The impact of online reviews on inbound travellers’ decision making

Abstract

This paper explores the hotel experience of inbound travellers to five-star boutique hotels of Sri Lanka and ascertains how hotels have satisfied their customers’ expectations through assessment of the positive and negative reviews. A qualitative research method of content analysis incorporating quantitative elements is engaged for this study. Data comes from a survey conducted by the TripAdvisor website. This study reveals that all dimensions of service quality played an equally important role from the perspective of customers. However, consumers are not satisfied due to the presence of perceived quality gaps. It was revealed that to maximise customer satisfaction, boutique hotels need to refer to online reviews to obtain authentic information from their guests. Sri Lanka is making strong efforts to support its tourism industry which got affected by the 2019 Sri Lanka Easter bombings, therefore the findings of this paper will undoubtedly be useful for the trade.