Responding to Online Reviews in Hospitality Management Report

This report analyzes the article 'Responding to Online Reviews: Problem Solving and Engagement in Hotels,' focusing on the use of online reviews in co-creating hotel services. The analysis centers on four case studies of deluxe and premium hotels, examining their responses to online feedback. The study highlights the impact of online reviews on consumer decision-making, emphasizing the importance of problem-solving and employee engagement in the competitive hospitality industry. It explores how hotels manage online responses and the reasons behind their strategies, including the significance of both positive and negative reviews. The report also discusses the role of co-creation, where both the hotel and the consumer contribute to value, and the impact of online reviews on consumer behavior and hotel sales. The conclusion summarizes the findings, underscoring the correlation between hotel size, ranking, service quality, and online review responses.

Running head: HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT
Hospitality Management
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note
a.

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Introduction
The article ‘Responding to Online Reviews: Problem Solving and Engagement in Hotels’
is chosen to work on this assignment. The concept of using online reviews in co- creation of the
service provided by the hotel will be focused on during the analysis. Four case studies selected in
this research will highlight the important aspects.
a. The article ‘Responding to Online Reviews: Problem Solving and Engagement in Hotels’
by Sun- Young Park and Jonathan P. Allen was chosen for this assignment. This is
because online reviews can be considered as important in the hospitality industry for
better organizational performance. It is better to gather feedback online because it is
much more effective than direct feedback. It also carries better validity as the respondents
are not present in front. The rapid increase in the hospitality industry and the tough
competition in the same can be dealt with effective problem solving and engaging
employees.
b. There are certain areas, which the particular article has focused on. It was mentioned in
the article that online reviews have modified the consumer decision making in the
hospitality industry. This amendment was done by making information available about
the service experience, for instance, information about the hotel rooms and tariffs are
easily available on the internet. With the increasing importance of online reviews, several
researches have disclosed its importance from the consumers’ perspectives. At present,
the managers of the hospitality industry have come up with a new confusion, if it is
required to respond to online review and the ways by which it can be done.

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This article had focused on exploring about the online review responses in the high- end
luxurious hotels. This specific category of hotel was chosen as the area of interest for this
research because they shed light on the individual attention and personal interactions, which is
contradictory to online communications. In this particular article, four- case studies of deluxe
and premium hotels of the Western City in the US were selected. Out of these four, two hotels
responded positively whereas the other two did not. The former two hotels responded frequently
about the online reviews posted about their hotel whereas the responses from the other two were
rare and negligible. A comparison was drawn between the case studies to find out the processes
used in the luxurious hotels to manage online responses and the reasons for selecting those
processes. The analysis of the online responses of all 34-premium hotels highlighted the
considerable diversity. The data presented on the high- end hotels reacted to both positive and
negative reviews.
From this article, it can be mentioned that the findings of the research can be effective for the
hospitality managers to take effective decision regarding their response to online reviews. They
can also focus on the options available to them and the key problems that need to be considered.
c. The evidence that was presented by the authors was somewhat effective in supporting the
arguments because they did not find any previous major research on the online review
response of the firms. However, the little bit of research done on the topic of online
review responses brought out the two areas of online reviews from the customers’
perspectives and the value of co- creation. Online reviews have become a powerful tool
for the consumers to be used in the process of decision- making. A literature review had
suggested that the perceptions and behavior of customers face the impact of online

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review response whereas, it is dependent on the on the kind, purpose and volume of
reviews.
It was found out in a research paper the exposure of the customers to the online review
responses have increased the opportunity to include the hotels in their consideration of decision
making. Another research had focused on the positive relationship between the average review
rating and the sale of hotel rooms. On the other hand, in terms of books, lower review rating had
an impact on the book sale more than the e- books at the websites. It was further stated that
consumers’ decision were affected more by the quality of the review rather than quantity.
The argument regarding the acceptability of online review was focused on with the mention
of the major role played in sharing information among the consumers. The underlying reason can
be the purpose of awareness instead of directly affecting the purchase decisions. Online reviews
acted as a word- of- mouth information among the customers for increasing awareness and not
for persuading changing decision. In the same way, a more powerful effect of the online review
response in the less popular hotels by the service providers were not found out.
The impact of online review response was carefully argued by the use of secondary
sources which stressed on the alternative ways of acquiring information are comparatively
meager. This might strongly imply on the hotel industry as significant in the consumer decision
making. It can be suggested that the consumers should not be considered as the passive receivers
of the worth generated by the hotels. Instead, they are the active participants in creating the value
by contributing with their own reviews. Co- creation refers to the dual creation of value by the
company and the consumer. It is a false notion that the organizations try to please the customers
by estimating the valuable services to the customers.

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The literature review also focused on the needs of involving the stakeholders to create
worth by adding interactions among them. It was argued that new and innovative ideas can be
generated to boost up the experience and advantages of all the stakeholders and the organization
will be able to win competitive advantage from the constant involvement of the members.
Conclusion
It can be concluded after reviewing this particular article that the four case studies of the
hotels were put together to find out about their online review responses. There were both positive
and negative reviews among the 34 hotels that were studied. There were correlation between the
size, ranking and service quality of the hotels that were selected in this research.

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Bibliography
Park, S. Y., & Allen, J. P. (2013). Responding to online reviews: Problem solving and
engagement in hotels. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 54(1), 64-73.