Is breakfast an important dimension in hotel selection? An analysis of online reviews

Abstract

Online reviews in booking sites inuence the choice of a hotel by future guests. Several hotel attributes are mentioned in online comments, but breakfast is rarely addressed. The purpose of this research is to analyse the importance that European hotel customers give to breakfast when choosing a hotel. For this purpose, online comments in TripAdvisor platform (n=1120) from customers searching for 4- and 5-stars hotels in European capitals were assessed. The hotels (n=112) were selected according to their rate in TripAdvisor (2 high-rank and 2 low-rank per capital). More than half of the comments include a reference to breakfast, being 66% positive and 56% addressing a specific dimension. References to breakfast and positive remarks are more frequent among women (p<0.001). Positive comments are more frequent on the high-rank hotels and negative comments on the low-rank hotels (p<0.001). No differences were found considering the aim/type of travel. Hotel managers should consider breakfast as an important factor that their customers' comment and publish about in booking platforms. Importantly, a description in the hotel website and eventually other platforms may positively influence tourists' comments and ultimately the rank of the hotel on booking sites, and therefore impact customers' perception of the quality of the hotel. Other studies should consider determining managers' and visitors' perspectives regarding these findings.