Analyzing the Impact of Online Reviews on Hotel Brand Image: A Study

This report examines the significant influence of online customer reviews on the brand image of hotels. It delves into how review ratings shape customer perceptions and buying behaviors within the hospitality industry. The research addresses the authenticity of reviews, biased judgments, and the correlation between brand image and customer feedback. It explores the impact of servicescape factors, manipulation of reviews, and the role of customer loyalty. The study also poses research questions to understand the nuances of customer review ratings, their impact on brand perception, and the relationship between brand image and online reviews. Furthermore, it reviews existing literature and highlights the importance of authentic reviews in building trust and improving sales volume. The report concludes by emphasizing the need for organizations to consider activities for enhancing their review ratings, and how this impacts the overall brand image.

Running head: ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEW AND BRAND IMAGE
ONLINE CUSTOMER REVIEW AND BRAND IMAGE
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
2. Statement of Research Problem...................................................................................................3
a. Research Questions..................................................................................................................4
b. Literature Review....................................................................................................................4
3. Theoretical Foundation..............................................................................................................12
4. Research Epistemology with Justification.................................................................................13
a. Interpretivism.........................................................................................................................13
4. Research Method.......................................................................................................................14
a. Case Study.............................................................................................................................14
b. Data Collection Strategy........................................................................................................15
c. Data Analysis Method............................................................................................................16
5. Expected Outcomes...................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................19

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Topic: The impact of website reviews on the brand image of hotels
1. Introduction
Online review ratings play an important role in influencing the buying power of the
consumers. It has been found that most of the customers, active on different social media
platforms, take the initiative of undertaking a research on the value propositions and the utilities
that are provided by the organizations. The online reviews affect the brand image of any service
providing organization, specifically the companies in the hospitality industry. Chakraborty and
Biswal (2020) stated that the customers create a perception on the services that are being
provided by the hotel, based on the online review ratings. In this relation, the positive review
ratings influences the buying behavior of the customers, persuading the same to make a try on
the service propositions that are made by the organization.
However, the negative review ratings not only affect the buying behavior of the
customers or clients but also create a negative impact on the brand image. It has been observed
that more than 76% of the customers research out the net for validating and relying on the
proclaimed services of the organizations based on the reviews (El-Said, 2020). In most of the
past literatures it has been found that servicescape factors greatly influenced the customer
reviews. Most of the customers, satisfied with the propositions, delivered positive reviews
commenting on the nature of experience they had while receiving the services. The explanation
on the nature of experience, in the form of reviews, acts as a word- of –mouth promotion for the
organizations while encouraging and influencing the buying behavior of the other customers.
Therefore, the research will aim towards identifying the manner in which the online reviews and
ratings affect the brand image of the companies in the hospitality sector.

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2. Statement of Research Problem
The research will be analyzing the challenges related to the authenticity of the review
ratings as it creates an adverse impact on the buyer’s perception. It has been observed that the
absence of clear articulation of the reviews or biased reviews on the company websites might
affect the brand image of the businesses. Again, the biased judgment affects the organizational
operations while operating as per the common goals of the venture. The incapability of the
customers in categorizing the servicescape factors while distinguishing between two
organizations has significantly created an impact on the online reviews that are provided by the
customers (Casado-Díaz, Pérez-Naranjo & Sellers-Rubio, 2017). The biased online reviews
affect the capability of the unaware customers in deciding on the true nature of the service
propositions that are made by the organizations while making their choice of hotels. Review
ratings create a perception in the minds of the customers.
The perception specifically guides the decision making capabilities of the customers
while making a choice on the type of hotels they would prefer to stay in. Absence of authentic
reviews in the online portals of an organization might result to minimized sales and ill-brand
image of the organization. The customer’s decisions are specifically guided by perceptions. The
negative perceptions, through the reviews, might affect the sales volume of the organization
while operating in the different markets. In several cases, it has been observed that the customer
reviews are biased as their preferences are inclined towards the services that are provided by the
competing organizations. Therefore, the authenticity and reliability of the review ratings are an
important factor that would support a hospitality based organization in improving the sales
volume while influencing the perception of the customers.

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a. Research Questions
The research questions that will be considered for the study are:
 What are customer review ratings in the hospitality industry?
 How does review ratings influence the perception and buying behavior of the customers
towards a brand?
 What is the correlation between a brand’s image and the review ratings that are being
provided by the customers?
 What are the recommended activities that might be considered by the organizations for
improving their review ratings?
b. Literature Review
The hospitality industry and the organization in the sector are specifically focused
towards improving the experience of the customers. In this connection, the organizations have
taken the initiative of continuously improving their services with the purpose of retaining the
trust and loyalty of the customers. The customer satisfaction of the hotels is specifically ratified
through the assessment of the customers’ after experience of staying at the establishment. In
most of the cases, the well satisfied customers of the hotels take the initiative of providing online
reviews for making the other visitors in the site aware of the distinguished range of services that
are provided by the business.
According to Soler and Gémar (2017), the customer online review ratings supports an
organization in gaining the trust and confidence of the target audience while improving their
brand image. In addition to the promotions that are made by the hospitality sector, acclaiming the
uniqueness of the service delivery process, the customer review ratings support in improving the
capability of the organization in developing trust among the customers. Kim and Park (2017)

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opined that in around 10-14% cases the organizations take the initiative of collaborating with
different firms with the purpose of manipulating the online review ratings that are made by the
customers with the purpose of gaining over the trust and confidence of the target audience. The
manipulation of the review ratings create a situation of difference between the actual and
perceived value of the propositions that are made by the organization. For an instance, when an
organization aims at improving their scope of short term profitability, they manipulate with the
online reviews with the purpose of influencing the perception of the customers towards the
organization.
The tampering and manipulation of the reviews while posing their service preposition as
the best in the market might result to short term hikes in the sales volume but might create a
great impact on the brand image due to the difference in the perceived and actual value of the
propositions. According to Hung (2017), the manipulation of the online reviews from the side
of the organization is an unethical practices while playing with the interests and perception of the
target audience and gaining over their trust. However, the absence of the promised services
might affect the interests and loyalty of the target customers. It has been observed that the
hospitality industry is growing which has intensified the competition between the existing and
new firms with developed propositions. In this connection, the loss of brand image of an
organization in the market might affect the capability of the same in retaining the trust and
commitment of the target audience.
The online review ratings play an important role in improving he trust and commitment
of the target audience while providing them with a brief idea on the service delivery process and
the commitment of the organization towards providing the customers with experience. While
evaluating the research paper by Berezina et al., (2016) it has been observed that the factors

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relating to staff behavior, ambience, food and beverage quality, amenities and the like plays an
influential role in driving the interests of the customers towards the propositions that are made by
the hotel. In this connection, it has been observed that most of the organizations in the hospitality
industry have taken the initiative of manipulating the review ratings, based on the preferences of
the customers, for driving the attention of the target audience towards their propositions. From
the research of Liu, Huang and Kuo (2018) it has been observed that more than 37% of the
organizations have taken the initiative of utilizing he review ratings as their promotional
platform for attracting and encouraging the customers to make a buy of the service propositions.
In certain situations, the authenticity and reliability of the online review ratings are lost due to
the increased manipulation and intervention of the companies in manipulating the activities.
The difference between the actual value of the service prepositions that are made by the
organizations and the perceived value affects the capability of the same in retaining the trust and
confidence of the customers. Again, Barreda et al., (2016) opined in a research study that the
personal biases and persuasive content are found in the website reviews that are manipulated by
the organizations, limiting the information on the cons. In this connection, Chakraborty and
Bhat, (2018) observed in a research that the review ratings play an important role in ratifying
both the pros and cons of the business propositions in an unbiased manner which supports the
decisions that are made by the customers. However, the manipulative activities of the
organizations in producing their propositions as the best in the market, the consumers, might
affect the rationale for the review ratings.
The representation of uniqueness of the services that are provided by the organization
through manipulation of the review ratings specifically influences the perception of the
customers towards the brand, based on their trust. However, Buus et al., (2017) observed that the

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differences in the perceived and the actual value might create dissatisfaction among the
customers which might lead the same to post contradictory ratings and nullifying the
acclamations that are made by the organization. The nullification of the acclamations that are
made by the organizations would affect the brand image. Jenq (2019) opined that most of the
customers trust the review ratings while making their decision on the choice of hotels. Therefore,
the manipulation of the online review ratings might create an influential force for guiding the
buying behavior of the customers unethically. On the contrary, Krishnamurthy and Kumar
(2018) opined that the biased reviews posted by the customers due to their loyalty to any
competing service providing organization might affect the brand image of a particular business.
For an instance, a customer is loyal towards the services that are provided by Hotel X then the
customers might post a negative review on the services that are provided by Hotel Y even though
the services that are provided by the organization Y are better than that of X.
The conspicuous consumption based trend and loyalty of the customers towards a single
service provider might result to inclined perception of the consumers that might cause harm to
the brand image of the other service providing firms, In more than 72% cases, it has been found
that the customer review ratings did not match with the actual services that are delivered by the
organizations (Chan, Wu & Vipulakom, 2020). In this connection the biased review ratings of
the customers towards an organization might be segregated into positive and negative outcomes.
The positive outcome of a biased review rating that is provided by a customer is reliant on the
trust and loyalty of the latter on the prior and even though the organization have certain flaws in
the service delivery process the customer reviews appreciates the pros. For an instance, a
customer is loyal towards the propositions that are made by company X and posts positive
reviews, there remains a high chance that the customer might not include the negative aspects of

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the organization’s service delivery process. The inclination of the customer towards the service
propositions based on favoritism might affect the authenticity and reliability of he review ratings.
The brand image of the concerned organization might be increased through the positive yet
biased review of the customer.
However, the contradiction between the review and the actual service propositions of the
concerned organization might affect the experience of the other customers, visiting the hotel,
resulting to a tainted brad image. According to VO, Chovancová and Tri (2019), the increased
aspects of favoritism among the customers might affect the authenticity and reliability of the
online review ratings hat might affect the interests of growth and expansion of the businesses.
Moreover, Ponte (2016) opined that service and experience being non- tangible entities are hard
to conceptualize and are specifically reliant on the perception of the people. In this connection,
the reliability and authenticity of the review ratings play an important role in contributing to the
brand image of the service sector organizations. On the other hand, Wan and Law (2017)
observed that the negative reviews from customers having an inclination towards the services
that are being positioned by a competing organization might incapacitate an organization in
improving their brand image in the markets.
The negative reviews might affect the capability of the organization in improving the
brand image among the target group of customers. For an instance, when a customer posts a
negative review on the website of Company X, reflecting a favored perception towards the
services that are provided by Y, the perception of other visitors in the website would be affected.
The negative reviews dynamically affect the perception of the customers towards the
propositions. According to Hu and Yang (2019), the inclined behavior of the customers towards
an organization or disapproval on the services are specifically based on stereotyping and

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perceptions. It has been observed that the brand preferences and loyalty among the customers are
the chief aspects that influenced the negative review rating activities. Again, the absence of
measurement capability of the customers while distinguishing between the services provided by
two companies have increased chances of biases in the area of review rating.
According to Liang, S., Schuckert and Law (2017), the differences in the perception of
the people towards the service propositions and the needs have created dissimilarity between the
review ratings making the same more complex to analyze. For an instance the service that might
seem convenient for a customer might not seem the same for the other. The increased rate of
variance in the customer review rating has again increased the possibility of biases in the ratings
that might directly affect the capability of the organization in retaining the brand image. Wajda,
and Puorto (2018) stated that the absence of effective measurement units for identifying the rate
of variance between the experience and the ratings have increasingly affected the capability of
the organization in retaining the brand image. The absence of effective measurement on the
experience that the organization provided to the consumers affected the quality of the review
rating. According to Phillips et al. (2017), the beliefs and emotions of the customers play a
major role in guiding their activities towards the different review rating related activities. From a
survey it has been validated that most of the customers are likely to provide positive reviews to
their preferred hotels (Kim, Jun & Kim, 2018).
The preferential and favoring act of the customers might affect the review ratings that are
passed by the customers in the websites. According to Sijoria, Mukherjee and Datta (2019), the
locus of control acts as a tool for identifying the nature of the flaws in the service delivery
process while guiding the customers in making their decisions during a rating activity. However,
the lack of quantitative measures has affected the capability of the customers in ratifying the

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intangible services through assumed numbers, resulting to rating. The involvement of customer
assumptions while rating the services that are provided by an organization results to personal
biases. Most of the customers, in the digitalized era, make online hotel reservations and
transitions through the web. In this connection, the review ratings play an important role in
empowering the decisions that are made by the customers. Levy, Boo and Duan (2016)
observed that the review rating acts as an important tool for making the customers aware of the
diverse range of services and the quality of the offerings that are made by the hotels. Reliability
and validity of the review ratings guide another customer while selecting the best service
providing organization in accordance with the preferences or needs.
The customer review ratings create an impression on the minds of the visitors while
shaping the perception of the same towards the organizational offerings. In most of the cases, the
customers prefer digital transactions for reservations in hotels. In this connection, most of the
customers take the initiative of reviewing the ratings that are provided by the other customers
based on their experiences. The detailing on the experience, the ambience or the staff behavior
are the major considerations that are made by the new visitors while judging the effectiveness of
the service propositions. However, the perception of the consumers and experience are non-
quantitative factors with higher rate of variance which might affect the understanding of the new
visitors while shaping a stereotypical perception towards the services that are provided by the
organizations. According to Hapsari, Clemes and Dean (2017), the millennial generation is more
inclined towards the use of web based search before making an online buy. In this connection,
the review ratings enable a customer in finding the best hospitality service, suiting the needs.
However, Xia et al. (2019) opined that the biases in the review ratings might affect the capability
of the customers in finding the most desirable hospitality service to fit into the expectations of

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the same. On the other hand, the brand image of an organization is compromised through the
biased and unreliable review ratings. From the research conducted by Manganari and Dimara
(2017), the biased review rating increases the distance between the actual value of the
proposition and the perceived value. In case of positive and biased review rating, the customers
might perceive the service to be exceedingly unique, as per the review, which might turn out to
normal in actuality. In this situation, the customers might feel deprived and scammed, affecting
their overall experience with the organization. Yang, Wu and Yang (2018) stated that the
diminishing rate of customer experience might are the capability of the organization in retaining
the brand image and the consumer loyalty towards the offerings that are made by the business.
On the other hand, the negative and biased review rating might create a sense of
abhorrence among the customers towards the organization. The negative yet biased rating
specifically forces the customers in perceiving the value proposition of the concerned
organization to be poor which in actuality might not be so. The growing difference between the
actual value propositions made by the organization and the perceived value of the offerings made
by the customers might affect the brand image. Moon, Kim and Bergey (2019) stated while
observing human behavior while making a buying decision that the negative aspects specifically
draws the attention of the consumers due to their sense of insecurity. In this connection, the
negative reviews in a company’s website would significantly attract the attention of the
customers, specifically due to their sense of insecurity, resulting to the incapability of the
organization in retaining the trust and commitment of the customers towards the value
propositions that are made by the business.
According to Sijoria, Mukherjee and Datta (2019), the sense of insecurity might affect
the capability of the consumers in logically reasoning or researching the validity and reliability