Online Review Bias

All reviews are not created equal… In three recent papers I collectively suggest that online reviews in the hospitality industry are significantly affected by various biases stemming from customer motivations, firm strategies for collecting reviews, and the specific online platforms where reviews are posted.

Specifically, customer motivation introduces bias because customers are often more inclined to post extreme opinions, particularly negative ones, leading to an underreporting bias of moderate experiences. However, this bias is mitigated by increased familiarity with the review platform, as experienced users perceive a lower cost to posting and share feedback across a wider range of satisfaction levels, whereas first-time reviewers are more likely to post negative and extreme ratings. Similarly, how and where hotels seek to collect reviews also introduce biases by influencing who posts and what they write.

Therefore, to gain a comprehensive understanding of customer feedback in the hospitality industry, it is crucial to consider these interconnected sources of bias inherent in online review systems. Both hospitality firms and review platforms need to be aware of these biases to interpret reviews accurately and to develop strategies that encourage more representative and reliable feedback.

The podcast provides a detailed summary of these three papers.

CK Anderson with S. Han. 2020. Customer Motivation and Response Bias in Online Reviews. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly 61(2) 142–153.
CK Anderson with F Wang. 2023. How Firm Strategies Affect Consumer Biases in Online Reviews. Service Science 15(3):172-187.
CK Anderson with S. Han. 2025. The Platform Matters: Selection and Measurement Bias in Online Reviews Cornell Hospitality Quarterly