The Impact of Online Reviews on the Choice of Holiday Accommodations

The Impact of Online Reviews on the Choice of HolidayAccommodationsKatia Laura Sidali,Holger Schulze, andAchim SpillerUniversity of Göttingen{Katia-Laura.Sidali, H.Schulze, A.Spiller}@agr.uni-goettingen.deAbstractIn order to reduce information asymmetries in the tourist industry, consumers refer to multipleinformation sources. Among these, e-reviews are supposed to better reflect quality ofinformation because they are based on consumers’ past experiences. The first purpose of thisstudy is therefore to test within an experimental design whether e-reviews have a predominantor a complementary role on consumer behaviour in comparison with other sources ofinformation (hotel rating system, travel guides and recommendations of travel agents). Asexpected, e-reviews are the most referential information source. We further use a causal modelin order to detect the determinants of trust in e-reviews, and we can show that perceivedexpertness of e-reviews, credibility of the e-platform and brand familiarity explain more than60% of trust in e-reviews. The final part of the analysis is dedicated to our third researchpurpose which is the measurement of the impact of trust in e-reviews on choice ofaccommodations. A significant and positive influence can be demonstrated. Hence, scientificand managerial implications are discussed.