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Complaints on the Online Environment — The Case of Hong Kong Hotels

  • Conference paper
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009

Abstract

Rapid advancement of web technology enabled hotel customers to increasingly use the Internet as a channel for reporting negative service experiences. Prior studies on hospitality complaints on the web are scarce. Through a content analysis of 453 individual complaint cases reported on one of the largest and most popular travel review websites (tripadvisor.com) for Hong Kong hotels, nine e-complaints categories were firstly identified. These nine complaint categories were then examined across different origins of the complaints. The results of a two-way contingency table analysis further revealed that although no significant relationship was found between e-complaint categories and hotel class, the age group of reviewers was significantly associated with specific types of complaints made online. Various kinds of management responses were also explored against each e-complaint category to identify possible managerial reactions. Lastly the paper explores the implications of the findings and makes suggestions for future e-complaint research for the hospitality industry.

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© 2009 Springer-Verlag/Wien

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Au, N., Buhalis, D., Law, R. (2009). Complaints on the Online Environment — The Case of Hong Kong Hotels. In: Höpken, W., Gretzel, U., Law, R. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2009. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-211-93971-0_7

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-211-93970-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-211-93971-0

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