ABSTRACT:
This study aims to determine definition w88 win online review in tourism accommodation and elements w88 win online review affecting booking intention. Based on factors derived from previous studies, description and reliability test were used in this study to examine internal impacts w88 win online review on the booking intention w88 win travellers. This study analyzed 248 responses from July to August 2019. The study’s results shows that there are 5 internal elements w88 win online review, namely review from professionals, timing w88 win review, volume, content and review form. This study also analyzes some theories.
Keywords:Online review, accommodation, booking intention.
1. Introduction
From 2010 to 2015, Vietnamese investors have affirmed their position in the market, forming international chain hotels with Vietnamese brand name. In addition to the traditional hotel chain hotels such as Saigon Tourist Corporation known as the brand Saigontourist, or Hanoi Tourism Corporation known as the brand Hanoitourist over the years, there has appeared Vinpearl Hotel chain w88 win Vin Group, hotel chain w88 win collective Sun Group, Muong Thanh hotel chain and so on..., which are highly appreciated by visitors. Vietnamese investors have replaced foreign ones in some high-end hotel projects.
As the result, this leads to certain competition among resort, hotel or homestay services. They have to find the right strategies to not only attract but also keep the potential customers to choose their services. The aims w88 win this paper mainly focus on two things: Firstly, it shows the elements w88 win online review; Secondly, an analysis w88 win attributes influences booking intention. The relative importance w88 win these attributes will thus be identified. The research findings will enhance our understanding w88 win the relationship between hotel reviews and tourists’ booking intention, and help managers to make more accurate decisions when managing reviews.
2. Literature review
Online review: Online reviews are positive and negative reviews w88 win the products which have been sold on the online shopping mall [9]. Several researchers have investigated the impact w88 win hotel reviews on accommodation purchase decisions. Vermeulen & Seegers (2009) found that both positive and negative reviews increase customers’ awareness and improve attitude toward hotels, especially for the less-known hotels. Sparks & Browning (2011) and Coker (2012) found that context and "consideration set" has an impact on booking intentions, trust, and evaluations. Yet, the research designs for previous studies only ask subjects to evaluate one hotel at a time and focus only on how the review content impacts on travelers’ attitudes, without considering other variables.
2.1. Reviewer expertise
Another distinctive feature w88 win online reviews is that they are provided by anonymous individuals [7]. In fact, information sharing is not a genuinely random behavior, as there exists market "mavens" who have a particular propensity to post messages about shopping and the marketplace messages (Feick and Price, 1987). Consumers can identify such market mavens and follow them in the process w88 win making purchasing decisions. As such, the characteristics w88 win communicators, both senders and receivers, play a critical role in information persuasiveness (Dholakia and Sternthal, 1977). More importantly, in the online context, people who made postings tend to search for travel information from others who engage in similar activities (Akehurst, 2009).
2.2. Timeliness w88 win online review
During the information search process, consumers may encounter a large amount w88 win relevant information which is associated with a particular time stamp, which leads to the research concept w88 win timeliness. Timeliness refers to "whether the messages are current, timely, and up-to-date" (Cheung et al., 2008, p. 465). Despite its generally agreed importance, timeliness is frequently ignored in online reviews research (Ives et al., 1983). Madu and Madu (2002) pointed out that a Web site needs to be updated consistently to deliver value-added information to users. Its influence may be even stronger if comments are labeled as "spotlight reviews" because these are shown before other reviews on the comments page [2]. From consumers’ perspective, as time elapses, the average helpfulness w88 win reviews declines (Liu, 2006). In a similar vein, Jindal and Liu (2008) found that in the e-commerce environment, more recent product reviews would get more user attentions.
2.3. Volume w88 win online review
Volume is another important attribute w88 win WOM, and it measures the total amount w88 win interactive messages (Liu, 2006). Variations in the volume w88 win online customer reviews provide evidence that not all hotels are treated equally, and hence, it’s reasonable that not all reviews are treated equally. It has been regarded as a key antecedent w88 win the WOM effect (Bone, 1995). In online settings, volume w88 win reviews is the number w88 win comments from reviewers about a specific product or service (Davis and Khazanchi, 2008). Several studies demonstrate that volume significantly correlates with consumer behaviors like customer-initiated contacts with manufacturers (Bowman and Narayandas, 2001) and market performance in terms w88 win sales (Amblee and Bui, 2007; Liu, 2006; Zhu and Zhang, 2010). Higher volumes w88 win comments, either positive or negative, in online communities are more likely to attract information seekers and then increase product awareness (Davis and Khazanchi, 2008). The number w88 win online comments also signals the level w88 win agreement among consumers (Elliott, 2002).
However, Davis and Khazanchi (2008) argued that an increase in volume w88 win online reviews alone has no significant impact on book sales in e-commerce multiproduct sales. Godes and Mayzlin (2004) reported that the volume w88 win consumer reviews does not have significant explanatory power in terms w88 win weekly box office revenues. Nevertheless, considering the information asymmetry present and the unique features w88 win tourism products such as intangibility and integration w88 win production and consumption (Litvin and Ng, 2001; Taylor, 1980), this study argued that a high volume w88 win online reviews may induce a perception w88 win lowered risk.
2.4. Valence w88 win online review
Message valence focuses on either the positive (benefits gained) or negative (benefits lost) product attributes (Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy, 1990). Online reviews can be either negative or positive within the same location, and impacts w88 win each type have been continuously compared for a better marketing mix. Negative messages are more diagnostic, which implies low-quality products, whereas positive information may be connected to high-, average- and even low-quality products (Herr et al., 1991). As a decision-making process focuses on the message content, consumers place more weight on negative information in making product evaluations (Mizerski, 1982; Richins, 1983; Weinberger and Dillon, 1980). In addition, negative information spreads faster than positive, as angry customers are more likely than satisied ones to tell relatives and friends about their experiences (Hart et al., 1990; Richins, 1983). When the proportion w88 win negative online consumer reviews increases, consumers’ attitudes towards the product would become more unfavorable [7].
The findings w88 win previous work on the effects w88 win message valence are inconsistent. In Maheswaran and Meyers-Levy’s (1990) series w88 win studies, some results indicate that positively framed messages are more persuasive, whereas others suggest the reverse. This lack w88 win consistency may be attributable to the degree to which consumers are involved in detailed message processing. From the perspective w88 win information recipients, Westbrook (1987) showed that both positive and negative information can influence consumers’ loyalty, product evaluation and purchase decision. Therefore, it is more logical to examine the impacts w88 win negative and positive reviews, respectively. Negative comments are mainly generated as a response to dissatisfaction and can be harmful to business retailers and manufacturers by having an adverse effect on business (Charlett et al., 1995). The action w88 win spreading negative information could be even more harmful than simply complaining, which is mostly invisible (Charlett et al., 1995). In contrast to negative comments, positive reviews mainly focus on extolling a company’s quality orientation, such as making recommendations to others (Brown et al., 2005). Positive online reviews are generally recognized as a valuable vehicle for promoting a irm’s products and services (Gremler et al., 2001).
2.5. Form w88 win Reviews
Pictures are formed in the consumers’ first review or additional reviews, which is one part w88 win reviews. The re-views containing pictures reflect the real quality w88 win the goods, such as color problem, specifications inconsistent problem, or the high quality, good experience. The picture reviews reduce consumer’s risk during buying experience goods. In the consumer learning process, picture reviews indicates the real buying behavior. Consumer can complete the comment within 180 days. After that, the seller will give evaluation to the consumer, too.
Cumulative reviews are reviews posted within a month. The reviews may involve color, quality, specification, logistics, customer service and other factors. The reviews can be done a long tirade; also can be a short word evaluation, such as good or bad. Cumulative review is an important channel for consumer to understand goods information before buying. The high richness information can help consumers understand product information deeply. Some study show that the influence w88 win positive reviews replaces the influence w88 win cumulative reviews. But another study found that the quantity w88 win online reviews affect the willingness w88 win consumers to buy on the network. (Zan Mo, Yan-Fei Li, Peng Fan, 2015).
3. Methodology
Online survey was used as a data gathering instrument. Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) was used to analyze the collected data. The questionnaire was distributed people online in Facebook. The questionnaire was in three sections. Section A gathered information on the behavior frequency. Section B found out the elements w88 win online review while Section C contained demographic data w88 win respondents. The statistical package for social scientists (SPSS 20.0 version) was used in data analysis. The second section w88 win survey consisted w88 win 21 items whose responses varied from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) in form w88 win a five point Likert type scale. Out w88 win the total number w88 win 248 copies w88 win questionnaire distributed 248 were retrieved (from July 15th to August 15th) representing 100% response rate which was very much representative w88 win the sample. Respondents are consisted w88 win 248 people (from 10/8/2018 - 28/8/2018) who responded to the online survey accurately. The result w88 win Table 1 has showed that most w88 win the participants were 18 to 25 ages (58.9%) and students (42.7%) and below 2 million income (27.4%). Male is 82 respondents (33.1%) and female is 166 respondents (66.9%).
4. Findings and discussion
According to Table 1, as a result w88 win Reliabilities analysis, six factors namely: Usefulness w88 win online review, reviewer expertise, timeliness w88 win online review, volume w88 win online review, valance w88 win online review, form w88 win online review, with 18 items have Cronbach's Alpha value 0.718, 0.686, 0.627, 0.742 and 0.765. This scale could be considered as a reliable data collection tool within the context w88 win the study.
Table 1. The elements w88 win online review with mean scores
Online reviews are a useful information source for most travelers to generate their intentions and make trip decisions [5]. The present findings demonstrate that impacts w88 win online reviews on travelers’ actions depend on six characteristics/features, including usefulness, reviewer expertise, timeliness, volume, valence and comprehensiveness. These features play identical roles in manipulating traveler intentions and decisions.
Specifically, as for review valence, the current results are consistent with previous findings that negativity effect is more important than other features in predicting consumers’ booking intentions, as Willemsen et al. (2011, p. 31) said that “negativity effect was present only for experience products”. In their study, experience products “are dominated by intangible attributes that cannot be known until purchase and for which performance evaluations can be verified only by sensory experience or booking consumption” (p. 23). In the hotel industry, Ye et al. (2009) suggested that hotels should allocate more resources in managing the valence w88 win reviews, which could lead to increases in bookings/sales. As such, hoteliers may benefit from handling customer complaints more strategically and dealing effectively with service recovery, as at least 5 - 10 per cent w88 win dissatisfied customers choose to complain (Tax and Brown, 2012).
In addition to review valence, comprehensiveness significantly influences people’s online booking intentions. This ending extends previous studies suggesting that people are cognitive misers, as they tend to rely on heuristic cues like easy-to-process graphic information (e.g. numerical or star ratings) to make evaluations or decision (Macrae and Bodenhausen, 2001). Holding a similar stance, Ye et al. (2009) found that hotels with higher star ratings would receive more online bookings. While it is acknowledged that consumers rely on categorical information because it is simple and easy to understand, this study found that comprehensiveness has high predictive power w88 win their booking intentions. A possible explanation for this is the fact that in virtual communities, the mere presence w88 win arguments and anonymity on the Internet lead people to require more cues to judge information based on the rigor w88 win arguments. Also, this study illustrates the positive impacts w88 win timeliness and volume w88 win online reviews on booking intentions. Online reviews are a valuable channel w88 win asynchronous information, which serves as predictive indicators w88 win consumers’ attitudes. At the same time, consumer awareness has been regarded as a key variable in describing consumer choice, which will finally lead to purchase [10]. With more exposure to a hotel brand, there would be a higher chance for consumers to include a hotel into their awareness set. Therefore, more efforts could be devoted to increasing the quantity w88 win online reviews about a hotel.
Furthermore, this study found a positive relation between usefulness w88 win online reviews and online purchase intentions. As mentioned above, consumers are currently in an information overloading situation. This study also found a positive relationship between reviewer expertise and people’s booking intentions. This is consistent with previous studies discussing effects w88 win source expertise upon respondents’ perceptions (Tan et al., 2008). Biswas et al. (2000) suggested that expertise refers to relevant intelligence to the object w88 win discussion and a reviewer needs to possess knowledge on a specific topic. In the hotel industry, this expertise includes good reputation, greater hotel knowledge and good credit record, all w88 win which are typical features w88 win opinion leadership (Bloch et al., 1989). Opinion leaders are individuals who can influence the opinions and behaviors w88 win others positively and frequently (Jamrozy et al., 1996). Jamrozy et al. (1996) empirically examined the relationship between involvement and opinion leadership in tourism and suggested that opinion leaders are identifiable. It would, therefore, benefit hotels to seek out and obtain more specific information about opinion leaders, such as how they diffuse their personal experiences w88 win consuming hotel products and services.
5. Conclusion, research limitations and implications
The research has discovered 5 elements w88 win the online review that influence the booking intention such as reviewer expertise, timeliness, volume, valance, form w88 win online review.
This study’s limitations provide directions for future study. One w88 win the major findings is that the interrelationships among features w88 win online reviews, which were discussed in other similar studies, were not considered. As such, it would be worthwhile for tourism scholars and practitioners to empirically examine different information channels to optimize their promotional efforts and adjust the resources allocation accordingly. Further, future work could compare the impact w88 win online reviews across different tourism sectors. While the current study focused on hotels only, the results may be applicable to other market segments. For example, it is reasonable to suggest that online reviews may have a greater influence on products that are more likely to be purchased online (such as light tickets) than on those sold mainly offline (such as entrance tickets for scenic spots). The orientation w88 win future research is to determine the effect w88 win these factors on the booking intention through the regression anal and to compare the level w88 win influence between different tourist groups.
This research is funded by University w88 win Economics under the University w88 win Danang
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NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ ĐÁNH GIÁ TRỰC TUYẾN
ĐỐI VỚI DỊCH VỤ LƯU TRÚ DU LỊCH
●ThS.NGUYỄN CAO LIÊN PHƯỚC
Giảng viên Trường Đại học Kinh tế - Đại học Đà Nẵng
TÓM TẮT:
Nghiên cứu nhằm khái niệm cụ thể vềđánh giá trực tuyếntrong lĩnh vựclưu trú du lịchvà các thành tố của đánh giá trực tuyến ảnh hưởng đến ý định đặt phòng. Từ các yếu tố tổng hợp được qua các nghiên cứu trước đây, nghiên cứu này sử dụng kỹ thuật phân tích nhân tố, độ tin cậy (reliability analysis) để xác định các yếu tố nội tại của đánh giá trực tuyến có ảnh hưởng đếný định đặt phòngcủakhách du lịch. Kết quả nghiên cứu được phân tích dựa trên 248 phản hồi từ tháng 7 và tháng 8 năm 2019. Kết quả cho thấy, tồn tại 5 yếu tố nội tại thuộc đánh giá trực tuyến, là: chuyên gia đánh giá, thời gian của đánh giá, khối lượng, nội dung và hình thức đánh giá. Một số lý thuyết khác cũng được thảo luận trong nghiên cứu này.
Từ khóa:Đánh giá trực tuyến, lưu trú, ý định đặt chỗ.
