Main Generators of the Electronic Word-of-Mouth in the Case of Hotels

Abstract

Web 2.0 has allowed the internet to be a space for the exchange of opinions and information between consumers. One of the topics with the most comments is tourist services. The purpose of this chapter is to examine the role that service quality, emotional experience, and customer satisfaction play in the generation of eWOM in the context of lodging services, by using SEM. A survey was conducted among residents of Punta del Este in 2017, asking them about their last lodging in a hotel. The structural model has been tested using PLS technique. Among the results obtained, it is worth mentioning the importance of service quality for the evaluation of the client's experience, the explanatory power of service quality and emotional experience in customer satisfaction, and the main explanatory cause of the generation of online comments is the emotional experience. The main contribution of this chapter is the determination of the composition of satisfaction, experience, and generation of online comments, highlighting that there is no clear relationship between satisfaction and eWOM.