Customer expectations in the hotel industry during the COVID-19 pandemic: a global perspective using sentiment analysis.

Hotel industry is the one which has confronted the unprecedented effect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic to significant social and economic risks. The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged the tourism across the globe and impacted hospitality in hotel industry severely. This study aims to assess customer satisfaction by carrying sentiment analysis and topic modelling over customer reviews on the hospitality provided by hotels in different continents during January to September 2020, i.e. the COVID-19 pandemic. We formulate an improved new scale of metrics to categorize customer satisfaction assessed by sentiment analysis in an elaborate way. Topic modelling was deployed to understand various topics most often discussed by customers. We find that North America and Europe could perform up to customer expectation. In Asia, Sri Lanka did well, Indonesia could maintain its customer satisfaction, while India consistently improved the satisfaction level. We identified 12 most discussed topics, and main reasons of dissatisfaction appear in staff, service, room, cleanliness, slow booking, and pandemic response by hotel. Findings of this study will help senior managers of hotels of developed as well as developing countries in providing new and effective services that can satisfy customers and restore their confidence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]