My dog’s vacation: service dimensions in dog hotels and their impact on customer satisfaction

Abstract

This study examines customer satisfaction drivers in the expanding dog hotel industry. Based on a sample of Google reviews posted about U.S. dog hotels, Latent Dirichlet Allocation and sentiment analysis were applied to identify key service dimensions, which was followed by the application of a cumulative link model for ordinal regression to assess the dimensions’ impact on star ratings. Seven dimensions emerged, with receiving updates, overall experience and grooming services exerting the strongest influence on satisfaction, while logistical aspects exerted the least. Staff professionalism and guardians’ emotional wellbeing received the highest sentiment ratings. The research findings offer practical insights into improving service delivery in the companion animal hospitality sector.