Does time dull the pain? The impact of temporal contiguity on review extremity in the hotel context

Abstract

This study aims to investigate how the time at which a hotel review is posted influences the hotel rating. Utilizing data collected from a major travel review website, the authors estimate a hierarchical linear regression that reveals a positive relationship between temporal contiguity (i.e., the closeness between the time of hotel stay and the time when a review is posted) and review extremity, as measured by deviation from the hotel’s average rating. Moreover, two moderating factors in this relationship are highlighted: experience valence and reviewer expertise. More specifically, the positive effect of temporal contiguity on review extremity is significant only for negative experiences, and this effect decreases as reviewer expertise increases. The major empirical results are further confirmed through robustness checks that apply a different range of temporal contiguity, alternative rules defining positive/negative valence, different estimation methods, and correction for endogeneity bias, respectively. Lastly, theoretical and practical implications are provided.