The influence of internet customer reviews on the online sales and prices in hotel industry

Abstract

In this paper, the impact of two service quality metrics (star rating and customer rating) on hotel room sales and prices is investigated. Two of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, Paris and London, are chosen. It is found that a higher customer rating significantly increases the online sales of hotels. The study results show that a 1% increase in online customer rating increases Sales per Room up to 2.68% in Paris and up to 2.62% in London. Contrary to expectations, higher stars do not increase the sales. It is also shown that higher customer ratings result in higher prices of the hotel and the prices of high star hotels are more sensitive to online customer ratings.