Resumen de Assessment of functional and emotional factors in the hotel experience through UGC
Elena Sánchez Vargas, José Manuel Hernández Mogollón, Sergio López Salas, Bárbara Sofía Pasaco González, Ana Moreno Lobato
User Generated Content (UGC) is a valuable source of information that allows us to know what are the attributes that tourists value the most. In the hotel context, user reviews are useful for knowing tourists’ opinions. There are two forms of UGC: functional and emotional. The first is to analyse messages with practical information, while the second is composed of messages that show feelings. This paper aims to identify the differences between the functional and emotional factors assessed positively and negatively by tourists about the hotels in Trujillo (Cáceres, Spain). A content analysis of Booking.com reviews of Trujillo hotels is carried out. The hotels are divided into two groups demonstrating the differences in services and prices: 1 and 2-stars and 3 and 4-stars hotels. The results show that guests evaluated functional and emotional factors positively and negatively in both groups. According to the attributes identified, to increase the positive hotel experience, the factors that should be considered are those that include emotional dimension; while to minimise the negative experience, functional factors should be considered to cover the basic hotel experience. As a main conclusion, it is outstanding that the emotional value of the hotel experience is not exclusive to the higher categories, as it is present in both groupings.
