Complaints on the online environment : the case of Hong Kong hotels

Rapid advancement of web technology enabled hotel customers to increasingly use the Internet as a channel for reporting negative service experiences. Prior studies on hospitality complaints on the web are scarce. Through a content analysis of 453 individual complaint cases reported on one of the largest and most popular travel review websites (tripadvisor.com) for Hong Kong hotels, nine e-complaints categories were firstly identified. These nine complaint categories were then examined across different origins of the complaints. The results of a two-way contingency table analysis further revealed that although no significant relationship was found between e-complaint categories and hotel class, the age group of reviewers was significantly associated with specific types of complaints made online. Various kinds of management responses were also explored against each e-complaint category to identify possible managerial reactions. Lastly the paper explores the implications of the findings and makes suggestions for future e-complaint research for the hospitality industry.School of Hotel and Tourism Managemen