A segmentation of online reviews by language groups: How English and non-English speakers rate hotels differently

Abstract

We employ a secondary data source of more than 86,000 customer ratings of Hong Kong star-rated hotels to explore the distribution and difference in rating behavior of English and non-English speaking guests in an online environment. We find that (a) English speaking guests prefer high-class hotels, (b) non-English speaking guests are more fastidious about five-star hotels and demand higher service quality, while English speaking guests desire bigger rooms in four-star hotels, and (c) satisfaction difference is bigger in lower class hotels or in hotels with fewer English speaking guests. We propose managerial implications for the hotel industry and give suggestions for future research.