MANAGEMENT RESPONSE STRATEGIES TO A NEGATIVE ONLINE REVIEW: INFLUENCE ON POTENTIAL GUESTS’ TRUST

Abstract

Purpose – The paper aims to identify the main hotel management response strategies to a negative online review and examine their influence on the trust of potential guests reading reviews in usergenerated media. Design – Five response strategies that emerged from the literature were empirically tested: personalization, empathy, confession, denial, and excuse. A mixed-method was applied, and the research was conducted in two phases using a qualitative method with a scenario-based approach and a quantitative research using the PLS-SEM method. Methodology/Approach – A focus group was used to provide a basis for the survey. The survey included one real negative hotel review and five hypothetical responses written according to the five observed strategies. Each response was followed by a set of statements examining the level of trust. A total of 435 questionnaires completed. The influence of each strategy on trust was tested individually. Findings – The results show that personalization, empathy, and confession as response strategies positively influence the trust of potential guests, whereas denial and excuse as response strategies have a negative effect on trust. Originality of the research – The research systematizes previous literature and identifies the main response strategies to a negative online review. It empirically tests all five strategies so that they can be observed in relation to each other. Moreover, this research includes the concept of trust as a dependent variable. The results can help scholars to build further models and hotel managers to understand how they should respond to negative online reviews.