Online review management: tools and practices from Bal-tic perspective
Gritskova, Jekaterina (2019)
Gritskova, Jekaterina
2019
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121025646
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2019121025646
Tiivistelmä
In recent decades, the Internet has revolutionized the hospitality industry: online reviews became one of the most major factors in purchase decision making process. The rapid growth of online sales channels, review platforms, social media etc. has led to the emer-gence of a huge amount of user-generated content, and online review management has become an essential part of hotel management.
This study provides an analysis of theory and online review management functions per-formed by Baltic accommodation providers, including their motives, tools and operational processes. The commissioner of the study is Estonian brand hotel chain Hestia Hotel Group, a rapidly developing company, that currently operates 10 hotels in Estonia and Lat-via. The results of the study will be beneficial for developing online review management strategy.
The aim of this study is to improve the knowledge about online review management among Baltic hoteliers and develop a list of guidelines how to manage online reviews on general level. The research question of this thesis is: what's done and what's can be done to man-age guest online reviews simply and efficiently?
Theoretical part of the study focuses on online reviews management concepts and infor-mation with regards to consumer behaviour, online reviews’ role in purchase decision mak-ing process, nature and environment of online reviews, and online review management actions. The circular online review management framework designed as a conclusion of theoretical part suggests a construction for the development of an interview guide.
In order to achieve the aim of the study, multiple case study approach is applied as re-search method. In the context of this study 15 case hotels has been investigated, including 5 Hestia hotels, and semi-structured interviews were chosen as the primary method of data collection. An interview guide used as an aid to conducting interviews, includes various types of questions focused on research objectives.
The results of study are presented in the form of discussion that overviews the current situ-ation in case hotels, as well as a list of guidelines how to perform online review manage-ment functions on general level, including 6 essential stages: monitoring, filtering, respond-ing, learning, improvement, and encouraging.
This study provides an analysis of theory and online review management functions per-formed by Baltic accommodation providers, including their motives, tools and operational processes. The commissioner of the study is Estonian brand hotel chain Hestia Hotel Group, a rapidly developing company, that currently operates 10 hotels in Estonia and Lat-via. The results of the study will be beneficial for developing online review management strategy.
The aim of this study is to improve the knowledge about online review management among Baltic hoteliers and develop a list of guidelines how to manage online reviews on general level. The research question of this thesis is: what's done and what's can be done to man-age guest online reviews simply and efficiently?
Theoretical part of the study focuses on online reviews management concepts and infor-mation with regards to consumer behaviour, online reviews’ role in purchase decision mak-ing process, nature and environment of online reviews, and online review management actions. The circular online review management framework designed as a conclusion of theoretical part suggests a construction for the development of an interview guide.
In order to achieve the aim of the study, multiple case study approach is applied as re-search method. In the context of this study 15 case hotels has been investigated, including 5 Hestia hotels, and semi-structured interviews were chosen as the primary method of data collection. An interview guide used as an aid to conducting interviews, includes various types of questions focused on research objectives.
The results of study are presented in the form of discussion that overviews the current situ-ation in case hotels, as well as a list of guidelines how to perform online review manage-ment functions on general level, including 6 essential stages: monitoring, filtering, respond-ing, learning, improvement, and encouraging.