Abstract
Hotels today actively respond to online reviews given their tremendous influence on travelers' decisions. Yet, the questions of how to respond to online reviews continue to baffle hotel managers. By focusing on prospective travelers, we propose the effective management response signals hotels' care for customers and quality of service. Particularly, we postulate the frequency, speed and length of response influence the effectiveness of signaling in reducing information asymmetry. Based on the large-scale field data from TripAdvisor, this study demonstrates that the frequency and speed of response significantly enhance travelers’ engagement as indicated by more reviews, higher average valence, more votes for helpfulness, and higher popularity ranking. Furthermore, the frequent and speedy response is more effective for budget (vs. premium) hotels. Thus, management response to online reviews serves as a critical channel of communication to engage customers.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 42-53 |
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Tourism Management |
| Volume | 62 |
| Early online date | 2 Apr 2017 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Oct 2017 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2017 Elsevier Ltd
Keywords
- Customer engagement
- Hotel management
- Management response
- Online reviews
- Signaling