Online Consumer Herding Behaviors in the Hotel Industry

Abstract

The emergence of the Internet brought changes to traditional Word-of-Mouth Communication (WOM). Consumers are able to share and exchange opinions with anyone in the world, while WOM has customarily resulted from face-to-face relationships. Online portals allow individuals to purchase books, movie tickets, and music CDs as well as hospitality services. Those consumers made purchase decisions based on other customers ’ opinions on the Internet). Consumers feel safer subscribing to opinions stated by the masses because people try to imitate others ’ behaviors when there is not enough information. This phenomenon is called herding behavior. Many social media Web sites offering hotel rooms and travel amenities provide online platforms which consumers communicate with others who have information or previous experiences about the hotels. In this paper, the relationship between quantity of consumer reviews and online consumer purchasing intention in the hotel industry is tested.