Are customers’ reviews creating value in the hospitality industry? Exploring the moderating effects of market positioning

Highlights：

• Social Media and user-generated reviews are transforming competition in the hospitality industry.

• On-line ratings of user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor have a positive effect on hotel revenues that is outweighed by a negative effect on gross profit margins.

• Hotels placed outside popular destinations get more advantages from their online visibility on their gross and net profitability than hotels placed in popular destinations.

• Hotels with higher star-rating get more benefits from online visibility on their gross and net profitability.

• Hotels with a lower degree of local competition get more benefits from online visibility on their gross and net profitability.

摘要

•Social Media and user-generated reviews are transforming competition in the hospitality industry.•On-line ratings of user-generated reviews on TripAdvisor have a positive effect on hotel revenues that is outweighed by a negative effect on gross profit margins.•Hotels placed outside popular destinations get more advantages from their online visibility on their gross and net profitability than hotels placed in popular destinations.•Hotels with higher star-rating get more benefits from online visibility on their gross and net profitability.•Hotels with a lower degree of local competition get more benefits from online visibility on their gross and net profitability.

论文关键词：Social media,Small and medium hotels,Online visibility,Reviews,Value creation,Market positioning,Star-rating,Local competition,Localization outside popular destinations

论文评审过程：Received 2 June 2014, Revised 22 December 2015, Accepted 25 February 2016, Available online 1 April 2016, Version of Record 9 September 2016.