Perez-Aranda, Javier, Tolkach, Denis, Ahn, Euijoon, and Chen, Fang Wei (2025) Unravelling consumer sentiments towards communicated health-safety and sustainability practices in hotels. Tourism and Hospitality Research. (In Press)

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Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic has greatly impacted travel and hospitality industry. As hotels began to reopen after the initial lockdowns, many implemented new standards to reduce health risks. At the same time, travel recommender sites and accommodation booking websites introduced sustainability labelling and health and safety badges to help travellers book safe and sustainable accommodation options. This study investigates a 2,655 online hotel reviews from Costa del Sol region of Spain, collected between February 2020 and March 2021 to capture the full impact of the pandemic’s first year on tourism sector. Using a deep learning-based sentiment analysis combined with ANOVA, the study examines gest perceptions of hotels’ health and sustainability standards and explores their relationship with overall review scores. Additionally, the content of the reviews is analysed to identify emerging themes and associated sentiments. The findings indicate that although guests rarely mentioned health measures explicitly, these practices had a measurable impact on review scores. While the analysis of sustainability-related sentiments remains exploratory, preliminary results suggest that higher-category hotels (i.e., 4- or 5-star) are more likely to communicate a broader range of implemented sustainability, health, and safety practices. More research is needed to understand the evolving sentiment towards health and sustainability issues amongst hotel guests across various segments of travel and hospitality industry as wells as across cultures.

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