Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory

Hotel managers can learn about hotel customer satisfaction by analyzing online reviews. There are differences in the experience of reviewers, the release time and the degree of recognition for different online reviews, which leads to different reliability in reflecting customer satisfaction. The iss...

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Main Authors: Mingyang Li, Yumei Ma, Pingping Cao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2020-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9292934/
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author Mingyang Li
Yumei Ma
Pingping Cao
author_facet Mingyang Li
Yumei Ma
Pingping Cao
author_sort Mingyang Li
collection DOAJ
description Hotel managers can learn about hotel customer satisfaction by analyzing online reviews. There are differences in the experience of reviewers, the release time and the degree of recognition for different online reviews, which leads to different reliability in reflecting customer satisfaction. The issue of how to determine hotel customer satisfaction more rationally with this reliability in mind is still a problem. To address this problem, this paper proposes a method for measuring hotel customer satisfaction based on the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, which considers the reliability of online reviews and information from multiple online travel review websites. This method is composed of three stages. First, considering the difference in online reviews’ reliability, the basic probability assignment is generated based on online reviews. Next, the aggregation of the evaluation information is conducted based on the entropy weight method and Dempster’s rule of combination. Finally, the utility function is used to calculate the expected utility, and customer satisfaction is analyzed based on the calculated expected utility. Therefore, improvement strategies of customer satisfaction can be developed according to customer satisfaction ranking. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of this method, a case study for four hotels is presented. The proposed method is expected to help hotel managers understand the hotel’s customer satisfaction, and develop corresponding improvement strategies to enhance its competitiveness.
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spelling doaj.art-3fd1a35d6bbd47d38f3db616d450ef882022-12-22T04:25:40ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362020-01-01822522622523910.1109/ACCESS.2020.30442529292934Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence TheoryMingyang Li0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4235-0573Yumei Ma1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5036-1029Pingping Cao2Department of Management Science and Engineering, Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang, ChinaDepartment of Management Science and Engineering, Business School, Liaoning University, Shenyang, ChinaDepartment of Basic Teaching and Research, Criminal Investigation Police University of China, Shenyang, ChinaHotel managers can learn about hotel customer satisfaction by analyzing online reviews. There are differences in the experience of reviewers, the release time and the degree of recognition for different online reviews, which leads to different reliability in reflecting customer satisfaction. The issue of how to determine hotel customer satisfaction more rationally with this reliability in mind is still a problem. To address this problem, this paper proposes a method for measuring hotel customer satisfaction based on the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) evidence theory, which considers the reliability of online reviews and information from multiple online travel review websites. This method is composed of three stages. First, considering the difference in online reviews’ reliability, the basic probability assignment is generated based on online reviews. Next, the aggregation of the evaluation information is conducted based on the entropy weight method and Dempster’s rule of combination. Finally, the utility function is used to calculate the expected utility, and customer satisfaction is analyzed based on the calculated expected utility. Therefore, improvement strategies of customer satisfaction can be developed according to customer satisfaction ranking. To verify the feasibility and effectiveness of this method, a case study for four hotels is presented. The proposed method is expected to help hotel managers understand the hotel’s customer satisfaction, and develop corresponding improvement strategies to enhance its competitiveness.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9292934/Customer satisfactionhotelonline reviewsreliabilityDempster-Shafer evidence theorythe entropy weight method
spellingShingle Mingyang Li
Yumei Ma
Pingping Cao
Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
IEEE Access
Customer satisfaction
hotel
online reviews
reliability
Dempster-Shafer evidence theory
the entropy weight method
title Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
title_full Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
title_fullStr Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
title_full_unstemmed Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
title_short Revealing Customer Satisfaction With Hotels Through Multi-Site Online Reviews: A Method Based on the Evidence Theory
title_sort revealing customer satisfaction with hotels through multi site online reviews a method based on the evidence theory
topic Customer satisfaction
hotel
online reviews
reliability
Dempster-Shafer evidence theory
the entropy weight method
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9292934/
work_keys_str_mv AT mingyangli revealingcustomersatisfactionwithhotelsthroughmultisiteonlinereviewsamethodbasedontheevidencetheory
AT yumeima revealingcustomersatisfactionwithhotelsthroughmultisiteonlinereviewsamethodbasedontheevidencetheory
AT pingpingcao revealingcustomersatisfactionwithhotelsthroughmultisiteonlinereviewsamethodbasedontheevidencetheory