Online Consumer Review Factors Affecting Offline Hotel Popularity: Evidence from Tripadvisor

Abstract

The business value of online consumer reviews has emerged in recent year as one of utmost importance for hotel marketers. This study examines how online consumer reviews affect offline hotel popularity. Using time-series data of 56,284 hotel reviews posted for more than 1000 hotels listed on TripAdvisor, this paper estimates the effect of factors of online consumer review, including quality, quantity, consistency, and recency, on the offline hotel occupancy (i.e. how popular the hotel is among consumers). The empirical evidence shows the relative effect of online consumer review factors on offline hotel popularity when controlling for other hotel characteristics. In particular, the effect of review quality lasts for at least a couple of quarters, whereas that of other online consumer review factors remains short-term. The findings provide a managerial basis to improve the online presence of hotels on social media platforms by strategically utilizing important review factors.