Similarity and consistency in hotel online ratings across platforms

Abstract

Online ratings are a major driver of hotel choice. There are many ratings platforms, and the number of evaluations is huge. This article analyzes if hotel ratings vary across platforms, vary over time, and if consistency in ratings can be observed. Longitudinal online ratings taken from 11 platforms over a two-year period were analyzed through Self-Organizing Maps. The findings suggest a similar pattern of online ratings across most of the platforms, except for Yelp and HolidayCheck. In addition, the evaluation patterns are stable over time, and the analyzed attributes do not contribute decisively to explain the overall evaluation of hotels, which implies that tourists use a noncompensatory evaluation model. More interestingly, there is no difference between the evaluation patterns of the platforms that require proof of prior reservation and those that do not. The results were confirmed by means of two qualitative studies undertaken with hotel managers.