Value creation through online travel reviews on TripAdvisor : case of hotels in Helsinki

The use of online travel reviews as a part of consumers' tourism planning processes is a growing phenomenon. Consumers' especially use other travelers' reviews while choosing accommodation for their trip. TripAdvisor is one of the largest tourism related websites on Internet and it contains reviews of hotels around the world. In this thesis the ways in which the hotels in Helsinki are using these reviews in their value creation processes, if they are used at all, are analyzed. Also based on theory and the current use of the reviews by the hotels some suggestions are made for the hotels how they possibly could improve their value creation through the consumer reviews on TripAdivsor. The consumer reviews are important for the tourists in their tourism planning, which is one reason why the amount of consumer reviews online has grown. The information on consumer reviews is available for everyone free of charge and using this source of information also by the hotels can be beneficial in their value creation. The hotels cannot stop the creation of consumer reviews, but they can try to manage it and benefit from it. The theory in this thesis consists of the marketing process, where the consumer reviews can be useful for the hotels in different points. The reviews online can be used as information source and as a tool for managing customer relationships and for promotional messages. The use of the reviews in the hotels in Helsinki was researched through quantitative data, which was collected from TripAdvisor, and through qualitative data collected by interviewing hotel representatives. The results of this thesis are that the use of reviews on TripAdvisor by the hotels in Helsinki is still in the middle of its adoption period, meaning that the hotels are using the reviews in some ways in order to create more value but not in all the possible ways of use are yet used in the hotels. The hotels are also on different stages in the adoption, while some hotels have thought more extensively what their actions regarding the reviews is in different aspects, while some hotels have only very minimal actions regarding the reviews. One of the main reasons for the hotels not to imply more measures regarding the reviews in order to create more value is the lack of knowledge and information about the possibilities and ways of how to use the reviews in their benefit.