The tremendous growth of
social media and consumer-generated content on the Internet has inspired the
development of the so-called big data analytics to understand and solve
real-life problems. However, while a handful of studies have employed new data
sources to tackle important research problems in hospitality, there has not
been a systematic application of big data analytic techniques in these studies.
This study aims to explore and demonstrate the utility of big data analytics to
better understand important hospitality issues, namely the relationship between
hotel guest experience and satisfaction. Specifically, this study applies a
text analytical approach to a large quantity of consumer reviews extracted from
Expedia.com to deconstruct hotel guest experience and examine its association
with satisfaction ratings. The findings reveal several dimensions of guest
experience that carried varying weights and, more importantly, have novel,
meaningful semantic compositions. The association between guest experience and
satisfaction appears strong, suggesting that these two domains of consumer
behavior are inherently connected. This study reveals that big data analytics
can generate new insights into variables that have been extensively studied in
existing hospitality literature. In addition, implications for theory and
practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.
Cite this paper
Ko, C. (2018). Exploring Big Data Applied in the Hotel Guest Experience. Open Access Library Journal, 5, e4877. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1104877.
Browning, V., So, K.K.F. and Sparks, B. (2013) The Influence of Online Reviews on Consumers’ Attributions of Service Quality and Control for Service Standards in Hotels. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 30, 23-40. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2013.750971
George, G., Haas, M.R. and Pentland, A. (2014) Big Data and Management. Academy of Management Journal, 57, 321-326. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.4002
Ye, Q., Law, R. and Gu, B. (2009) The Impact of Online User Reviews on Hotel Room Sales. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28, 180-182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2008.06.011
Wu, C.H.J. and Liang, R.D. (2009) Effect of Experiential Value on Customer Satisfaction with Service Encounters in Luxury-Hotel Restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28, 586-593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2009.03.008
Boyd, D. and Crawford, K. (2012) Critical Questions for Big Data: Provocations for a Cultural, Technological, and Scholarly Phenomenon. Information, Communication & Society, 15, 662-679. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2012.678878
Mayer-Sch？nberger, V. and Cukier, K. (2013) Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York.
Schumaker, R.P. and Chen, H. (2009) Textual Analysis of Stock Market Prediction Using Breaking Financial News: The AZF in Text System. ACM Transactions on Information Systems, 27, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1145/1462198.1462204
Tetlock, P.C., Saar-Tsechansky, M. and Macskassy, S. (2008) More than Words: Quantifying Language to Measure Firms’ Fundamentals. The Journal of Finance, 63, 1437-1467. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2008.01362.x
Ghose, A. and Ipeirotis, P.G. (2011) Estimating the Helpfulness and Economic Impact of product Reviews: Mining Text and Reviewer Characteristics. Knowledge and Data Engineering. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 23, 1498-1512. https://doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2010.188
Abrahams, A.S., Jiao, J., Wang, G.A. and Fan, W. (2012) Vehicle Defect Discovery from Social Media. Decision Support Systems, 54, 87-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2012.04.005
Ghose, A., Ipeirotis, P.G. and Li, B. (2012) Designing Ranking Systems for Hotels on Travel Search Engines by Mining User-Generated and Crowd Sourced Content. Marketing Science, 31, 493-520. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1110.0700
Schmunk, S., H？pken, W., Fuchs, M. and Lexhagen, M. (2013) Sentiment Analysis: Extracting Decision-Relevant Knowledge from UGC. In: Xiang, Z. and Tussyadiah, I., Eds., Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2014. Springer International Publishing, New York, 253-265. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-03973-2_19
Yoon, Y. and Uysal, M. (2005) An Examination of the Effects of Motivation and Satisfaction on Destination Loyalty: A Structural Model. Tour Manager, 26, 45-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2003.08.016
Chathoth, P., Altinay, L., Harrington, R.J., Okumus, F. and Chan, E.S. (2013) Co-Production versus Co-Creation: A Process Based Continuum in the Hotel Service Context. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, 11-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.03.009
Lockyer, T. (2005) The Perceived Importance of Price as One Hotel Selection Dimension. Tour Manager, 26, 529-537. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2004.03.009
Crotts, J.C., Mason, P.R. and Davis, B. (2009) Measuring Guest Satisfaction and Competitive Position in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry an Application of Stance-Shift Analysis to Travel Blog Narratives. Journal of Travel Research, 48, 139-151. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287508328795
Oh, H. (1999) Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Value: A Holistic Perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 18, 67-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0278-4319(98)00047-4
Pan, B., MacLaurin, T. and Crotts, J.C. (2007) Travel Blogs and the Implications for Destination Marketing. Journal of Travel Research, 46, 35-45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047287507302378
Serra Cantallops, A. and Salvi, F. (2014) New Consumer Behavior: A Review of Research on eWOM and Hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, 41-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2013.08.007
Gretzel, U. and Yoo, K.H. (2008) Use and Impact of Online Travel Reviews. In: Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2008, Springer, Vienna, 35-46. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-77280-5_4
Stringam, B.B. and Gerdes Jr., J. (2010) An Analysis of Word-of-Mouse Ratings and Guest Comments of Online Hotel Distribution Sites. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Manage-ment, 19, 773-796.
Noe, F.P. and Uysal, M. (1997) Evaluation of Outdoor Recreational Settings: A Problem of Measuring User Satisfaction. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 4, 223-230. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0969-6989(96)00030-6
Lewis, R.C. (1985) Getting the Most from Marketing Research: Part V. Predicting Hotel Choice: The Factors Underlying Perception. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 25, 82-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/001088048502500415
