How do guests evaluate eco-certified hotels? An analysis of guests’ reviews of Portuguese hotels
Date
2024-06-24
Embargo
Advisor
Coadvisor
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sage
Language
English
Alternative Title
Abstract
User-generated content and online reviews have become a prominent source of information for tourists in the last couple of decades. At the same time, hospitality firms show an increasing concern with environmental practices, in line with customers’ changes of attitude and awareness of their environmental footprint. This paper analyses the content of reviews posted on TripAdvisor by guests staying in a large sample of environmentally certified hotels. The objective is to find out if sustainability concerns are present in guests’ reviews and identify the most important sustainability attributes. Using the Maxqda and Leximancer software, 1748 reviews from 95 Portuguese hotels were analysed; the content analysis evidences that guests’ predominant themes regarding their experiences are mostly common and independent of the category, average review, or type of travel. Eco-issues are primarily absent from the reviews. Although all analysed hotels are ‘eco-certified’, that label does not seem to be associated with guests’ attitudes and concerns. The results have relevant implications for hospitality managers.
Keywords
Hotels, Customer satisfaction, Sustainability, Eco-certification, Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM), Online reviews
Document Type
Journal article
Publisher Version
Dataset
Citation
Pacheco, L. M., Ramazanova, M., Carvalho, J. M. S., Nogueira, S., & Durão, M. (2024). How do guests evaluate eco-certified hotels? An analysis of guests’ reviews of Portuguese hotels. Tourism and Hospitality Research (THR), (Published online: 24 june 2024), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584241264. Repositório Institucional UPT. https://hdl.handle.net/11328/5700
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TID
Designation
Access Type
Open Access