Electronic Word-of-Mouth on Star Hotel Bookings: An Empirical Analysis of Young Consumers
Keywords:
“Online Reviews”, “Electronic Word-of-Mouth”, “Online Hotel Reservations”, “Consumer Generated Content”Abstract
Decision making process of the sigital consumer has undergone a change. One of the significant changes is evident in the role of online reviews. Reviews play a very critical role in the purchase decision and communicating satisfaction post consumption. In case of electronic transactions enabled by the use of technology, reviews have become even more important. This research comprised of a questionnaire as the research instrument, to ascertain the role of online reviews, ratings and recommendation on online booking of star hotels. The aim was to understand the effect of online reviews on the decision making process in all stages of the digital consumer behaviour – Pre consumption stage, Decision making process in all stages of digital consumer behaviour and finally in the Post purchase stage. It was found that importance of electronic word-of-mouth (E-WOM) is getting a strong dependence and consumers rely on them during information search, alternatives’ evaluation / selection and also during post purchase process. As the outcome of this study it is recommended that hospitality companies rise upto leveraging consumer reviews to expanding their business and controlling damage it may cause. In today’s times, reviews on the digital platform are more effective than company’s own marketing claims.
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