Assessing the Importance and Relationships of Ratings on User-Generated Traveler Reviews

The growth of Internet travel sites has increased the importance of the traveler reviews provided on those sites. These reviews play an important role in travelers' hotel selection. Expedia allows travelers to rate hotels not only on overall satisfaction, but also on four important aspects of their hotel stay (Hotel Service, Hotel Condition, Room Cleanliness, and Room Comfort), and their willingness to recommend the hotel to other travelers. This study looked at over 60,000 traveler ratings. The majority of all four quality ratings and overall satisfaction rating were positive. Additionally, nearly 75% of responses indicated willingness to recommend the hotel. All four quality ratings were found to have similarly strong associations with travelers' overall rating and willingness to recommend. Partial correlations differed, with hotel service and room comfort being highest, followed by hotel condition then room cleanliness.