📖 ABSTRACT/OVERVIEW
This study examines the influence of online customer reviews on hotel booking decisions among travellers and tourists in Calabar, Cross River State, South South Nigeria. Calabar, known as Nigeria's tourism capital, hosts a significant number of hotels serving domestic and international visitors attending events such as the Calabar Carnival. With the proliferation of travel review platforms and online booking services, user-generated reviews have become a critical information source for prospective hotel guests. The study adopts a descriptive survey design, targeting 270 hotel guests in Calabar through systematic random sampling across five hotels of varying classifications. A structured questionnaire measures hotel review attributes including recency, volume, valence, and perceived reviewer credibility, as well as their influence on booking decisions. Analysis uses descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression. The study also evaluates whether prior travel experience moderates the relationship between review characteristics and booking decisions. Preliminary findings suggest that review valence (positive versus negative tone) is the most influential factor, followed by review recency. Travellers are found to be more sensitive to extreme negative reviews than to uniformly positive ones. This research provides actionable insights for hotel marketing managers, booking platform operators, and the Cross River State Tourism Bureau on leveraging online reputation management to attract and convert prospective guests. The study contributes to the e-marketing and tourism marketing literature within a uniquely Nigerian destination setting. Keywords: online reviews, hotel booking, tourism, Calabar, consumer decision-making
Need Complete Chapters of the Above Topic?
Get high-quality, Zero-AI research materials with current citations.
Request via WhatsApp 💬