Social media applied to tourism and hospitality: The case of hotels in the Metropolitan Area of Porto, Portugal

Abstract

Online hotel reviews, ratings, or opinions have gained importance with the growth of social media tools. The objective of this chapter is to study the impact of specifc satisfaction attributes on overall satisfaction. It is used a secondary data set obtained from three of the most infuential online travel platforms, being analyzed the guests’ average ratings for around 130 hotel units, distributed by four quality segments, located in the Porto metropolitan area. The application of this methodology to a large sample of Portuguese hotels has not been done before, been that the main contribution of this study. It is evidenced that the diferent platforms, while all incorporating consumer reviews as primary social knowledge, are distinct from each other on some aspects. The three platforms present roughly the same supply of hotels, albeit presenting some diferences in terms of volume of data. In terms of specifc attributes, with the exception of “service,” the three platforms present signifcant diferences that may refect the diferent user bases on these platforms.