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.