7. Conclusions
We have analyzed the user reviewing practices on Ctrip.com, a
major online travel agency in China, and found that the valence of
traveler reviews had a significant impact on the online sales of
hotel rooms. Online reviews may serve to reduce the cognitive load
of potential travelers, and thus increase their awareness, resulting
in more sales. Our regression estimates suggest that, generally, a
10 percent increase in the ratings of user reviews can boost the
dependent variable, index of online hotel bookings, by more than
five percent. The results also indicate that the variance in the
valence of rating scores across reviews does not significantly influence
the number of online bookings. In terms of other influential
factors for online sales, as the control variable in the research model,
we find that room rate has a significantly negative effect on the
average number of online bookings, and that hotels in larger cities
tend to receive more online bookings.