The popular view of online hotel reviews is that many are unfairly negative, but a new study published in the Cornell Hospitality Quarterly (CQ) finds that as more reviews are posted on a site, the overall tone becomes more balanced. The study, "Online Customer Reviews of Hotels: As Participation Increases, Better Evaluation Is Obtained," by Santiago Melian-Gonzalez, Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal, and Beatriz Gonzalez Lspez-Valcarcel, is the featured article in the August 2013 CQ. The journal is published by Sage Publishing on behalf of the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
The authors, who are all on the faculty at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, analyzed a broad and varied sample of 16,680 hotels in 249 tourist areas. They found that early reviews of a business do tend to be disproportionately negative. As the number of reviews increases, however, the reviews become more balanced, and the negative effect is mitigated. Indeed, this study agrees with an earlier CQ article that found that positive comments overall are more common than negative reviews—although many reviews are extremely positive or negative.
Based on this study, the authors suggest that hoteliers should try to increase the number of reviews they receive to balance the positive and negative comments regarding their property, in addition to investigating and correcting the causes of negative comments.
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- Online Customer Reviews of Hotels: As Participation Increases, Better Evaluation Is Obtained By: Santiago Melián-González, Jacques Bulchand-Gidumal, and Beatriz González López-Valcárcel
