Factors influencing guests’ hotel quality appraisals

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyse the factors influencing the service quality appraisals left by hotel guests on Tripadvisor website. First we hypothesise that price and hotel-star category are the main determinants of ex ante expectations, and that they negatively affect the ex post quality appraisal. This is because the higher the expectations are, the lower the probability is that the hotel achieved the expected quality. Second we measure other determinants of objective quality, such as the age of facilities and offered services. Third we study the island effect, i.e., whether the hotels located in the Balearic and Canary Islands obtain higher evaluations than hotels on continental Europe. The results confirm that the price and the hotel star category negatively affect quality assessments. Furthermore, the age of facilities affects the assessments negatively Finally there appears to be no island effect in terms of quality assessment. The findings suggests that ex ante expectations are essential factors in the ex post evaluation.