Positive and Negative Reviews among the 34 Hotels-Free-Samples

Questions: 1.Explain which journal article you chose, and why you chose it. 2.Summarise the main points of the article in your own words. 3.Consider the extent to which the evidence presented by the authors supports the arguments that they have made, giving reasons for your answer. Answers: Introduction The article Responding to Online Reviews: Problem Solving and Engagement in Hotels is chosen to work on this assignment. The concept of using online reviews in co- creation of the service provided by the hotel will be focused on during the analysis. Four case studies selected in this research will highlight the important aspects. 1.The article Responding to Online Reviews: Problem Solving and Engagement in Hotels by Sun- Young Park and Jonathan P. Allen was chosen for this assignment. This is because online reviews can be considered as important in the hospitality industry for better organizational performance. It is better to gather feedback online because it is much more effective than direct feedback. It also carries better validity as the respondents are not present in front. The rapid increase in the hospitality industry and the tough competition in the same can be dealt with effective problem solving and engaging employees. 2.There are certain areas, which the particular article has focused on. It was mentioned in the article that online reviews have modified the consumer decision making in the hospitality industry. This amendment was done by making information available about the service experience, for instance, information about the hotel rooms and tariffs are easily available on the internet. With the increasing importance of online reviews, several researches have disclosed its importance from the consumers perspectives. At present, the managers of the hospitality industry have come up with a new confusion, if it is required to respond to online review and the ways by which it can be done. This article had focused on exploring about the online review responses in the high- end luxurious hotels. This specific category of hotel was chosen as the area of interest for this research because they shed light on the individual attention and personal interactions, which is contradictory to online communications. In this particular article, four- case studies of deluxe and premium hotels of the Western City in the US were selected. Out of these four, two hotels responded positively whereas the other two did not. The former two hotels responded frequently about the online reviews posted about their hotel whereas the responses from the other two were rare and negligible. A comparison was drawn between the case studies to find out the processes used in the luxurious hotels to manage online responses and the reasons for selecting those processes. The analysis of the online responses of all 34-premium hotels highlighted the considerable diversity. The data presented on the high- end hotels reacted to both positive and negative reviews. From this article, it can be mentioned that the findings of the research can be effective for the hospitality managers to take effective decision regarding their response to online reviews. They can also focus on the options available to them and the key problems that need to be considered. 3.The evidence that was presented by the authors was somewhat effective in supporting the arguments because they did not find any previous major research on the online review response of the firms. However, the little bit of research done on the topic of online review responses brought out the two areas of online reviews from the customers perspectives and the value of co- creation. Online reviews have become a powerful tool for the consumers to be used in the process of decision- making. A literature review had suggested that the perceptions and behavior of customers face the impact of online review response whereas, it is dependent on the on the kind, purpose and volume of reviews. It was found out in a research paper the exposure of the customers to the online review responses have increased the opportunity to include the hotels in their consideration of decision making. Another research had focused on the positive relationship between the average review rating and the sale of hotel rooms. On the other hand, in terms of books, lower review rating had an impact on the book sale more than the e- books at the websites. It was further stated that consumers decision were affected more by the quality of the review rather than quantity. The argument regarding the acceptability of online review was focused on with the mention of the major role played in sharing information among the consumers. The underlying reason can be the purpose of awareness instead of directly affecting the purchase decisions. Online reviews acted as a word- of- mouth information among the customers for increasing awareness and not for persuading changing decision. In the same way, a more powerful effect of the online review response in the less popular hotels by the service providers were not found out. The impact of online review response was carefully argued by the use of secondary sources which stressed on the alternative ways of acquiring information are comparatively meager. This might strongly imply on the hotel industry as significant in the consumer decision making. It can be suggested that the consumers should not be considered as the passive receivers of the worth generated by the hotels. Instead, they are the active participants in creating the value by contributing with their own reviews. Co- creation refers to the dual creation of value by the company and the consumer. It is a false notion that the organizations try to please the customers by estimating the valuable services to the customers. The literature review also focused on the needs of involving the stakeholders to create worth by adding interactions among them. It was argued that new and innovative ideas can be generated to boost up the experience and advantages of all the stakeholders and the organization will be able to win competitive advantage from the constant involvement of the members. Conclusion It can be concluded after reviewing this particular article that the four case studies of the hotels were put together to find out about their online review responses. There were both positive and negative reviews among the 34 hotels that were studied. There were correlation between the size, ranking and service quality of the hotels that were selected in this research Bibliography Park, S. Y., Allen, J. P. (2013). Responding to online reviews: Problem solving and engagement in hotels.Cornell Hospitality Quarterly,54(1), 64-73.