The competitive effects of online reviews on hotel demand

A new study investigates the impact of online reviews on hotel booking performance with a specific focus on the competitive effects of reviews

Researchers from Texas Christian University, University of South Carolina, and RealPage published a new Journal of Marketing article that examines the impact of online reviews on hotel booking performance with a specific focus on the competitive effects of reviews.

Key takeaways

• The findings indicate that not only a hotel’s own reviews but also its competitors’ reviews have a significant impact on the hotel’s booking performance;
• The impact of review sentiment amplifies if the focal hotel also charges higher prices or when the volume of reviews is high;
• Specifically, both own and competitor reviews have a larger impact on bookings for business travelers as compared to leisure travelers, and for reviews that mainly discuss subjective attributes, when consumers need to rely on the experiences of others to assess the quality of a hotel prior to their stay.

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