THE EFFECTS ON CONSUMER BEHAVIOR OF HOTEL RELATED COMMENTS ON THE TRIPADVISOR WEBSITE: AN ISTANBUL CASE

Abstract

In parallel with the major developments witnessed ininformation technologies, social media, supported by its broadarea of usage, is gaining significance in every field, with thetourism sector being no exception in this regard. The transfer ofchanging marketing strategies via digital channels into socialmedia has transformed the way customers interact with thetourism sector, having now the ability to access the comments ofother consumers via social media, and adjusting their preferencesaccordingly. In this study, the impact of the content analysis onthe star rating given to hotels is examined with a “Panel DataAnalysis” of all the hotels in Istanbul that have received amaximum of 25 reviews on the TripAdvisor website, with a totalof 12,000 comments assessed. It was found that the location of thehotel, the access to transport facilities, the food and beverageconcept, the quality of staff/service, and the cleanliness of thefacilities all affected the star ratings given to hotels; while thearchitectural structure and the recommendations of other guestshad a lesser effect. It was further noted that entertainmentanimation programs had little effect on guest preferences.