Businesses can learn from critics

TOURISM

Comments from flattering business travelers taking advantage of corporate accounts and grouchy vacationers with a grudge against a hotel's wallpaper float around online for future travelers to peruse.

Hotel and resort operators can dwell upon them or ignore them, but — according to a College of Charleston professor and his colleagues — they could also use them. Their Charlotte-based company, Linguistics Insights, turns guests' opinions into a scorecard listing delights and disappointments.

They'll produce A-through-F grades on everything from décor to location to staff.

The theory: Maybe crazy Stacey from Sacramento wasn't off base in her appraisal of the pool. After all, 25 other, more sound-minded visitors said the same thing.

"Hoteliers are carefully watching what consumers say about them on the Internet," said C of C Hospitality and tourism management professor John Crotts. "We're just taking it to the next step."

The process works in three steps, Crotts explains: First, his company collects data from a travel Web site such as TripAdvisor.com. Then it parses comments into 100-word segments for a software program to analyze. Finally, it reviews the software's findings and charts emotional attitudes.

Crotts and his colleagues contend in a research paper that their product trumps the traditional comment card.

Guests often leave vague assessments if they bother to complete the cards at all.

People logging on to Web sites, on the other hand, spend hours sharing their appraisals, Crotts said.

Plus, more than 20 million Web surfers check out other people's recommendations on TripAdvisor.com every week, according to the paper.

Crotts and his partners — a researcher who previously worked with companies such as Anheuser-Busch and Kellogg's, and a linguistics professor — already presented their strategy to the Carolinas Chapter of the American Resort Development Association and will soon meet with Philadelphia researchers.

Their next project will pit cities against one another. One place might earn higher marks for food, while the other could lead in attractions.

"We compete on quality, and quality is in the eye of the consumer," Crotts said. "We should find out what they're telling each other about our businesses."

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.