Making the correct choice

The first primary goal of reviews is to assist the consumer on making the correct purchase choice. Hence, in this sub-chapter, the analysis of data will focus on the respondents’ views regarding the usefulness of reviews in terms of their ability to help in decision-making and in selecting the best option in the context of travel planning and accommodation selection.

Regarding the usefulness of reviews in terms of decision-making, according to most of respondents, reviews are found to be very informative, because they usually offer more detailed and comprehensive information regarding the

ac-Goals of user-generated reviews

Making the correct choice

Reducing cognitive costs

Set of evaluative standards

Unbiased understanding

regarding product/service

commodation options. Reviews share additional details regarding the accommo-dation experience which necessarily cannot be found otherwise, and this helps the respondents in forming an opinion regarding the accommodation options. In addition, few of the respondents mentioned that reviews offer very recent infor-mation regarding the current state of each accommodation provider, because usually reviews are written quite regularly and many accommodation options have reviews which are very recently published, while it is likely that the accom-modations’ own websites will not be updated as frequently.

“In my opinion reviews offer more detailed and more customer-driven information.”

R12

“The information may be a bit outdated on the hotel’s own website, and the infor-mation there may have been updated only many years ago. Whereas reviews might be very recently published.” R15

In addition, many respondents stated, that by reading reviews, they are able to get a more realistic understanding of the accommodation options that they would not be able to get when only relying on the information shared by the accommodation providers themselves. This is because the respondents felt that the reviews reveal also the possible grievances regarding the accommodation op-tions and hence the reviews acknowledge many perspectives, which helps the consumers in making more informed decisions. Because reviews point out both negative and positive aspects regarding the accommodation options, the re-spondents agreed that reading reviews will prevent potential disappointments and help the respondents in finding the best fit for their needs.

“The reviews can create a more realistic picture regarding the accommodation and how the place really was in practice.” R1

“At least the possible negative things and what kind of experiences some people have had, are certainly not advertised on the accommodation's own website, but rather come up in reviews.” R4

However, one of the respondents stated that reviews do not necessarily assist in decision-making, but that the respondents would like to rely on other available information, for example pictures posted online. In addition, one of the respond-ents stated that the information that reviews offer is usually based on other con-sumers’ opinions and therefore cannot be used as completely credible infor-mation.

“In my opinion, reviews made by other people may not be so useful to me in terms of getting information, because the things that they consider good or bad may not have an effect on me.” R14

Furthermore, the respondents described what kind of review is the most helpful in terms of making the correct decision in their opinion. The Figure 10 presents an overview of the characteristics of reviews, which the respondents determined as the most useful. Therefore, these characteristics indicate, what kind of reviews are perceived as the most helpful for consumers in the context of travel planning according to the data of this research.

Figure 10. Characteristics of a useful review

According to the majority of respondents, in a useful review, the writer is de-scribing the accommodation experience in a detailed and concrete manner and is offering justifications of their own opinions carefully. This helps the reader to understand better the full picture regarding the experiences of the reviewers. The respondents felt that reviews containing only a short comment without any fur-ther explanation or description were not useful in terms of decision-making. In addition, the respondents prefer reviews, which present both positive and nega-tive aspects of the accommodation experience in a construcnega-tive manner. For in-stance, constructive criticism towards possible shortcomings was found as note-worthy. Furthermore, the respondents appreciated reviews which offer a neutral and unbiased perspective regarding the accommodation option.

“Reviews should try to remain objective, and the writers of reviews should name both pros and cons but in a constructive tone.” R3

Characteristics of a useful

review Well justified

Includes both pros

and cons

Constructive ness

Neutral and unbiased Concereteness

Detailed Includes

pictures

“I like that there is something concrete in the reviews, and not something vague, like “it was a nice place”, because it doesn’t say anything about why it actually was a nice place or why it was not.” R4

Many of the respondents commented that reviews, which include photos of the accommodation taken by the reviewer, were favourable, because the pictures taken by the visitors often offer a more realistic overview regarding the accom-modation provider compared to the official pictures. Few of the respondents also found reviewers, who were describing their own status or the purpose of the trip in their reviews to be valuable, because then they can find and focus on the re-views that they can relate to the best. In addition, the respondents found rere-views with written text to be more useful compared to reviews with only a star rating or a score.

“In reviews I usually like pictures, because I might get more out of them and they are a little more convincing than the plain text many times.” R5

“I like it when the reviewer shares a little bit of background information about what kind of trip he or she had and what was the purpose of the trip and what kind of company he or she was travelling with.” R1

“Yes, it is often the verbal reviews that help the most, for example, it was noticed that star ratings can be a rather confusing metric sometimes.” R2