Do social media display correct conventional hotel ratings?

Abstract

This study investigates conventional ratings as they are presented on TripAdvisor. Conventional ratings are ratings, commonlyusing stars as a symbol, allocated by government or private bodies that work with hotel inspectors. The data from guest ratingson TripAdvisor was explored through two samples of hotels that were purposively selected based on the TripAdvisor rankingscovering 11 international destinations. These data were compared to the ratings of the same hotels as they were retrieved fromthe databases of the conventional rating system bodies that were active in the respective destinations. Findings indicate that it isdifficult to retrieve conventional rating system databases and that almost half of the conventional ratings displayed on TripAdvisorare incorrect. These findings suggest that contemporary marketing and tourism opportunities on TripAdvisor outweigh thosepresented by conventional hotel-rating systems.

Keywords: guest reviews, hotel ratings, marketing, social media