While customer satisfaction is a key marketing metric for companies in the hospitality industry, it is also an important indicator for customers to choose and book their accommodations. There is significantly growing popularity of user-generated reviews on the Internet, in which travellers check customer reviews online before booking, and then write their comments on review websites after their trips. According to Market Metrix's latest Hospitality Index report, one in five guests reads a review about a hotel before booking it; 25 per cent of luxury guests check a review before purchasing and more than 10 per cent of them write write review after their experience. Among all these review websites, TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel online community, is believed by many hotel managers to have the biggest influence on their customers. TripAdvisor's Popularity Index is the most helpful metric used by many Internet users to narrow down their hotel search quickly. Therefore, lodging companies do not only have to maintain and improve their customer satisfaction, but also need to check their online index continuously to keep track of customer feedback every day. Obviously, customer feedback is a valuable source for evaluation and improvement for any company in the hospitality industry. However, collecting it and reacting quickly can be a challenge because of the growing volume of reviews. With a new customer satisfaction management dashboard system, managers and owners of 450 000 hotels on TripAdvisor can now assess their performance as rated by customers, including a competitive analysis and a Customer Satisfaction Index. This new index is a scoring system that rates each review from 0 to 100 based on seven key indicators: overall, value, recommend by traveller, cleanliness, service, room and location. Property owners can also check recent reviews from guests, categorise them according to key metrics and compare their property's rank against competitors and against the aggregate rank of properties in the same area. By managing customer satisfaction in a proactive manner, hotel managers can handle user-generated reviews better, quickly respond to online feedback, identify the fail points in their services as well as discover opportunity for development. The tool provided by TripAdvisor is more than just another online customer satisfaction index. It promises to make it easier for hoteliers to engage with the online travel community and improve repeat and referral visitors in the competitive lodging industry.

1). What should hoteliers do to make use of customer reviews on TripAdvisor and the new customer satisfaction dashboard?

2). How does online information affect customers' expectation and perceived quality at their arrival?