The online assessment of tourism services. The hotel market from Brasov County

• Author: Baltescu C. A.
• Pages: 141-148

Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov

Series V: Economic Sciences • Vol. 8 (57) No. 2 - 2015

The online assessment of tourism services.

The hotel market from Braşov County

Codruţa Adina BLTESCU1

Abstract: The online travel communities and tourism agencies have favored the emergence

of global assessment alternatives of accommodation units included in the visitors’ travel

options. This article analyzes the online assessment of the accommodation units from Braşov

county and which are the differences between the comfort category of accommodation units

according to the national classification system of the accommodation units and the online

assessments found on two of the most well known online communities in the field, namely

TripAdvisor and Booking.com.

Key-words: hotel classification systems, online assessments, online travel communities

1. Introduction

The online assessments on accommodation units are solutions to evaluate the

tourism offer, with informal features, belong to the reservation site and represent a

satisfaction assessment barometer after the consumption. In practice, it is well

known that when a potential customer chooses an accommodation unit at the desired

destination, online reviews represent an important element towards buying decision.

In Romania, the number of accommodation units which conclude distribution

contracts with online tourism agencies for selling their own offer is increasing. In

equal measure has increased the appetite of travelers to use electronic

communication and reservation tools in order to prepare their tourist packages. At

the end of the holiday the Website invites the tourist to assess the units visited and to

express satisfaction or dissatisfaction of consumption.

2. Online communication for accommodation units

In the hospitality industry, the Internet has revolutionized business operations. It is

widely acknowledged that the Internet can serve as an effective marketing tool

between suppliers and consumers for its capabilities of information dissemination,

1 Transilvania University of Braşov, codruta.baltescu@unitbv.ro