Word of mouth recommendations via the medium of the internet (known as Electronic Word-of-Mouth or EWOM), allow customers to exert influence over other consumers in a much more long-lasting and powerful manner, suggest Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan (2008).
Interestingly, when applied to the hospitality and tourism sector, this effect is magnified, and is well enshrined in academic models explaining tourist behaviour, such as Dearden and Harron’s theory that tourist opinion leaders are key in discovering new events and places, thereafter disseminating the information to their “less intrepid cousins” (1992, p.102).
Litvin et al. suggest some reasons for the proliferation of the various customer review sites in the hospitality industry, and their success. One reason they identify is the intangible and mostly hidden nature of the product. Travellers do not experience hospitality in familiar environments or (usually) in the kind of social situations in which dissemination of views by traditional word-of-mouth is possible. That is, a group of other travelers have no need of a word-of-mouth recommendation as they are also experiencing that holiday or event. Further, travelers experience the service with nothing to take away, and at times the promise that is sold at the time of purchase is incongruent with the product that is actually received. The point made is that reviewing a hospitality experience enables travelers to partake in new communities made up of those who have had similar experiences, and have their experiences verified by passing on to future travelers, even if these people are not in their direct social circle.
Litvin et al. outline some ethical concerns regarding EWOM as a marketing channel, an issue which is largely absent from many academic articles on the matter. Abuse of online communities such as TripAdvisor are not hard to imagine, as hospitality managers rely on feedback on comparison sites for their livelihoods. Litvin et al. warn against shill reviews posted by employees, or other encroachments on communities of trusting consumers which could potentially cause great harm to the confidence placed in genuine reviews by potential consumers. The conclusion of their article is pretty clear – online reviews in the hospitality community are not going anywhere, so managing these in an ethical manner has to be top priority for tourism and hospitality managers.
So, what do hoteliers have to say about Trip Advisor? The following case study has been described after appearing on Trip Advisor’s blog (Trip Advisor, 2014):
Andy and Matthew moved to Brighton to achieve their dream of opening a guest house. They had bought a tired Bed and Breakfast, re-decorated, and opened their doors to guests, but neither of them had any experience in the hospitality industry. After trading for a month or so, a neighbouring guest house owner mentioned a good review that had been left on Trip Advisor, to which Andy replied “What’s Trip Advisor?”. Andy and Matthew began using Trip Advisor, not just to gain insight into what their own guests required, but also used the platform to enhance their understanding regarding guest expectations in all of the competing hotels and Bed and Breakfast accommodation in Brighton.
Andy and Matthew eventually achieved the accolade of reaching No. 1 on Trip Advisor for guest houses in Brighton, receiving a Certificate of Excellence and a plaque they display in the reception area. They suggest their success is based on using Trip Advisor to raise their own standards, using not just their own reviews but also reviews of competing accommodation. They also suggest adding the Trip Advisor ‘widget’ button to the business website, to enable customers to read and check reviews more easily.
However, the Trip Advisor model is in no way unchallenged. There are numerous cases of hoteliers and B&B owners receiving extremely negative reviews, which are claimed to be false and misleading. Some of the language found across reviews on the site was reported in 2010 (Starmer-Smith):
2,300 reviews containing the words “racist/racism”
353 reviews containing the words “pervert/perverted”
295 reviews containing the words “homophobic/homophobia”
33 reviews containing the word “rapist”
10 reviews containing the word “paedophile”
Clearly these are huge allegations, all of which, Starmer-Smith reports, are unfounded given that Trip Advisor does not fact-check any of the opinions or information travelers choose to leave on the site. Furthermore, the outcome for a small business of a bogus or malicious review can be devastating, as one B&B owners found, when his £25-a-night accommodation was described on Trip Advisor as: “B&B Hell”. His 30 year business was forced to shut with the resulting loss of custom.
So, it becomes clear that there are benefits and drawbacks to listing a business on a review site in a service-driven industry, and we have seen this with the case studies afforded by Trip Advisor and various guest accommodations. Those operating in the tourism sector have been labouring under the expectation to be reviewed for a number of years, with this consumer-centric paradigm now rolling out to other industries via new review platforms and borne out of a shift in customer expectation. The tourism industry has lessons we can learn to ensure reviews are as legitimate, ethical and accurate as possible.
Dearden, P. & Harron, S. (1992) ‘Case study: tourism and the Hilltribes of Thailand’, in B. Weiler, M. Hall (Eds.), Special interest tourism, Belhaven Press: London, pp. 95–104.
Litvin, S., Goldsmith, R. & Pan, B. (2008) ‘Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management’ Tourism Management, Vol. 29 (Iss:3), pp. 458-468.
Starmer-Smith, C. (2010) ‘Tripadvisor reviews: can we trust them?’ The Independent, [Online] Available at: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/hotels/8050127/Tripadvisor-reviews-can-we-trust-them.html> [Accessed on 18th April, 2015]
Trip Advisor (2014) ‘ Trip Advisor has definitely forced standards up: A Case Study’, Trip Advisor Blog, [Online] Available at: <http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/TripAdvisorInsights/n2090/tripadvisor-has-definitely-forced-standards-case-study> [Accessed on 18th April, 2015]