Do they Expect Differently in Hotel Experiences? Views of Eastern vs. Western: An Abstract

Abstract

This study sheds light on ways online guests’ rating in the hotel review website TripAdvisor differ between Chinese- and English-speaking groups. The study adopted mixed methodology and applied with both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The dual analysis with 800 online reviews of eight hotel brands that considered as a representative of its category located in Bangkok city, Thailand. Results from quantitative analysis revealed that 2-star hotels were rated positively than 3- to 5-star hotels. English-speaking guests gave higher ratings than Chinese-speaking guest in all the hotel service attributes (e.g. Service, Cleanliness, Room, Sleep Quality, Location, Value, and Overall). From qualitative aspect, ten service attributes that impacted on traveler satisfaction were identified. These attributes were then classified into three broad themed categories known as Intangible Service, Tangible Service and Staying Experience. The result further reveals the most frequently used words when cross-cultural travelers give online reviews on the sites. Implications of the divergences in themes abstracted are discussed. The current research offers practical insights for hotel operators who would like to improve their service quality. More online reviews on the hotels’ webs is better for the hotel performance since those online reviews can be considered as good references for the travelers during their searching process. Positive reviews mean satisfaction and positively influence on consumer purchase decision while negative reviews consider as a gift for hoteliers for further development their service standard. In this case, the hotelier could consider developing the customer incentive system (e.g. membership rewards) to guests who post reviews of hotels products and services on the social media platforms, which plays an important role in eWOM for younger generation who prefers using social media platform rather than traditional WOM (Kim et al. 2016).