Where You Sleep Tells What You Care About

Abstract

Online reviews are valuable sources of information that can help other tourists gain an idea of the destination they seek. The aim of this research is to examine what types of content is reviewed by hotel guests and Airbnb guests in two of the main urban tourist cities in Spain (Barcelona and Madrid) to distinguish content between the destination where the accommodation is located and to observe variations on users of these platforms when they write reviews. Comparing more than one million reviews posted on TripAdvisor and Airbnb through compositional data analysis (CoDa), results show that there are different patterns between Barcelona and Madrid and between their accommodation mode according to the reviews. This study can help researchers and managers know what useful information can be extracted from online travel reviews.