The Language of Luxury Hotel Websites in China

Abstract

The use of websites to promote hospitality services have been a major platform in hotel branding since the 1980s. Yet, comparatively fewer research initiatives have been undertaken to explore the language of evaluation on luxury hotel homepages. This chapter explores the ways in which Hong Kong’s luxury hotels evaluate their products and services, and construct interpersonal relationships with readers in the introductory texts of their homepages. By drawing upon the framework of their Appraisal Theory within a Systemic Functional Linguistics approach, the analysis shows that the hotel homepages tend to present one-way communication from the hotels’ perspective rather than a two-way exchange, which engages readers with the online luxury experience. Positive appreciation dominates when compared to the other types of attitudes for evaluating the quality of the products and services. Graduation is heavily employed by means of superlatives and maximization to amplify the superiority of the hotels; however, it is without a benchmark. In terms of engagement, hotel homepages are predominantly monoglossic with only a few instances of heteroglossic utterances, possibly serving to pre-empt subsequent challenges from readers. The study therefore seeks to propose that the employment of more resources of affect, judgment and engagement could enhance online experience, and hence, boost the promotional effectiveness of hotels.