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Abstract
This research looks into the experience as perceived in 2014 by hotel guests in 15 bigger Dutch cities. The hotel reviews of Leeuwarden (Capital of Culture 2018) are compared to those of hotels in the other cities to provide an initial benchmark of how Leeuwarden hotels are performing. Literature shows that guest reviews have a significant influence on hotel booking behaviour, which affects hotel revenues and cities' reputations. For this study, reviews were collected from 51 review sites and analysed for 15 of the bigger Dutch cities with 10 hotels or more. Results showed that Leeuwarden hotels generally perform in the middle category, only being in the top three where it concerns “service”. A concern is raised about the only 53% of positive guest reviews overall that were generated on Leeuwarden hotels compared to the 57% Dutch average. A quite positive outcome relates to the fact that in all of the six specific categories within the hotel product offer, Leeuwarden performed higher than the Dutch average. This was next to Leeuwarden only the case for Rotterdam and The Hague. Recommendations include the suggestions to further investigate in detail how individual hotels perform, to stimulate Leeuwarden hotel guests to leave more positive guest reviews on review sites, and for authorities to engage in stimulating the knowledge and skills of local hotel operators in order to be best prepared for the Leeuwarden Cultural Capital 2018 event.