How does hotel attribute importance vary among different travelers? An exploratory case study based on a conjoint analysis

Travel review websites, along with online travel agencies and hotel websites, are salient components of a travel sector positioned at the top echelon of e-commerce categories. This study investigates the comparative salience of six hotel attributes (value, service, rooms, sleep quality, location, and cleanliness) in accordance with (1) an overall travelers group, (2) five different trip-purpose groups (business, families, friends, couples, and solo), and (3) two different country-of-residence groups (domestic and foreign travelers). A conjoint analysis was applied to a total of 405 reviews on one particular hotel from the website of TripAdvisor. The results of the study indicate that “value” and “rooms” are the most important attributes that contribute to a high overall rating for the hotel. In addition, large differences in hotel attribute importance are revealed among various types of traveler groups. Three major and ten minor propositions are postulated from the discussion of the study.