How Online Reviews in a Year Predict Online Sales in the Next on Expedia.com + Agoda.com + Hotels.com? A Panel Study of Hotels

This paper investigates how ratings, titles as well as descriptions of online reviews predict online sales. Using data from Expedia.com, Agoda.com and Hotels.com; a log-linear regression model was developed for a panel of 75 Asian hotels. The model explained 69.40% variance in the dependent variable for luxury hotels, 40.30% for budget hotels, and 38.80% for mid-scale hotels. In particular, title length was negatively related to sales for luxury and mid-scale hotels. The use of positive words in titles was positively related to sales for luxury hotels but had a negative association for budget hotels. Moreover, the use of positive (negative) words in descriptions was positively (negatively) related to sales for budget hotels.