Skip to main content

Advertisement

Springer Nature Link
Log in

Perceptual mapping of hotel brands using online reviews: a text analytics approach

  • Original Research
  • Published:
Information Technology & Tourism Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Product perceptual mapping in the lodging industry has largely relied on survey and focus group methods to represent consumer perceptions of how the hotel product compares to one another. The more recent availability of online reviews represents a potentially powerful source of data that can be used to provide insights into how brands are perceived. This study uses a text analysis approach to create perceptual maps from the most frequent terms used in a data set collected from an online travel agency. These maps show not only the ability for text analytics to produce insights on brands, but also their potential for understanding how brands are able to be differentiated in the minds of consumers. The findings indicate that consumers perceive brands to be positioned similar to the structure defined by the industry. Brands were shown to be associated with terms indicative of the class of hotel that formed the majority of the brand. This suggests that online consumer reviews can be used to represent the level of differentiation between hotel brands and thus, are a useful source for understanding the market structure of the hotel industry. Implications for both research and practice are also discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aaker DA (1996) Measuring brand equity across products and markets. Calif Manag Rev 38(3):103

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aaker DA, Shansby JG (1982) Positioning your product. Bus Horiz 25(3):56–62

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abrahams AS, Jiao J, Wang GA, Fan W (2012) Vehicle defect discovery from social media. Decis Support Syst 54(1):87–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barsky J, Nash L (2002) Evoking emotion: affective keys to hotel loyalty. Cornell Hotel Restaur Adm Q 43(1):39–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baum JA, Haveman HA (1997) Love thy neighbor? Differentiation and agglomeration in the Manhattan hotel industry, 1898–1990. Admin Sci Q 42:304–338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blankson C, Kalafatis SP (1999) Issues and challenges in the positioning of service brands: a review. J Prod Brand Manag 8(2):106–118

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boyd D, Crawford K (2012) Critical questions for big data: provocations for a cultural, technological, and scholarly phenomenon. Inf Commun Soc 15(5):662–679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broniarczyk SM, Alba JW (1994) The importance of the brand in brand extension. J Mark Res 31:214–228

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brooksbank R (1994) The anatomy of marketing positioning strategy. Mark Intell Plan 12(4):10–14

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Browning V, So KKF, Sparks B (2013) The influence of online reviews on consumers’ attributions of service quality and control for service standards in hotels. J Travel Tour Mark 30(1–2):23–40

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brucks M, Zeithaml VA, Naylor G (2000) Price and brand name as indicators of quality dimensions for consumer durables. J Acad Mark Sci 28(3):359–374

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Business Wire (2004) Radisson hotels and resorts to feature the sleep number bed offering customers new level of personal choice and comfort in bedding. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20040525005662/en/Radisson-Hotels-Resorts-Feature-Sleep-Number-Bed#.VO334fnF-Ag

  • Calantone RJ, Di Benedetto CA, Hakam A, Bojanic DC (1989) Multiple multinational tourism positioning using correspondence analysis. J Travel Res 28(2):25–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Callarisa L, García JS, Cardiff J, Roshchina A (2012) Harnessing social media platforms to measure customer-based hotel brand equity. Tour Manag Perspect 4(1):73–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen JS, Uysal M (2002) Market positioning analysis: a hybrid approach. Ann Tour Res 29(4):987–1003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Connell J (1992) Branding hotel portfolios. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 4(1):26–32

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Crotts JC, Mason PR, Davis B (2009) Measuring guest satisfaction and competitive position in the hospitality and tourism industry an application of stance-shift analysis to travel blog narratives. J Travel Res 48(2):139–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dev CS, Morgan MS, Shoemaker S (1995) A positioning analysis of hotel brands: based on travel-manager perceptions. Cornell Hotel Restaurant Admin Q 36(6):48–55

    Google Scholar 

  • Duan W, Gu B, Whinston AB (2008) Do online reviews matter?—an empirical investigation of panel data. Decis Support Syst 45(4):1007–1016

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ellis B, Mosher JS (1993) Six Ps for four characteristics: a complete positioning strategy for the professional services firm-CPA’s. J Prof Serv Mark 9(1):129–145

    Google Scholar 

  • García-Barriocanal E, Sicilia MA, Korfiatis N (2010) Exploring hotel service quality experience indicators in user-generated content: a case using Tripadvisor data. In: Mediterranean conference on information systems proceedings

  • George G, Haas MR, Pentland A (2014) Big data and management. Acad Manag J 57(2):321–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Giannakos MN, Pateli A, Pappas I (2012) Investigation of the hotel customers perceptions: a study based on user-generated content of online booking platforms. In: Proceedings of 2nd advances in hospitality and tourism marketing and management conference (AHTMMC’12)

  • Ginsberg J, Mohebbi MH, Patel RS, Brammer L, Smolinski MS, Brilliant L (2009) Detecting influenza epidemics using search engine query data. Nature 457(7232):1012–1014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Greenacre M (2007) Correspondence analysis in practice. CRC Press, Boca Raton

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Gretzel U, Yoo KH (2008) Use and impact of online travel reviews. In: Information and communication technologies in tourism 2008. Springer Vienna, pp 35–46

  • Hoffman DL, Franke GR (1986) Correspondence analysis: graphical representation of categorical data in marketing research. J Mark Res 23:213–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Javalgi RRG, Martin CL, Young RB (2006) Marketing research, market orientation and customer relationship management: a framework and implications for service providers. J Serv Mark 20(1):12–23

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kayaman R, Arasli H (2007) Customer based brand equity: evidence from the hotel industry. Manag Serv Q 17(1):92–109

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kotler P (2000) Marketing management: the millennium. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, pp 87–103

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee TY, Bradlow ET (2011) Automated marketing research using online customer reviews. J Mark Res 48(5):881–894

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis RC (1981) The positioning statement for hotels. Cornell Hotel Restaur Adm Q 22(1):3–15

  • Lewis RC (1984) The basis off hotel selection. Cornell Hotel Restaur Adm Q 25(1):54–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis RC (1990) Advertising your hotel’s position. Cornell Hotel Restaurant Admin Q 31(2):84–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Litvin SW, Goldsmith RE, Pan B (2008) Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tour Manag 29(3):458–468

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lu W, Stepchenkova S (2015) User-generated content as a research mode in tourism and hospitality applications: topics, methods, and software. J Hosp Mark Manag (in press)

  • Malouf R, Davidson B, Sherman A (2006) Mining web text for brand associations. In: AAAI spring symposium: computational approaches to analyzing weblogs, pp 125–127

  • Marchiori E, Eynard D, Inversini A, Cantoni L, Cerretti F (2011) Harvesting online contents: an analysis of hotel reviews websites. In: ENTER, pp 101–112

  • Mayer-Schönberger V, Cukier K (2013) Big data: a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  • Mazanec JA (1995) Positioning analysis with self-organizing maps: an exploratory study on luxury hotels. Cornell Hotel Restaurant Admin Q 36(6):80–95

    Google Scholar 

  • Netzer O, Feldman R, Goldenberg J, Fresko M (2012) Mine your own business: market structure surveillance through text mining. Mark Sci 31(3):521–543

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill JW, Xiao Q (2006) The role of brand affiliation in hotel market value. Cornell Hotel Restaurant Admin Q 47(3):210–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oh H (2000) The effect of brand class, brand awareness, and price on customer value and behavioral intentions. J Hosp Tourism Res 24(2):136–162

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • O’Neill JW, Mattila AS (2010) Hotel brand strategy. Cornell Hotel Restaurant Admin Q 51(1):27–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Pang B, Lee L (2008) Opinion mining and sentiment analysis. Found Trends Inf Retr 2(1–2):1–135

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pechmann C, Ratneshwar S (1991) The use of comparative advertising for brand positioning: association versus differentiation. J Consum Res 18:145–160

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siguaw JA, Mattila A, Austin JR (1999) The brand-personality scale. Cornell Hotel Restaur Adm Q 40(3):48–55

  • STR Global (2015) A guide to our terminology. http://www.strglobal.com/resources/glossary/en-gb

  • Stringam BB, Gerdes J Jr (2010) An analysis of word-of-mouse ratings and guest comments of online hotel distribution sites. J Hosp Mark Manag 19(7):773–796

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor H (1997) Competitive advantage in the hotel industry—success through differentiation. J Vacat Mark 3(2):170–173

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whitaker A (2004) InterContinental pulls its hotels from Expedia. Tampa Bay Bus J. http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2004/08/30/story2.html?page=all

  • Xiang Z, Gretzel U (2010) Role of social media in online travel information search. Tour Manag 31(2):179–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang Z, Pan B (2011) Travel queries on cities in the United States: implications for search engine marketing for tourist destinations. Tour Manag 32(1):88–97

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang Z, Gretzel U, Fesenmaier DR (2009) Semantic representation of tourism on the Internet. J Travel Res 47(4):440–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xiang Z, Schwartz Z, Gerdes JH, Uysal M (2015) What can big data and text analytics tell us about hotel guest experience and satisfaction? Int J Hosp Manag 44:120–130

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yoo KH, Gretzel U (2008) What motivates consumers to write online travel reviews? Inf Technol Tour 10(4):283–295

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Pan B, Smith W, Li XR (2009) An exploratory study of travelers’ use of online reviews and recommendations. Inf Technol Tour 11(2):157–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Matthew Krawczyk & Zheng Xiang

Authors
  1. Matthew Krawczyk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

  2. Zheng Xiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matthew Krawczyk.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Krawczyk, M., Xiang, Z. Perceptual mapping of hotel brands using online reviews: a text analytics approach. Inf Technol Tourism 16, 23–43 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-015-0033-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-015-0033-0

Keywords