to specific hotel service attributes. Implications and future research suggestions and recommendations are discussed at the end
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