ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD: BEYOND ONLINE HOTEL REVIEWS

Purpose - The purpose of this study was to uncover potential thematic mismatches between textual comments in online hotel reviews, on the one hand, and rating categories in those reviews, consumer experience scales, and marketing tools, on the other; and to draw attention to challenges that these mismatches pose for hotel managers and researchers. Design/Methodology/Approach - An in-depth, qualitative, contextual content analysis of online reviews was conducted. Findings - Thematic mismatches were found for all three comparisons. The textual comments are broader in topic than the rating categories of the platform studied. Conversely, textual comments are thematically narrower than the studied consumer experience scales and marketing tools. These mismatches can lead to suboptimal decision-making by hotel managers especially when they are pressured by a large and increasing number of reviews. Originality of the research - Past research has not drawn attention to the thematic mismatches between textual comments in online customer reviews and other sources of information available to hotel managers, nor has it discussed the challenges hotel managers may face when relying heavily on online customer comments. The findings also provide input for researchers to rethink how best to measure consumers’ hotel experience.