Hospitality eWOM Analysis

Hospitality eWOM analysis is the systematic study of electronic word-of-mouth, the consumer-generated reviews, ratings, posts and comments that travellers share online about hotels, restaurants, attractions and destinations. Litvin, Goldsmith and Pan (2008) set out the foundational framework, defining eWOM, classifying its channels by communication scope and level of interactivity, and explaining why it matters so much in hospitality and tourism, whose intangible products are difficult to evaluate before consumption and are therefore judged heavily through the experiences of others. The analysis treats this online word-of-mouth as data, measuring its volume, its valence (how positive or negative it is) and the experience dimensions it reveals, and links these to outcomes such as bookings, satisfaction and reputation. Xiang and colleagues (2015) showed how large-scale text analytics of guest-generated reviews can deconstruct the hotel experience and connect it to satisfaction.