Market Intelligence: Social Media Analytics and Hotel Online Reviews

The findings of the study reveal the market structure of the industry, and hotel properties can be distinguished based upon words consumers use to describe their experience in combination with the level of satisfaction, leading to a better understanding of the competitive landscape of the hotel industry.

Abstract

In order to demonstrate the usefulness of social media analytics, this chapter applies text analytics to classify hotel properties based upon dimensions of guest experiences in association with satisfaction ratings in hotel online reviews. The findings of the study reveal the market structure of the industry; that is, hotel properties can be distinguished based upon words consumers use to describe their experience in combination with the level of satisfaction and to a better understanding of the competitive landscape of the hotel industry. This study contributes to the development of new approaches to identify competitive sets for hotels which, in turn, can help hotels better position themselves based upon eWOM.