Multilevel Analysis of the Relationship Between Type of Travel, Online Ratings, and Management Response: Empirical Evidence from International Upscale Hotels

ABSTRACT

The diverse characteristics of customers and hotels have been identified as relevant to online customer satisfaction at the individual level. In this study, a comprehensive examination is conducted, through the use of a multilevel, nested model and secondary data set. The results show that both online review experience and management response frequencies can positively affect customer satisfaction. Additionally, hotel managers need to pay more attention to customers who have less online review experience when they carry out targeted response strategies. The findings have various implications for both academic researchers and hotel operators.

KEYWORDS:

• Customer satisfaction
• online reviews
• management response
• China
• social media

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University [grant number 1-ZE3K].

Notes on contributors

Sai Liang

Sai Liang is PhD Candidate, School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 Xidazhi Street, Harbin, 150001, People’s Republic of China (E-mail: [email protected]).

Markus Schuckert

Markus Schuckert is Assistant Professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 17 Science Museum Road, TST-East, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR (E-mail: [email protected]).

Rob Law

Rob Law is Professor, School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 17 Science Museum Road, TST-East, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR (E-mail: [email protected]).