International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

International Journal of Hospitality Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhm

How do domestic and international high-end hotel brands receive and T

manage customer feedback?
⁎
Markus Schuckerta, Sai Liangb,c, , Rob Lawa, Wenjun Sund
a
School of Hotel & Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 17 Science Museum Road, TST-East, Kowloon, Hong Kong (SAR)
b
Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Tourism Development, Nankai University, 38 Tongyan Road, Tianjin, 300350, PR China
c
College of Tourism and Service Management, Nankai University, 38 Tongyan Road, Tianjin, 300350, PR China
d
School of Management, Harbin Institute of Technology, 92 West Dazhi Street, Harbin, 150001, PR China

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study assesses social media content produced by customers and related review-management strategies of
Hotel branding domestic and international hotel chains in Mainland China. Descriptive statistical methods and multilevel re-
Luxury gression are employed. The results suggest that: (a) luxury consumers are more likely to choose international
Brand origin hotel chains; (b) international hotels pay more attention to improving response strategies than domestic hotels
Online reviews
do; and (c) a response-management strategy is an effective way for managers of Chinese hotels to improve
Reputation management
E-Wom
customer satisfaction but shows only a limited effect for hotels with international brand origins. Relevant im-
plications are provided for the hotel industry.

1. Introduction amenities in regard to hardware and software, international hotel

As the world’s most populous country, China has witnessed rapid
development in its tourism industry. China became the world’s largest
tourism source market, with inbound tourism increasing 75 times since
1978 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2016). On the supply side,
2,995 star-rated hotels were counted in China in 1994, increasing to
13,295 by 2013 (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2016). This
dynamic growth accelerated the brand development of domestic com-
panies such as Jin Jiang International Hotels, the Lingnan (LN) hospi-
tality group, and HNA hotels, as well as local hotels, which also in-
creasingly benifit from this development.
However, the rapid growth of the hotel industry comes with social,
cultural, and economic problems (Tsang and Hsu, 2011). Domestic
hotels profit from this development to a large degree; however, do-
mestic brands face increasingly fierce competition from new domestic
and especially foreign brands entering the market. Global brands are
interested in the Chinese market because of growing demand, China’s
rising GDP and middle class, and increasing wealth, as well as the low
standards of the country’s domestic hotel industry (Hardingham, 2012;
Yu and Huimin, 2005). Interestingly, a rapid deterioration in the
quality of Chinese hotels supported the growth of foreign brands, which
attracted consumers dissatisfied with local hotels (Chan and Yeung,
2009). Because of their higher standards and modern features and
brands such as the InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), Hyatt, Mar-
riott, Accor and others like the Hong Kong based Shangri-La Hotels are
planning to increase investments in China, especially in the luxury
segment (Hardingham, 2012; Hotel News Now, 2015; Li et al., 2007).
It is vital for domestic Chinese hotels to detect and eliminate gaps in
hardware and/or service quality between themselves and foreign
competitors. International hotel chains enjoy strong reputations (Chon
et al., 2013) and employ aggressive marketing and sales practices (Goh
et al., 2013; Ye et al., 2009). With the development of e-commerce,
social media, and user-generated content, gaps in quality are increas-
ingly recognized by guests through textual reviews, photos, and videos
(Schuckert et al., 2015a; Zhu and Zhang, 2010). Some domestic players
cope by lowering their rates, but Chinese hotels targeting the luxury
segment lose their competitive edge (Yu, 2012).
Managing their online reputation is considered an effective method
for hotels to improve guests’ satisfaction and repeat-purchase rates, as
well as hotel performance (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018; Gu and Ye,
2014; Kim et al., 2015; Xie et al., 2014). More important, it is less ex-
pensive than improving facilities directly: this cost-efficient approach
helps Chinese brands to improve their reputation. However, a lack of
budget, training, and technology as well as prevailing cultural factors
make local Chinese hotel managers less likely to use such strategies
than managers of global hotel chains (Johnson and Vanetti, 2005;

⁎
Corresponding author at: Collaborative Innovation Center of Modern Tourism Development, Nankai University, 38 Tongyan Road, Tianjin, 300350, PR China.
E-mail addresses: markus.schuckert@polyu.edu.hk (M. Schuckert), liangsai@nankai.edu.cn (S. Liang), hmroblaw@polyu.edu.hk (R. Law),
wjsun@hit.edu.cn (W. Sun).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.08.017
Received 8 February 2018; Received in revised form 20 August 2018; Accepted 23 August 2018
Available online 13 September 2018
0278-4319/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Schuckert et al.
Kanousi, 2005).
This study uses a secondary source (Daodao) to obtain data for the
three developed cities in Mainland China in which leading international
hotel groups have taken the most interest. The authors also target only
the luxury hotel segment since international hotel groups expand their
businesses mostly in relation to this sector. Given the above research
background, the purposes of this study are summarized as follows: (a)
to investigate the differences in consumers’ preferences and satisfaction
between hotels that are part of a domestic brand and those managed by
international hotel chains; (b) to explore the differences in hotel man-
agement-response frequency between these two hotel groups; and (c) to
examine how management response strategies influence guest sa-
tisfaction differently for these two hotel groups. The first and second of
these aims are intended to help domestic hotel managers to define their
service gaps in various aspects, while the third is intended to help
managers in the two groups understand how to apply management-
response strategies more effectively. Although several previous studies,
such as those by Qu and Tsang (1998) and Chan and Yeung (2009),
have used survey-based methods to define the gaps between domestic
and international hotel chains, no study to date has been based on
secondary data or a large sample. Furthermore, to the best of the au-
thors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to attempt to define the
gaps between domestic and international hotels from the perspective of
management-response strategy and to explore the differences in the
association between applying this strategy and guest satisfaction in
these two different hotel groups.
2. Literature review
2.1. International standards versus domestic standards in Mainland China
Since the 1980s, the performance of the Chinese hospitality industry
has been suffering from overcapacity, quality issues, low efficiency, and
decreasing operational scale (Gu, 2003). The gaps or differences be-
tween Chinese domestic hotels and international standards have pro-
vided great opportunities for foreign hotel companies to rush into the
Chinese market (Chan and Yeung, 2009; Hardingham, 2012). These
gaps have also allowed international hotel chains to successfully grow
their business and improve their financial performance. Companies,
such as IHG, Hyatt, Marriott and Starwood, have brought many of their
own flagship brands to gateway cities in China (Hotel News Now, 2015;
Hotels, 2016). This has not only had significant benefits for their fi-
nancial performance but has also allowed more Chinese guests to be-
come acquainted with foreign brands.
Previous studies focusing on the comparison between Chinese hotels
and the standards of international brands were based mainly on the
perspective of service-quality gap. Service quality is defined as the
difference between consumers’ expectations and their perceptions of a
service (Bastič and Gojčič, 2012; Benítez et al., 2007). Survey-rated
methods were the only way to collect data, and most studies chose
international travelers who traveled to China or Chinese tourists who
traveled to other countries as their samples since both had experience of
staying in Chinese as well as foreign hotels. Targeting foreign tourists
who traveled to China, several early studies indicated that Chinese
hotels had many defects in terms of communication skills, property
maintenance, reservations, and sanitation standards (Cai and Woods,
1993; Choy et al., 1986; Cook, 1989). Previous studies also reported
that Chinese outbound tourists notice the gaps between Chinese and
foreign hotels. For example, Chinese tourists tend to have higher ex-
pectations of foreign hotels, and most have been found to be highly
satisfied with accommodations when traveling to developed countries
(Li et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2008).
The gap model proposed by Parasuraman et al. (1985, 1988, 1991)
is a common means of measuring service-quality gaps and has been
used by previous studies to estimate the shortcomings of Chinese do-
mestic hotels. This model mainly identifies five “gaps”: (a) the
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537
difference between consumers’ expectations and managers’ perceptions
of them; (b) the difference between managers’ perceptions of con-
sumers’ expectations and service-quality specifications; (c) the differ-
ence between service-quality specifications and the service actually
delivered; (d) the difference between service delivery and what is
communicated about the service to consumers; and (e) the difference
between consumers’ expectations of service quality and a corporation’s
performance. Based on the framework of the gap model, Qu and Tsang
(1998) carried out a survey of 270 international tourists and identified
22 hotel attributes that disappointed them. They concluded that the
main reason for their disappointment was the fact that local hotel
managers in China tend to work on the basis of the expectations of
traditional Chinese guests (Wei et al., 1989). Another study based on
the gap model obtained similar results, and its authors considered that
gaps were created by Chinese hotel managers’ overestimation of their
service delivery and their neglect of tourists’ actual perceptions (Tsang
and Qu, 2000). Other possible reasons for the emergence of the gaps
summarized by previous studies include ownership models, the lack of
corporate governance, and insufficient professional standards of do-
mestic hotel companies (Heung et al., 2008; Li et al., 2007; Tang et al.,
2006).
In recent years, in response to the entry of global hotel brand, do-
mestic Chinese hotel brands have also employed multiple strategies in
order to gain competitive advantages. By learning from international
brands, some of them have started to build new hotels in more desirable
locations and to position themselves in different segments through
branding (Gu et al., 2012). Many domestic hotels have also moved into
the budget-hotel sector to avoid direct competition with global hotels.
Additionally, some large Chinese hotel companies have joined inter-
national franchise operations, expanded their business beyond national
borders, and raised capital from overseas to improve their financial
performance in the era of globalization (Lam et al., 2015; Xiao et al.,
2008). In 2011, two leading domestic Chinese hotel companies, Jin
Jiang International Hotels and Home Inns, appeared among the top ten
of Hotels magazine, which listed the top 300 hotel companies in the
world (Hotels, 2016). Many studies, such as Lam et al. (2015), have
considered that expanding businesses overseas is a good way for Chi-
nese hotel companies to gain international experience and to enhance
their international reputation in order to better compete with interna-
tional chains in their local market. However, most local brands are
unable to internationalize. Although many have achieved tremendous
growth by targeting the economy sector, for several reasons, it remains
difficult for those focused on the luxury sector to gain a market share
from international hotel companies if the gaps noted above exist
(Report Buyer, 2013). First, guests who select luxury hotels do so
mostly because of their luxurious properties, elaborate physical sur-
roundings, and personalized services, and these guests are not parti-
cularly concerned about differences in price (Mattila, 1999). Thus,
when these consumers perceive gaps between domestic hotels and in-
ternational standards, they prefer to pay more to stay in international
hotels. Second, as the number of international hotel brands targeting
China grows, the influx of international supplies into the Chinese hotel
industry will increase. This usually puts pressure on rates, making in-
ternational hotels more affordable for a greater number of consumers
beyond any increase in purchasing power. Third, local domestic brands
have a competitive advantage within the segment of domestic con-
sumers and travelers (Özsomer and Altaras, 2008). However, this
competitive edge is weakened if the gap in product standards is too
large. One of the reasons is that the prevalence of hotel-review websites
provides domestic consumers with platforms to compare all possible
choices, and many may make rational choices based solely on online
consumer evaluations (Ye et al., 2009). They are less likely to select a
hotel with worse facilities and service quality, so most domestic brands
may not be among their first choice. All these arguments indicate that
domestic brands in the luxury-hotel sector have more competition
pressures than brands concentrating on other sectors. Thus, in addition
M. Schuckert et al.
to getting more profit and capital from overseas businesses, it is parti-
cularly important for hotel managers to define their differences from
global or international standards. Moreover, based on the results of
both prior studies such as Tsang and Qu (2000) as well as the previous
arguments, the authors expected that, for customers in the luxury-hotel
sector, the perceived quality of international hotel chains is more likely
to be higher than domestic brands. Accordingly, hypothesis 1 is pre-
sented as follows:
H1. In the luxury-hotel sector, the customer’s perceived quality of
international hotel chains is more likely to be higher than for domestic
brands.
One of the main purposes of this study is, therefore, to help do-
mestic hotels define the differences between themselves and interna-
tional hotels in China in various aspects based on the perspective of
hotel guests. Extensive studies have proven the existence of a service-
quality gap in the Chinese hotel industry based on the gap model and
surveys of tourists (international tourists traveling to China or Chinese
tourists traveling overseas). Yet, despite the popularity of online
booking, no research has been conducted on online ratings.
Furthermore, although gap analysis can identify certain gaps, this
method still has many limitations because data used were from survey-
based methods with small samples, which can easily lead to biased
results. Second, international tourists and Chinese tourists who have
experience traveling abroad are always selected since they have ex-
perience with both hotel categories and can clearly perceive the gap
between them. However, samples must be selected with caution since
the different experiences of each tourist result in different expectations.
For example, tourists who are accustomed to staying at Four Seasons
hotels unquestionably have higher expectations than those whose ex-
perience is limited to Super 8 hotels. Accordingly, based on a large data
set of online reviews, this study investigates the gap between Chinese
domestic brands and international standards by observing the differ-
ences in guest evaluations of both categories of hotel groups online.
2.2. Managerial response and consumer satisfaction
In the era of e-commerce, consumers gradually started to make
purchases online and to express their satisfaction and complaints
through online reviews and ratings (Mauri and Minazzi, 2013; Sun,
2012). Product and service providers can benefit greatly from online
reviews since they can now conveniently manage consumers’ com-
ments, and positive reviews can help them significantly in developing a
positive reputation (Chen and Xie, 2008; Goh et al., 2013; Zhao et al.,
2015). However, if consumers encounter service failures or the per-
ceived performance does not meet their expectations, they are likely to
post complaints that have adverse effects on corporations’ reputations
and online sales (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Schuckert et al., 2015a).
Normally, according to previous studies, this kind of adverse effect is
much stronger than the positive effect of good reviews posted by sa-
tisfied consumers (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Schuckert et al.,
2015a). It is, therefore, essential for managers to be aware of con-
sumers’ complaints and to consider applying service-recovery strategies
in a timely manner (Pantelidis, 2010; Ye et al., 2011; Kim et al., 2015).
The term “service recovery” refers to those actions designed and
applied by corporations to resolve service failures, appease the negative
emotions of dissatisfied consumers, and attempt to retain customers
(Miller et al., 2000; Lewis and McCann, 2004). Successful service-re-
covery strategies can have many benefits for hotels, such as promoting
positive word of mouth; improving consumer satisfaction, loyalty, and
revisit intention; and increasing profits (Kim et al., 2009; Van
Vaerenbergh et al., 2014; Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara et al., 2014). Psy-
chological recoveries, tangible efforts, or a combination of both are the
main types of service-recovery strategies applied by traditional cor-
porations. These recovery strategies may include empathy, an apology,
followed by correction, through compensation, involving managerial
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537
intervention, and later a follow-up, acknowledgment, and explanation
(Lewis and McCann, 2004).
In the online environment, a service-recovery practice endorsed by
review websites is to respond to consumer reviews and to display the
content of these responses beneath the corresponding reviews. This
kind of strategy is always identified as an effective alternative reputa-
tion-management strategy and is applied by an increasing number of
managers (Proserpio and Zervas, 2015). As an emerging practice,
managerial response strategy has attracted growing attention from both
researchers and practitioners. In practice, although this strategy was
applied by very few hotel managers in the early years, the number of
reviews that receive a response has increased constantly on TripAdvisor
(O’Connor and Murphy, 2008; Smyth et al., 2010). On the other hand,
the quantity of literature relating to managerial-response strategy is
also growing and can be characterized as following two directions: the
effectiveness of the managerial-response strategy and how to apply this
strategy effectively.
Studies investigating the effectiveness of managerial-response
strategy have found mostly positive results. They all recognize that this
strategy can benefit consumer satisfaction, hotel ratings, the volume of
positive reviews, and hotel performance (De Pelsmacker et al., 2018; Gu
and Ye, 2014; Liang et al., 2017; Sparks et al., 2016; Xie et al., 2014,
2016). Proserpio and Zervas (2015) also investigated changes in ne-
gative reviews after hotels applied a management-response strategy.
They found that the volume of negative reviews decreased, but that
negative reviews became more detailed. Another research direction is
mainly interested in how to apply a management-response strategy
more effectively. Most of these studies use qualitative methods such as
content analysis, and two methods to improve the efficiency of response
strategy can be summarized as responding only to targeted consumer
groups and changing the response style (Bonfanti et al., 2016; Levy
et al., 2013; Park and Allen, 2013; Treviño and Castaño, 2013). For
example, Xie et al. (2017a, 2017b) found that lengthy responses are
more effective for improving hotel financial performance but replying
with standardized answers may hurt the performance. Xie et al. (2017a)
suggested that, for above-average and luxury hotels, responses posted
by frontline managers are more effective in boosting performance,
while budget hotels can benefit only from responses issued by execu-
tives. Levy et al. (2013) considered that hotel characteristics should
influence the effectiveness of applying management-response strategy,
and in addition, several recent studies such as Xie et al. (2017a, 2017b)
controlled the type of hotel when investigating the impact of manage-
rial responses on hotel performance. However, to the best of the au-
thors’ knowledge, very few of these studies have focused directly on
how management response influences consumer satisfaction differently
for different hotel types. This study intends to fill this gap by targeting
two groups, domestic hotels and international hotels, and investigating
two research questions relating to managerial responses. One is the
difference in the frequency with which response strategy is applied, and
the other is how managerial-response frequency and style influence
consumer satisfaction for these two hotel groups.
2.3. Management responses make a difference
The authors expected international brands to apply management-
response strategies more frequently than domestic-brand hotels for two
reasons. First, international brands have many advantages over do-
mestic brands, which relate mainly to their knowledge of guest re-
quirements, strategic planning, financial support, and reservation sys-
tems (Johnson and Vanetti, 2005; Magnini and Ford, 2004). To
maintain a good image, international hotel chains are more likely to
apply and improve their response-management strategies and are also
able to support and empower their management in applying these kinds
of strategies (O’Connor, 2010). By contrast, with their relatively limited
budgets, some domestic hotels may consider the improvement of fa-
cilities and care less about improving service details. The second reason
M. Schuckert et al.
relates to cultural differences between China and Western regions.
Domestic hotels in China, which deal mostly with local consumers and
travelers, may encounter few complaints due to the common culture of
“collectivity” (Cavusgil and Kaynak, 1982). Asians are more likely to
control their emotions and are accustomed to saving face for others
(Becker, 2000; Yau, 1988). On the other hand, the “Confucian dynamic
dimension” or long-term orientation also makes Chinese travelers pay
more attention to tangibles (i.e., the equipment and the appearance of
employees) and the physical environment but care little about the way
in which managers handle complaints and feedback about services
(Kanousi, 2005). Thus, domestic hotel managers who are used to ac-
commodating Chinese consumers may be less aware of how to apply
management-response strategies.
Furthermore, the authors expected the influence of management-
response strategy on consumer satisfaction to differ in domestic Chinese
and international hotels. The authors believed that management-re-
sponse strategies would have a greater effect on consumer satisfaction
with Chinese domestic hotels, especially in the luxury sector, for the
following reasons. First, as previously noted, in the luxury sector,
consumers care more about luxurious properties, elaborate physical
surroundings, and personalized services; thus, their experiences are
evaluated mainly according to these standards. Hotels belonging to
international chains have advantages over domestic hotels due to both
their funding and richer experiences with internationalization. They are
less likely to receive complaints than domestic hotels. As a service-re-
covery method, management-response strategies should have less of an
effect on hotels with very few complaints (Gu and Ye, 2014). The above
argument is reflected by the data. The authors investigated and com-
pared the ratings of more than 200 international hotels in China and the
same number of domestic Chinese hotels. The results showed that the
proportion of consumers dissatisfied (the average rating was 3 or
below) with international hotel chains was 4.78%, much lower than
that of domestic Chinese hotels, which was 9.04%. Second, according to
prior studies such as that of Schuckert et al. (2015b), travelers, espe-
cially Chinese travelers, have higher expectations of service in devel-
oped countries such as the UK. Due to their brand origins in developed
countries or regions, their higher prices, and their better reputations,
international hotel chains tend to have guests with very high expecta-
tions. Thus, if they encounter service failures and post complaints on-
line, it is very difficult to appease their negative emotions with man-
agement responses. Third, the authors expected international hotels to
have a higher response frequency than domestic hotels. As a result,
guests will gradually become accustomed to receiving a response. They
will pay attention not only to whether they receive a response but also
the quality of that response. Based on the above arguments, the authors
expected management-response strategies to be more effective at in-
fluencing consumer satisfaction with domestic hotels and proposed the
hypothesis:
H2. Management-response strategy can have a greater influence on
consumer satisfaction with domestic hotels than with international hotel
chains.
The authors further looked at the effectiveness of applying different
response strategies to customer satisfaction for different types of hotels
(international or local hotels). As a method mainly for service recovery,
prior studies mostly suggested that responding only to negative com-
ments is an effective strategy for improving customer satisfaction and
hotel performance (Park and Allen, 2013; Kim et al., 2015). However,
as noted above, this strategy should be more effective for local hotels
than international hotels. Customers always pay more for international
hotel chains, and thus, they also have higher expectations. Therefore,
when they encounter service failure, it is very difficult to appease them
by relying on management responses alone. Also, customers who stay at
international hotel chains may be accustomed to receiving a response
and are thus more likely to pay closer attention to the quality of the
response content. From this perspective, the quality of responses can
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537
improve the effectiveness of response frequency to negative reviews
regarding customer satisfaction. For example, Chen et al. (2018) found
that replying to negative reviews with detailed responses is more ef-
fective for improving the subsequent review volume and valence of
hotels. Thus, we present the following two hypotheses:
H3. Response frequency to negative reviews can have a greater influence on
consumer satisfaction with domestic hotels than with international hotel
chains.
H4. Response quality (such as response length) can positively moderate the
relationship between response frequency to negative reviews and customer
satisfaction.
This study differs significantly from previous research in the fol-
lowing aspects: (a) the authors employed secondary data sources that
cover a sufficient number of both domestic and international hotel
chains in China; (b) in the application of the online rating function, the
authors clearly observed differences in every aspect of guest satisfaction
to identify the gaps in satisfaction between these two groups; and (c)
the present study represents one of the first efforts to analyze differ-
ences in the influence of management responses on consumer sa-
tisfaction between the above hotel groups.
3. Research methodology
3.1. Data and sample
TripAdvisor (2014) is one of the world’s largest travel sites, offering
more than 150 million reviews covering over 3.7 million transactions
from hospitality, restaurants, and attractions; the Chinese version of
TripAdvisor is named Daodao (www.daodao.com) with the main dif-
ference that Daodao provides information only in Chinese and is used
mostly by Chinese travelers. The English-dominated TripAdvisor allows
Chinese and foreign travelers to post reviews. The authors thus chose to
retrieve data from TripAdvisor/Daodao to ensure the comprehensive-
ness of the sample. Previous studies have explained that international
chains going into China focus mostly on the luxury segment in top-tier
cities (Hardingham, 2012; Li et al., 2007). As such, Beijing, Shanghai,
and Guangzhou, as the three largest cities in China, contribute most to
China’s international tourism arrivals, receiving more than 30% of in-
ternational visitors traveling to China. Accordingly, the authors chose
luxury hotels (four-star rating and above) in these cities as the research
sample.
For data retrieval, two algorithms were developed based on Ruby, a
dynamic open-source programming language to parse HTML web pages
into two different databases. Collecting data between November 2014
and February 2015, one program focused on all hotel-related in-
formation; the other retrieved information about reviews and reviewers
for each hotel. If a review had received a response from hotel man-
agement, information regarding that response was also summarized in
the second database of review and reviewer information. Merging the
two databases, 145,245 reviews of 468 hotels were combined into one
database. Collected content that lacked information about the re-
viewer’s characteristics and/or an overall rating was handled as missing
values and removed, leaving 84,997 reviews of 443 luxury hotels for
further analysis.
To identify whether it belonged to a domestic brand in China or an
international hotel chain, each hotel in the sample was investigated
both in English and Chinese using common search engines such as
Google and Baidu. The authors retrieved information from official
websites and descriptions on other websites in order to identify the
corporation and brand to which each hotel belonged. Since Hong Kong
and Macau are international destinations with many decades of
Western influence, the authors defined domestic Chinese hotels as those
of Mainland Chinese origin managed by domestic corporations based in
Mainland China. Table 1 presents the results of this identification
M. Schuckert et al. International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537

Table 1 Table 3
Number of hotel brands by region. Distribution of the sample.
Continent Country/region N % Hotel star Local hotels International hotel chains Total

Asia Mainland China 212 47.86 Hotels Reviews Hotels Reviews Hotels Reviews
Hong Kong 33 7.45
Macau 1 0.23 4 149 13618 74 15647 223 29256
Japan 6 1.35 4.5 39 5809 75 16435 114 22244
Singapore 18 4.06 5 24 3333 81 30155 105 29265
Dubai 1 0.23 Total 212 22760 230 62237 442 84997
Subtotal 271 61.18

America Canada 10 2.26

United States 83 18.74 hotels) is still much smaller than that of the international hotel brands.
Subtotal 93 20.99

Europe United Kingdom 58 13.09 3.2. Research design

France 17 3.84
Germany 3 0.68
Netherlands 1 0.23
After selecting the research sample, the authors focused on the
Subtotal 79 17.83 following four points: (a) whether most consumers tend to choose do-
Total 443 100 mestic Chinese hotels or international hotel chains of the same class and
scale; (b) the differences in consumer satisfaction with specific hotel
attribute between domestic and international hotel chains, which will
process. help identify the gaps in the facilities and services provided by domestic
A total of 212 hotels (47.86%) were managed by domestic brands Chinese hotels; (c) the differences in management-response strategy
and corporations based in Mainland China; 33 (7.45%) were from Hong between domestic and international hotel chains; and (d) how man-
Kong and one from a Macau-based corporation, while 25 (5.64%) agement-response frequency (which is always defined as the ratio of
luxury hotels were managed by corporations and brands based in the reviews that have received a response to total reviews) and strategies
rest of Asia. Hotels and brands from the US and Canada accounted for influence consumer satisfaction with these two hotel groups differently.
18.74% and 2.26% respectively; 58 (13.09% of the total sample) be- This last point will help managers of these two hotel groups define how
longed to corporations based in the UK, 17 in France, 3 in Germany, to apply management-response strategies more effectively.
and one corporation was based in the Netherlands. The authors applied three quantitative approaches to explore these
Table 2 presents the top international hotel companies that operate, points. First, the descriptive statistics method was employed to observe
own, and manage luxury hotels in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. travelers’ preferences for each hotel category (domestic hotels or in-
InterContinental Hotels (with InterContinental, Holiday Inn, Crowne ternational hotel chains) in the same hotel class. Second, the authors
Plaza Hotels, and Indigo) and the pre-merger Marriott International then compared the differences in the ratings related to different attri-
(with Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton) run most of the properties in these butes as well as management-response adoption and frequency between
three cities, followed by Starwood Hotels, Accor, Hilton International, the two hotel groups based on our sample. The t-test has been used
and Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts (Hardingham, 2012; Hotel News Now, consistently by prior studies to present the comparison results.
2015). Groups such as Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, ASCOTT, the However, after conducting a skewness-kurtosis test (S–K test), the re-
Hyatt Corporation, and Four Seasons also operate and manage hotels in sults showed that several of our selected variables (such as the rating of
China. sleep quality and location of hotel) are not normally distributed at the
Table 3 shows the distribution of the sample: international cor- 95% confidence level in different groups. Thus, the authors calculated
porations run mostly five-star hotels, and most of the four-star hotels the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients between our targeted
are run by domestic corporations based in Mainland China. Domestic variables and group variables since this method does not require
Chinese brands represent 22.9% of the five-star hotels of the sample. normal distribution. Third, the authors constructed multilevel regres-
Thus, although domestic brands and corporations in Mainland China sion models in order to investigate how consumers’ characteristics and
have developed a large number of luxury hotels and have started to hotel features can influence consumer satisfaction with the two hotel
compete with international hotel groups for the luxury hotel market, categories.
their share of the most luxurious part of the market (i.e., five-star Multilevel or nested models have traditionally been utilized for
cluster data that are distributed on different levels (Rabe-Hesketh and
Skrondal, 2012; Snijders and Bosker, 1999). They show clearly how
Table 2 much of the variability in consumers’ overall ratings can be attributed
The main international brands and corporations.
to the effect of individual consumer characteristics and hotel features.
Source: corporations’ corporate websites.
Therefore, the authors treated each consumer (review) as the first level
Corporation Hotels Country (subscript i in the models) and each hotel as the second level (subscript j
in the models). The samples were then divided into two parts, namely
InterContinental Hotels (IHG) 41 United Kingdom
Marriott Internationala 32 United States hotels belonging to domestic brands or corporations based in Mainland
Starwood Hotels and Resortsa 19 United States China and hotels managed by international corporations, and multilevel
Accor 17 France regression was employed to investigate the differences in influence
Hilton International 13 United Kingdom mechanism between the two hotel categories. By processing the de-
Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts 10 Hong Kong
Carlson Hospitality Worldwide 9 United States
scriptive statistics and conducting skewness-kurtosis test for all vari-
ASCOTT 8 Singapore ables used in empirical model, it is found that the dependent variable is
Hyatt Corporation 7 United States left-skewed which is consistent with previous studies such as Mariani
Fairmont Hotels & Resorts 4 Canada and Borghi (2018). As Mariani and Borghi (2018) as well as Zhang et al.
Four Seasons 4 Canada
(2018) suggests, the logarithm of online ratings as dependent variable is
JAL Hotels Company Ltd. 4 Japan
Wyndham San Jose Hotel Group 4 United States used in the model to slow the fluctuation of the sample data and to
bring the distribution closer to a normal distribution. Thus, model 1
a
This study does not take the post-merger period into account. was the general model for this study:

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LnRatingijc = β + α1 RES _RATEijc + α2 REV _NUMijc + α3 TRI _TYPijc Table 4

Attribute ratings of local (domestic) and international brands.
+ α4 RES _RATEijc × REV _NUMijc + α5 RES _RATEijc
Attribute rating Local hotels International hotel chains Spearman's rho
× TRI _TYPijc + α 6 REV _LOCijc + γHotelcontrol jc + ςjc + εijc
Sleep quality 4.139(0.258) 4.429(0.313) −0.4398***
(1) Location 4.247(0.397) 4.265(0.406) −0.0190 ***
Rooms 4.118(0.315) 4.379(0.324) −0.3485 ***
LnRatingijc represents the logarithm of overall rating of review i for
Service 3.979(0.287) 4.301(0.272) −0.4547***
hotel j in category c (domestic brand or international brand). Our main Value 3.985(0.263) 4.073(0.225) −0.1565***
independent variable is RES_RATEijc, which refers to the response fre- Cleanliness 4.186(0.331) 4.475(0.263) −0.4090***
quency for hotel j before review i. REV_NUMijc refers to the number of
reviews a customer has posted before review i and TRI_TYP represents Note: standard deviations are shown in parentheses. *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05,
the trip type for each customer when posting the review i. Since the ***p < 0.01.
nationality of reviewers can also impact their satisfaction level, as noted
by prior studies such as Radojevic et al. (2017), it is also controlled in although domestic corporations in Mainland China manage more four-
the model. star hotels than international hotel chains, fewer consumers select do-
The authors calculate a dummy variable as a proxy of the nation- mestic four-star hotels than four-star international hotel chains. Tra-
ality of customers. The value of 1 means that the customer is located in velers have more confidence in and prefer to stay at luxury hotels be-
Mainland China when posting review i, and 0 means otherwise. For longing to international hotel chains when they travel to Beijing,
hotel features, the authors controlled four variables in the model. Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
STARjc is the star rating of hotel j, and RANKjc refers to the ranking of
hotel j on TripAdvisor. ROM_NUMjc and PHO_ALLjc relatively represent
4.2. Satisfaction difference
the number of guest rooms and photos shown on the website for hotel
j.ζjc is often called a random intercept, and ε ijc is the random deviation
The authors observed the satisfaction difference by calculating the
of the dependent variable.
Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients between the ratings related to
Model 1 can be used to estimate the main and moderating effects of
hotel attributes and variables representing the hotel category (0 re-
hotels’ management-response frequency on customer satisfaction and
presents international hotel brands and 1 represents domestic hotel
rating and to verify hypothesis 2 of this study. To further observe the
brands). If one variable is significantly correlated with the group vari-
effect of detail on customer satisfaction in regard to management-re-
able, it also illustrates that there is a significant difference for this
sponse strategy, the authors kept only the samples of hotels that have
variable between the two groups. Accordingly, the negative and sig-
applied management-response strategies (RES_RAT > 0). Then, to
nificant Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients show that the ratings
verify hypotheses 3 and 4, two variables related to management-re-
for each attribute are negatively correlated with hotel category on
sponse strategy and style were calculated, including RES_NEG and
average (see Table 4). This means that the ratings of each attribute for
RES_WORD. RES_NEG refers to the frequency of a hotel to respond to
international hotels are significantly higher than those for domestic
negative reviews before the current review, and RES_WORD is the
hotels. Thus, hypothesis 1 is supported. The greatest differences be-
average length of response contents for each customer before the cur-
tween the two hotel categories are found in consumers’ evaluations of
rent review. RES_NEG was calculated as the ratio between the number
service, sleep quality, and cleanliness, followed by their ratings of
of responses to negative reviews (ratings are below 3) and the number
rooms and value. This indicates that it is necessary for domestic hotels
of responses. Thus, the larger this value is, the more likely the hotels are
to improve their facilities and services in these areas. The attribute
to respond to negative reviews. Since RES_RATE is highly correlated
presenting the least difference between the two hotel categories is the
with RES_NEG, the authors dropped RES_RATE in the new model, and
location rating. In short, although there is little difference in the loca-
model 1 can be expanded as:
tions chosen by luxury hotels run by domestic and international brands,
LnRatingijc = β + α1 RES _NEGijc + α2 RES _WORDijc the latter pay more attention to improving their hardware and service
quality. Among all attributes, consumers are particularly satisfied with
+ α3 RES _NEGijc × RES _WORDijc + α4 REV _NUMijc the clean and quiet conditions offered by international hotel brands.
+ α5 TRI _TYPijc + α6 REV _LOCijc + γHotelcontrol jc + ςjc This indicates a gap in facility and service quality between Chinese
hotels managed by domestic and international brands, according to
+ εijc (2) consumers’ online evaluations.
The authors also focused on the distribution of consumer ratings at
As noted previously, model 2 is based on the subsample of model 1
different levels. Except ratings for terrible rating, the Spearman’s rank
(RES_RAT > 0), and through the coefficient of α1 and α3, the authors
correlation coefficients are also negative and significant, indicating that
can observe the effectiveness of response frequency to negative reviews
most consumers gave an excellent rating after visiting luxury interna-
on customer satisfaction for different hotel groups (domestic brand or
tional hotels (see Table 5). However, most consumers rated domestic
international brand), and this can be used to verify hypothesis 3; α3 also
luxury hotels in Mainland China as very good. Similar numbers of
denotes the moderating rule of response length and thus can be used to
consumers gave average or poor ratings for luxury hotels in both
verify hypothesis 4.

Table 5
4. Results and discussion Rating distribution between local (domestic) and international brands.
Distribution Local hotels International hotel chains Spearman's rho
4.1. Sample distribution
Excellent 183.814(211.113) 382.852(290.679) −0.3740***
Focusing on consumers’ preferences for Chinese luxury hotels, the Very good 214.913(162.825) 272.447(196.777) −0.1420***
value of observations decreases for domestic hotels but increases for Average 60.139(44.104) 65.996(48.981) −0.0531***
Poor 15.095(11.397) 16.639(14.400) −0.0308**
four- to five-star international hotels (see Table 3), indicating that more Terrible 8.469(6.891) 7.796(5.805) 0.0061*
travelers prefer to select luxury hotels belonging to international hotel
chains. Fewer consumers prefer to select five-star hotels belonging to Note: standard deviations are shown in parentheses. *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05,
domestic brands, perhaps because there are few such hotels. However, ***p < 0.01.

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Table 6 Table 7
Sample distribution and management response strategy. Multilevel regression results of model 1.
Star rating Local hotels International hotel chains t-test Variables Local hotels International hotel chains

Five-star 0.120(0.195) 0.286(0.263) −0.3904*** Null model Full model Null model Full model
Observations 13618 15647
Four-and-a-half star 0.119(0.128) 0.407(0.217) −0.5792*** Constant 1.512*** 1.231*** 1.620*** 2.233***
Observations 5809 16435 (133.131) (32.099) (175.769) (59.205)
Four-star 0.268(0.212) 0.384(0.251) −0.1386*** RES_RAT 0.626*** −0.001
Observations 3333 30155 (10.387) (−0.560)
REV_NUM 0.108*** −0.213***
Note: standard deviations are shown in parentheses. *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05, (6.158) (−2.862)
***p < 0.01. TRI_TYP −0.029*** −0.034***
(−4.214) (−5.651)
RES_RAT×REV_NUM −0.123*** −0.165**
groups. Few consumers posted a terrible rating for luxury hotels man- (−6.953) (−2.085)
aged by domestic or international corporations, but more consumers RES_RAT×TRI_TYP 0.014 0.009
were dissatisfied with domestic hotels. (0.979) (1.299)
REV_LOC −0.239*** −0.056***
(−9.874) (−17.531)
4.3. Management-response strategy differences STAR 0.023*** 0.091***
(3.243) (12.234)
With regard to the use of management-response strategies by do- RANK −0.059*** −0.088***
(−20.800) (−39.665)
mestic hotels, 95 hotels (44.8% of the sample) had adopted such stra-
ROM_NUM −0.124** −0.089***
tegies and 117 (55.2%) have not responded to consumers. However, (−9.516) (−12.590)
among the international hotel chains, only 25 (10.8%) did not respond PHO_ALL 0.235*** 0.075***
to consumers, and most had adopted a management-response strategy. (11.254) (6.836)
This indicates that international hotel chains have a better under- R2 0.000 0.087 0.000 0.109
Observations 22760 20691 62760 50998
standing of guest requirements and are also more likely to budget for Groups(hotels) 212 206 231 222
service recovery and online review-management strategies (Johnson
and Vanetti, 2005). Note: Coefficients are shown in the table; z-values are shown in parentheses.
The authors also summarized the management-response frequencies *p < 0.1, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01.
for luxury hotels in different classes and different hotel categories. This
information was integrated into Table 6. Management-response fre- (REV_NUM tend to be 0). Comparing these with the results related to
quency, defined as the ratio between the number of management re- domestic hotels, the authors can summarize that the management-re-
sponses and the number of reviews for each luxury hotel, was the focus, sponse frequency is more effective for boosting customer satisfaction
as this variable represents the degree to which management response is for domestic hotels, thus supporting hypothesis 2. With regard to most
valued by luxury hotels (Liang et al., 2017). To discover the difference of the other control variables and interaction terms, the results are
in response frequency between the two hotel categories, Spearman’s consistent for the two hotel categories. The only inconsistent result is
rank correlation coefficients were also calculated. The results show the explanation for the main effect of customers’ online review posting
that, among the domestic brands, five-star hotels paid more attention to experience (REV_NUM); the possible reasons are provided in the next
responding to consumers than four- and four-and-a-half-star hotels. section.
Comparing domestic and international brands, luxury hotels that be- In order to further investigate how to effectively apply manage-
long to international hotel chains attach much more importance to ment-response strategy to different hotel categories, the authors further
improving their management-response strategies. constructed model 2, based on samples of which hotels have ever re-
sponded to reviews. The results are presented in Table 8. Comparing the
4.4. Results of empirical models results between Tables 7 and 8, the results of control variables have
nearly no changes. Thus, the authors focused only on two independent
The results of the empirical models are presented in Table 7 to variables related to management-response strategy. First, the coeffi-
display the determinants of consumer satisfaction with the two hotel cient of response frequency to negative reviews is positive and sig-
groups. For domestic Chinese hotel brands, the coefficient of hotel re- nificant for results based on local hotels but insignificant for results
sponse frequency is positive and significant, thus demonstrating the based on international hotel chains. This shows that the strategy of
positive association between hotel response frequency and customer responding to negative reviews is more effective for domestic hotel
satisfaction. In addition, in order to provide several suggestions for how brands, thus supporting hypothesis 3. Second, the positive and sig-
to increase the efficiency of management-response strategies and re- nificant coefficient of interaction terms between RES_NEG and RE-
duce costs, the authors further considered the interaction terms be- S_WORD means that the average length of response content can posi-
tween two consumer-level factors and management-response fre- tively improve the association between responding rate to negative
quency. If the association of management-response frequency can be reviews and customer satisfaction; therefore, hypothesis 4 is also sup-
significantly moderated by consumer characteristics, responding to ported.
target consumer groups can improve the efficiency of this strategy. The
results show that the coefficient of interaction term between a custo- 5. Main findings and discussion
mer’s prior online review experience and a hotel’s management-re-
sponse frequency is negative and significant, while the coefficient re- To begin with, consumers were found to be more likely to be sa-
lated to a customer’s trip type is insignificant. tisfied with and tended to post higher ratings for international hotel
To verify the hypothesis, the authors needed to compare the results chains; most consumers, therefore, prefer to choose international hotels
of domestic hotels with those of international hotel chains. According to when they travel to Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou and to select
the results, also in Table 7, the main effect of management-response luxury hotels. This result seems to be consistent with those of previous
frequency on customer satisfaction is insignificant when hotel managers studies that examined the effect of country image and country of origin
respond only to customers without review posting experience (Batra et al., 2014; Steenkamp and de Jong, 2010). Consumers in

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M. Schuckert et al. International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537

Table 8 First, although the authors expected management-response strategies to

Multilevel regression results of model 2. have more effects on improving consumer satisfaction with domestic
Variables Local hotels International hotel chains hotels, it is surprising that response frequency shows limited effec-
tiveness for, and is even negatively associated with, ratings of inter-
Null model Full model Null model Full model national chains. A possible reason is the difficulties for international
hotel managers to treat service failure using management responses, as
Constant 1.352*** 1.265*** 1.425*** 1.520***
(98.203) (10.672) (190.214) (22.241) presented in hypothesis 2. On the other hand, the authors expect that
RES_NEG 0.189*** −0.023 one of the main reasons management-response strategy showed very
(2.685) (−0.564) limited effects on international hotels is that consumers may expect
RES_WORD 0.061** −0.006 more-detailed responses if they are used to receiving responses. Thus,
(2.088) (−0.498)
the authors further constructed a new model related to detail in regard
RES_NEG×RES_WORD 0.298** 0.048*
(2.325) (1.924) to management-response strategies on customer satisfaction, and the
REV_NUM −0.285 −0.230*** results show that responding only to negative reviews is also more ef-
(−0.985) (−6.514) fective for more domestic hotel brands than for international hotel
TRI_TYP −0.038*** −0.027***
chains. However, the average response length can positively moderate
(−5.645) (−15.096)
REV_LOC −0.079*** −0.063***
this effect, further verifying the argument the authors have presented
(−11.249) (−19.330) previously. To improve the effectiveness of management-response
STAR 0.089** 0.003*** strategies, managers of international hotel chains should present more-
(2.135) (3.673) detailed contents to their customers.
RANK −0.005*** −0.099***
The results of this study also presented the effectiveness of custo-
(−4.837) (−15.623)
ROM_NUM −0.136*** −0.085*** mers’ characteristics on their satisfaction with different hotel groups.
(−2.687) (−3.127) First, it is interesting that consumers’ online rating experiences show
PHO_ALL 0.235** 0.095*** different impacts on customer satisfaction for domestic hotels and in-
(4.328) (3.626)
ternational hotel chains. Since the positive relationship between cus-
R2 0.000 0.087 0.000 0.109
Observations 14810 13607 59694 48366
tomer experience and satisfaction has been verified by several earlier
Groups(hotels) 95 92 206 198 studies (such as Johnson et al., 1995; Liang et al., 2017), it is surprising
that it shows a negative impact for international hotel chains. One
Note: Coefficients are shown in the table; z-values are shown in parentheses. possible explanation may be that, due to better facilities and services,
*p < 0.1, **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01. only consumers who are accustomed to the surroundings of interna-
tional hotels are likely to, and able to, perceive unsatisfactory points by
developing countries are more likely to select non-domestic brands, comparison with past experience. Consumers who have less experience
especially Western brands, due to their perceived higher quality and using online review sites may lack both experiences of staying at in-
social status. ternational hotels and opportunities to learn more about those hotels
With regard to international hotels, sleep quality and cleanliness are online. Due to their limited prior knowledge, it is very difficult for such
the two most satisfactory attributes for consumers, while consumers consumers to identify the disadvantages of international hotels, thus
were more satisfied with domestic hotels’ locations than all other at- boosting perceived performance. Second, the results of this study also
tributes. Richer international experience helped international chains to show that leisure travelers tend to post higher online ratings than
seek management contracts with established properties directly when business travelers. Third, the authors also controlled for customers’
considering building new hotels. Thus, they are not involved in real nationalities registered in TripAdvisor, and the results show that, for
estate development and ownership. By contrast, when domestic hotels both domestic hotels and international hotels, local Chinese customers
expand their business, they can build new properties in good locations, are all more likely to post lower ratings; this may point out rating-
which demonstrates the advantage of location selection for domestic posting habits of local customers.
hotels (Gu et al., 2012). The results of other control variables provide several useful findings
However, domestic hotels still need to improve the quality of sev- for hotel managers. For example, hotels with more star ratings and/or
eral other attributes due to the large gap between their standards and higher rankings on TripAdvisor are more likely to receive high ratings
those of international hotel chains. These results have practical im- from consumers; also, if a hotel displays more photos on its website, it
plications for managers in the Chinese hotel industry and should en- will enjoy an improvement in online ratings. However, the number of
courage them to clearly identify the gaps between their own and in- rooms is negatively associated with a hotel’s online ratings on
ternational standards. In addition to taking full advantage of the ability TripAdvisor.
to choose good locations, domestic hotel managers need to focus on
improving their service quality, cleanliness, and sleep environment in 6. Implications and conclusion
particular.
International hotel chains in each class also attach more importance 6.1. Theoretical and practical implications
to responding to consumer feedback than domestic hotels do. Hotel
managers in China may anticipate this gap and consider employing a This study has two main theoretical implications for the hospitality
response-management strategy and improving their response fre- literature. First, it is one of the first attempts to compare multiple at-
quency. Earlier findings and this study show that this strategy can not tributes of domestic Chinese brands with those of brands managed by
only improve the satisfaction of consumers who have given lower rat- international chains based on secondary data. Studies that used survey-
ings but that managers can also learn a lot about how to further im- based methods come with limitations, such as the representativeness of
prove their services from the complaints and suggestions they receive the sample. Thus, this study extended prior studies based on primary
(Gu and Ye, 2014; Xie et al., 2014). data and a gap model by extending the context to a real-world online
The results from the two hotel groups in this study show that most environment.
factors, including consumers’ trip type and several factors concerning Furthermore, this study is an early attempt to compare the man-
hotel features, influence consumers’ online ratings in a similar way. agement-response strategies of two hotel groups with different man-
However, the effects of management-response frequency and strategy agement philosophies. Some studies, such as Levy et al. (2013), have
on customer satisfaction are different for different hotel categories. noted that hotel type influences the effectiveness of management-

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M. Schuckert et al.
response strategy. Several studies including Kim et al. (2015) and Xie
et al. (2017a, 2017b) also controlled for the type of hotel (independent
vs. chain) when looking at the impact of managerial responses on hotel
performance. However, very few of the empirical studies directly ob-
served the effectiveness of hotel type. Using multilevel models, the
authors investigated the influence of management-response frequency
and strategy on consumer satisfaction with different hotel types: do-
mestic and international ones. The results show many interesting and
incongruous findings compared with previous studies that do not con-
trol for hotel type. Thus, this study shall direct future research towards
managerial response.
The current study also provides many practical implications for
managers in China’s hotel industry. As one of the world’s largest hos-
pitality markets, and facing a competitive environment, domestic hotels
should identify how to improve their services in order to obtain a larger
market share, especially in the high-yield luxury segment. Targeting the
luxury-hotel sector, this study shows the gaps in certain attributes
identified through consumers’ online evaluations. It should also be
noted that Chinese hotels with international brand origins mostly apply
a more-positive management-response strategy than domestic Chinese
hotels do. This reveals the competitive edge of Chinese hotels managed
by international corporations and indicates a direction for improvement
in domestic hotels in the future.
Related to consumer-relationship management and response man-
agement, domestic hotels first need to treat consumers with richer prior
experience posting reviews as loyal consumers (Kim and Kim, 2004; Lin
and Lekhawipat, 2014; Shim et al., 2001). By contrast, hotels with in-
ternational brand origins need to pay more attention to such “expert”
consumers since they are better able to identify unsatisfactory points
based on comparison with past experiences. Hotel managers of both
groups should focus more on responding to potential consumers with
less prior experience posting reviews. In addition, customers traveling
for business as well as local Chinese customers are more likely to post
lower ratings. Accordingly, hotel managers should pay more attention
to further improving the satisfaction level of these customer groups to
improve their overall online reputation.
Second, management response is an effective method for domestic
hotels to improve consumer satisfaction by appeasing the dissatisfac-
tion of those who have encountered service failures. Hotel managers
should apply a positive response strategy because it is an effective way
to understand the demands and complaints of consumers. On the basis
of firsthand information from consumers themselves, hotel managers
can improve their products/services. Furthermore, responding with
detailed contents to negative reviews should be an effective method for
domestic hotel managers to improve their future customer satisfaction.
Third, management response is a fact-based, cost-saving, and more
effective method than the allocation of resources to improve product
and quality standards without listening to consumers’ needs. On the
other hand, the effectiveness of this strategy for hotel groups that al-
ready respond frequently to reviews, such as some international chains,
may be reduced. Since consumers of these hotels are already ac-
customed to receiving responses, they have greater expectations in re-
gard to response quality. Thus, an effective method for managers of
international hotel chains to improve the effectiveness of response
frequency and strategy is to respond to their customers’ reviews with
high-quality content (such as detailed contents).
6.2. Limitations and future directions
This study itself has certain limitations. First, the authors focused
only on Chinese hotels: future research should expand the sample of
this study to other emerging markets to better understand the gap be-
tween domestic and international hotels and to present ideas for the
development of such domestic hotel industries. Second, although the
authors provided several detailed suggestions for hotel managers, this
study has discussed only a limited number of differences between
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International Journal of Hospitality Management 77 (2019) 528–537
domestic brands and international brands. Specific suggestions were
not provided for domestic hotel managers. Future research could follow
up with the investigation of consumers’ opinions on hotel attributes
using more-detailed data based on large-scale surveys and primary data
sources. Such results could provide specific suggestions for domestic
hotel managers and their local hotels to make improvements in the
services they provide. Third, this study observed customers’ preferences
and choices by using review volume as a proxy. Future research can
improve accuracy by observing the actual transaction records for each
hotel and comparing their results with the results presented by this
study. Fourth, although this study investigated the effectiveness of
several response strategies including responding frequency to negative
reviews and response length, several other factors related to manage-
ment responses still have not received a focus due to the limited length
of the paper. Therefore, future studies can expand on this study by
observing the effectiveness of more variables related to management-
response strategy and style for different hotel categories (domestic
brands or international hotel chains). Finally, future studies can also
verify similar research questions by collecting data from other UGC
websites or OTAs based on different online designs compared to
TripAdvisor at the time of data collection.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was supported by grants funded by
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (No. 1-ZE3K), the National
Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 71571167), The
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No.
63182059) and Tianjin Science and Technology Development Strategy
Research Plan (No.17ZLZXZF00580).
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