How critical is User Generated Content for customer satisfaction in accommodation aggregator sites?

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Introduction and problem formulation:
The Internet has grown to be one of the most effective means for tourists to seek information in the planning process of their vacation. Tourists find themselves navigating through an immense amount of information that could be relevant for the planning, which can be experienced as being overwhelming for prospect travellers (Pan and Fesenmaier 2006). In this scenario, aggregator sites enable users to search for content specific for their area of interest, gathering the information needed under a single roof and functioning as an intermediary between prospect travellers and the travel industry. Because of the low barriers of entry, the proliferation of information aggregator sites has created a strong competitive environment, where sites are competing for the attention of customers on the online space. Online customers are characterized as having a short attention span, seeking information on multiple sites, and having a low barrier to switching to alternative sites (Chaffey, 2009). User satisfaction is then essential for the success of an aggregator site, in order to retain customers and to encourage repeated visits to the sites.

It is the aim of this paper (mini-project?) to explore the critical success factors for customer satisfaction of accommodation aggregator sites. Accommodation aggregator sites are popular in planning one of the stages of their vacation, and they utilize many of the new applications, which are made possible by the latest technological developments, to provide customized information to the visitors of their site. Specifically, the development of the Web 2.0 has opened up for innovative ways of effectively organizing and delivering information on the Internet. In particular User Generated Content has brought about a new perspective on the provision of information, which involves consumers themselves in the production of information. The following research question is formulated to guide the research: “How critical is User Generated Content for customer satisfaction in accommodation aggregator sites?”. The question is relevant for accommodation aggregator sites, insofar (because) it explores the extent to which User Generated Content has to be implemented in order to add value to the customer experience, ensuring a high level of customer satisfaction. The focus of the research is limited to the aspect of customer retention, and do not look into strategies for customer acquisition. Furthermore the research is conducted on a small sample, and therefore serves merely as a starting point to further research. - Reference til emnerne I literature review - Hinte en konklusion - Hvem er teksten relvant for? - More limitations (possibly only write limitations of entire paper here end limitations of survey in the survey part)

INCLUDE OUTLINE STRUCTURE OF PAPER.

Aggregators:
The term aggregator refers to websites that “include product, price and service information comparing competitors within a sector such as financial services, retail or travel” (Chaffey, 2009, p. 62). The term is an alternative to that of ‘price comparison sites’. An aggregator is considered an intermediary site that either sells competing products, or redirects Internet consumers to a destination site where they can purchase the product (Chaffey 2009). An accommodation aggregator is one that compares products and prices within the hospitality industry, such as hotels and hostels.

Web 2.0 and User Generated Content
The Web 2.0 concept has been defined as a “collection of web services that facilitates interaction of web users with sites to create user-generated content and encourage behaviours such as community or social network participation, mashups, content rating, use of widgets and tagging” (Chaffey, 2009, p. 22). In describing the development of web technologies O’reilly (2009) explains how “[t]he Web is no longer a collection of static pages of HTML that describes something in the world” (p. 2), but instead the Web has become the world and everything and everyone can cast their “information shadow”. Web 2.0 has enabled people to collaborate and share information online, and has gained a massive popularity in doing so (Reactive 2007). Social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia are some of the very popular Web 2.0 sites that are dependable on the engagement and activeness of the users to provide the content on these sites. O’reilly (2009) explains how Web 2.0, as a platform, “[builds] applications that literally get better the more people use them, harnessing network effects not only to acquire users, but also to learn from them and build on their contributions” (p. 1). Hence, one of the very important concepts within Web 2.0 is User Generated Content (UGC), which also has become the “pivotal role that individual consumers have in submitting, reviewing, and responding to the online content” (Cox et al, 2009, p. 744). In marketing terms, UGC has effectively become a form of consumer-to-consumer e-marketing, equivalent of electronic word-of-mouth marketing (Cox et al., 2009). Accommodation aggregators makes use of various Web 2.0 features such as mashups (e.g. using the combination of Google Maps with hotel locations), and user reviews and ratings of the hotels which are UGC.

Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a concept that relates to how a company's products and/or services positively perform in accordance to the consumer's expectations. This concept is an important construct when analyzing the success of a company since a linear relation has been established, in an extensive number of business literature, between achieving customer satisfaction and achieving the company's objectives. Although a subjective concept, several approaches have been taken in order to determine how companies can positively influence customer satisfaction. Among them (Cronin and Taylor, 1994) suggest that satisfaction is a cumulative evaluation, and an outgrowth of service quality.
Overall service quality has been conceptualized in a study (Parasuraman et al., 1985) as the result of several quality dimensions. The resulting framework is referred to as SERVQUAL. Implications of these dimensions for online businesses are presented by Dave Chaffey (2009) as follows; ← Tangibles, ease of use and visual appeal based on the structural and graphic design of the site. The main reason to return to a site is high-quality content, ease of use, speed to download and frequency of updates ← Reliability, a dimension dependent on the availability of the web site and also the accuracy of the information provided. ← Responsiveness, can be indicated by the performance of the web site, e.g. page loading times, delay of search results, etc.. ← Assurance, concerns the privacy and security of customer information. ← Empathy, is normally viewed as a result of human interaction and harder to establish on an online environment. It is, however, suggested that a measure of empathy may experienced if the customer can interact with the online company's staff through the use of emails or other features such as online chat.

As can be seen in this framework many of the elements that contribute to the quality of a site, and therefore it's costumers satisfaction, derive from its design, implementation and supporting infrastructure. These findings are supported by several studies and have somewhat become basic principles for e-business as stated in such definitions as User-Centered Design, "Design based on optimizing the user experience according to all factors, including the user interface, which affect this." (Chaffey, 2009). For this reason when talking about customer satisfaction we will be focusing on features and functionalities, not considered basic under our assumptions, that can add value to the e-business.
Added value is the difference between output and input in any transformation system independent of industry. In the case of aggregators the way they compile, organize and present information translates into added value. Added value is very important in terms of differentiation from competitors and a key factor in client retention since it has a direct impact in customer satisfaction. The more added value a company provides to its costumer the bigger the satisfaction. The cost of retaining an existing customer is typically lower than prospecting for a new customer (Spreng et al., 1995), which makes the implementation of these non-basic features the more critical for customer satisfaction.

Bridging the Semantic Gap
The experience of travelling begins with the phase of anticipation and planning (Clawson and Knetsch, 1966), when customers’ start forming their expectations for the trip to come. Consumers move through different staged of planning, and one of them involves search for information regarding accommodation. There is a generalised consensus about the intangible and experiential nature of service products in the travel industry. This characteristic may complicate the formation of customer expectations because users cannot perceive the tangible outcome of the service (Klein 1998). According to Levitt (1981) intangible products differ in the fact that customers do not have the possibility to test the product in advance. This may be perceived as being risky and uncertain, and pushes prospect customers to seek information from different sources. Thus, as customers are not able to test the product, what prospect are asked to evaluate in their decision making, are nothing more than, what Levitt refers to as “promises of satisfaction” (Levitt, 1981:38). According to Levitt (1981) promises of satisfaction are delivered through the language of reassurances, metaphors, images, which becomes surrogates for what customers cannot experience and test themselves. Customers then must rely on appearance and impressions to make their judgments. Levitt continues: “The less tangible the generic product, the more powerfully and persistently the judgment about it gets shaped by the packaging-how it’s presented, who presents it, and what’s implied by metaphor, simile, symbol, and other surrogates for reality” (Levitt, 1981:39). Studies of the representation of the travel industry online have explored the symbolic nature of representations of tourist products and destinations, pointing at different techniques used to describe and frame tourist products. The travel industry provides information with the use of various form of online communication, as signs, commercials, text, and visual aids, which Xiang et al. refer to as “symbolic markers” of places and experiences (Xiang, Wöber and Fesenmaier, 2008:139). These symbolic markers are posited to have an impact on consumers’ expectations and consumption (Ibid, 2008). The symbolic nature of the information provided by the tourist industry is depicted in the notion of “language of tourism” (Dann 1997), which describes tourism as a discourse on its own, drawing on specific methods of representation. Thus language becomes the “primary tool for promotion, marketing, and social control” (Xiang, Wöber and Fesenmaier, 2008:139), adopted by the travel industry in the production of Levitt’s s promises of satisfaction.

Further studies of online representations, though, have identified some discrepancies between the language adopted by the travel industry and the language preferred by prospect travellers (Pan and Fesenmaier 2006). The vocabulary adopted by the industry is instrumental to the persuasion of prospect customers, and so far adopts the terminology of marketing and promotion, focusing on special offers, prices, and profitable attractions (ibid, 2006). On the contrary, prospect travellers prefer using a language which is more subjective, and which draws on their desire for experience and action. As postulated by Pan and Fesenmaier (2006) and advocated by many others, there is a substantial gap between the preferred types of representation. Xiang, Wöber and Fesenmaier (2008) go so far to postulate that the tourism domain represented on the internet is mostly dominated by the language of tourism adopted by the industry. Online space is dominated by the functional and instrumental language of promotion and marketing, which do not fit with the perspective from which customers think of their needs (Ibid, 2008).

In this scenario, accommodation aggregator sites serve the function of intermediary link between the travel industry and prospect travellers. In this role it is relevant for site aggregators to understand the semantic nature of online representation and to address the discrepancies between the two approaches adopted. The success of key aggregators depends on their ability to effectively organize the information, which is available online and to deliver it to prospect customers according to their specific needs. This implies the need for adapting the language of the travel industry into forms of representation, which correspond to customers' needs for experiential encounter. Recent developments in Web 2.0 applications have expanded the horizon for new forms of organizing and representing travel and tourism products online, which can improve customers experience in the planning of their vacation (Gretzel 2006). In particular User Generated Content tools allow the creation of a common ground for learning about travel products and experiences. The use of blogs, discussion forums, reviews and podcasts offers innovative ways of directly involving the customers in the organization and provision of information. As Xiang, Wöber and Fesenmaier (2008) points out, the adoption of such tools represents a new channel for translating consumers’ perceptions, images and stories of tourist experiences, “upon spontaneously and collaboratively constructed meanings” (Ibid:139).

In conclusion, there is reason to believe that the application of collaborative technologies as User Generated Content on accommodation aggregator sites can be a relevant means for bridging the gap between the differing narratives of tourism adopted by the travel industry and prospect travellers. By creating a collaborative platform it is possible to involve the consumers in shaping the content and forms of the information, with a narrative and images which appeal to customers’ own terms of reference, contributing in adding value to customers’ experience and customer satisfaction.

User Generated Content as added value
The online travel industry has begun to integrate a lot of web 2.0 features that focus on User Generated Content (UGC ) such as product reviews, guides, holiday snaps, travel tips and so on. This is so prevalent that the term ‘Travel 2.0’ has been adopted as a spin-off of the Web 2.0 (Carroll, 2006). Across the accommodation aggregator sites, one of the most dominant Web 2.0 features found is the possibility of users to rate and review the different accommodation options. These UGC sites “equate to electronic word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing, whereby somebody who has an opinion about a product or service shares their views, beliefs, and experiences with other people (Cox et al, 2009, p. 744). The possibility of UGC has allowed for a power shift from marketer’s own ads to the ads of the people. That user generated content on aggregator sites has an increasing importance, is evidenced in the surge of the use of such sites (e.g. tripadvisor.com), which offers reviews and travel-related news in a social networking setting (Strauss, 2007, p. 28).
Research done by Cox et al (2009) suggests that the role of UGC such as reviews, should only be considered as an ‘add-on’, which is not substituting other forms of content, but supplementing existing information already existing on the site. The reviews on an accommodation aggregator are thus not critical for the existence of the site, but they contribute with notable add-on value that enhances the customer satisfaction and can retain customers on the site. The fact that value is added for the customer can be found when looking the importance the online consumers give to these functions. A large study done by (Gretzel 2007), researched the impact of travel reviews on the overall travel sector and with a specific focus on TripAdvisor.com. The study included around 1500 TripAdvisor users. TripAdvisor, is a website that offers travel advice on all spectres of the travel industry, including their own accommodation aggregator. Of the people studied, 96,4% used the Internet for travel planning, and 90% answered that part of their planning consisted of reading other people’s reviews or material. Hence, UGC such as reviews plays a major role for the users of websites offering travel goods, herein accommodation, as it is the information source most frequently used.
The relative importance given to user reviews has to do with the potential impact of such reviews on the consumers compared to marketer’s own ads. It has been found that only 6% of consumers trust the marketer’s ad claims (Strauss 2007), which is a reason to turn to user reviews instead. The power of user reviews, lies in the role as an online WOM source, where “the provider of the information is not looking to make a financial gain by sharing their experiences and views with others” and “consumers tend to trust and be more influenced by this type of information than by more commercial sources such as travel agents or accommodation operators” (Cox et al., 2009, p. 747).
Evidence among several researchers (Cox et al., 2009), (Ye et al., 2009), and (Senecal et al., 2004) support the contention that online consumers are influenced in their online consumption decisions by online user reviews, and more specifically “online user reviews have an important impact on hotel bookings” (Ye et al., 2009, p. 182). At a more general level user reviews have been found to be more important to prospective consumers when the goods are experiential as opposed to tangible products (Cox et al., 2009). Accommodation aggregators engage in the sale of hotel rooms that is an experimental good, and hence the benefits of UGC such as customer reviews are of greater importance to these prospective consumers.
UGC is therefore an important integration of accommodation aggregators because of the added value brought to the site by the user reviews. The exposure to such UGC increases the likelihood that the consumer will buy the products, given that it is recommended (Cox et al., 2009). But moreover, consumers prefer to learn about the views of others, and these user reviews are found to be preferred over the hotel’s own description of itself online (Cox et al., 2009). Research therefore suggest that USG is a critical element of value-added on accommodation aggregator sites.

Questionnaire methodology and findings
Our questionnaire was divided in two different parts with the purpose of verifying the validity of two hypothesis that resulted from our literature reviews.
Hypothesis 1 (H1): Users of accommodation aggregator sites assume quality of design, functionality, and reliability (SERVQUAL dimensions), as critical when choosing and using a site.
Hypothesis 2 (H2): Given the satisfaction of the SERVQUAL dimensions User Generated Content is the most important feature for Customer Satisfaction.

In order to have data significant to the research respondents were asked "Have you ever used a price comparison site for hotels?" with those answering, no, excluded from the questionnaire. The number of positive answers was 67 out of 80. In this question we used the term "price comparison" instead of "aggregators" since the later term is technical and not easily understood.

To test H1 we used a method of open questions. These questions came in the beginning of the questionnaire, and allowed the respondents to come with as long an answer as they wanted. The advantages with this method was that the data collected came the respondents’ own words and they were not forced to into any given framework. This is an inexpensive method that can allow for rich information, and is easy to apply to questionnaires. The disadvantage is that the answers can be biased towards incidents that happened recently, as they are easier to remember. Another limitation is that the respondents might not want to take the time to write long answers, in which case the information will not be as rich.
The respondents were first asked to list the functionalities of the aggregator(s) they use that makes them choose them. The answers were aggregated in two categories, functionalities under the basic SERVQUAL dimensions (Group 1) and added value functionalities (Group 2) (e.g. user ratings and reviews, maps, etc.). The majority of the listed functionalities (74%) where under Group 1. Examples of answers in this category are, friendly use, complete and clear information, frequent updates, good search interface, good overview and comparisons. Examples of answers for Group 2 are, user reviews, interactive maps, user ratings. The following question asked to list reasons that led the user to stop using a particular aggregator. Although not a lot of respondents recalled such an experience, only 35% (24 out of the sample of 67), all of the functionalities belonged to Group 1.

To test H2 we used a direct method of choice and ranking. In this part respondents were presented with a list of functionalities which only included functionalities of added value to the quality of the site and customer satisfaction. This means none of the answers offered in the first part identified in Group 1 are present. Further to the purpose of our research they were grouped either as User Generated Content (UGC) and non UGC (nUGC). The exercise was to list five they would prefer to use and rank them in terms of importance within the context of accommodation aggregators. The objective in this part was not to explore from the users experience but instead to find what they valued the most when presented with new additional options. The overall result, total number of choices for UGC and nUGC, is inconclusive as can be seen in Chart 1.
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However when we look at the results by order of importance attributed to each of the five choices, as seen on Chart 2, we find more relevant results.

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The first two choices are predominantly in UGC, 68% and 65% of the total accordingly, with the third choice starting the shift into an increase in importance of nUGC as seen in the last choices, 65% of the total for both the fourth and fifth. When we enter into the detail of what features respondents value the most we find that, for first choice, the top two are "User Ratings" and "User Reviews/Comments" with 37,8% and 23% of the total answers. Together they represent 60% of the answers while the third most selected feature represents 13,5%. When look at second choice in terms of importance we have 16,2% for "User Ratings" and 31,1% for "User Reviews/Comments". We can observe a relation between the two features over the importance levels. Most respondents that choose one of the features on their first choice placed the other on their second choice. For the following choices (3rd, 4th, and 5th) these two functionalities did not receive as many answers as a consequence of their predominance on the fist choices. Since that in the following choices nUGC features have the majority of the answers we can conclude that "User Ratings" and "User Reviews/Comments" are the preferred User Generated Content within the scope of our research.

Discussion and conclusion
Success of accommodation aggregator sites, as with many other online businesses, derives, among other aspects, from retaining customers and repeated utilization of the site. This aspect is critical since its cost/benefit ratio is bigger than that of acquiring new users. Customer retention is achieved through customer satisfaction, a result of the fulfilment of customer's expectations, itself a result of service quality. A multiplying effect was found between the quality of a service in that providing a service that exceeds the expectations of the customer will result in a great impact in satisfaction. In the case of accommodation aggregators exceeded expectations come in the form of functionalities that add value beyond that of what internet users have started to expect. More specifically to this case the use of User Generated Content was identified as the strongest value adding feature as derived from previous studies and the conclusions of our questionnaire based research. The two functionalities of UGC identified as critical were, user ratings, and user reviews/comments.
The importance of these two features derives from an industry specific dynamic that can be referred to as "The travelling experience". Travelling and accommodation, in their intangible nature, are defined as a sum of experiences that was found to start in the planning phase when customers are searching for options and information. UGC fulfils these expectations of experience, whereas simple price, location or availability information does not, since users can refer to other's experiences in a language they are comfortable with and most importantly they trust. Added value and its quality are then a direct result of user generated content.
As seen from our research once the basic dimensions of quality are met customers specifically identified UGC as contributing to their satisfaction through added value and thus their intentions of repeated use. This conclusion as others implications to customer retention within the context of network economies. According to Metcalfe's law, the value of a network goes up as the square of the number of users. In other words a big network, in this case consisting of a large base of reviews and ratings provided by users, exponentiates the added value to the user and also raises the switching cost of changing to another aggregator with a smaller network (a smaller user base does not offer the same level of information and experience). This is also extremely important in guaranteeing customer retention consisting in a competitive advantage and thus demanding a big commitment to the implementation of these features on the aggregators.

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