The power of green! How luxury hotels’ sustainability communication affects online reviews
(A2023-114319)

AUTHORS

Katharina A. Schuck, IQS School of Management, University Ramon LLull; Belén Derqui, IQS Universitat Ramon Llull; Didier Grimaldi, La Salle Faculty, Ramon Llull University

ABSTRACT

Although luxury hotels are increasingly adopting sustainability measures, by no means all communicate their efforts. Communicating sustainability efforts has been shown to increase willingness to pay and enhance image, but many luxury hotels are reluctant to do so for fear of conveying a compromised sense of luxury to their customers. Using an exploratory mixed-methods design, we investigate the link between sustainability website communication and customer reviews. Through two sequential studies, we aim to reveal the different methods, types, and content of sustainability communications by luxury hotels and their impact on guest reviews. For this, 333 of the highest rated European 5-star hotels on two online travel sites were considered. The results show opportunities for increased customer integration in sustainability communication of luxury hotels. A link between the way luxury hotels communicate sustainability on their websites and customer engagement and satisfaction was found.