Online Complaints, Compliments and Praise: Hotel Reviews in Tripadvisor

Abstract

This article examines hotel guests’ positive and negative reviews of Spanish hotel chains in main touristic destinations of the Hispanic world, in order to describe and comprehend how the authors of the reviews present their point of view in relation to the lived experience. In this study, reviews that show guests’ (diss)satisfaction and those that include complaints or compliments are equally collected, contributing to an open line of research which has addressed a variety of issues about the users’ feedback. The research’s aim is to study, from a pragmatic-discursive approach, how guests use certain linguistic resources to develop their opinions and present their point of view as consumers. The article ultimately demonstrates the formation of new consumption patterns and new discourse practices that point to an increasing presence of consumers’ voice in the perception and evaluation of quality with a direct impact in the company services’ prestige and reputation.