A qualitative exploration of guest satisfaction with budget hotels from online review: the case of Indonesia

This study was aimed analyze online reviews to reveal the main factors contributing to guest satisfaction in budget hotels. In addition, this research also intended to identify areas needing improvement and provide valuable insights for both hoteliers and researchers. This qualitative study examines the factors driving guest satisfaction in Indonesian budget hotels. Data were collected from nearly 42,896 reviews on the TripAdvisor website. The reviews were initially categorized manually using a sample of 19,741 randomly selected reviews from former 1 star, 2 star and 3 star hotel guests in Tripadvisor which further analyzed and categorized into specific subcategories. Reviews were coded using NVivo 9. This research reveals that while physical products e.g rooms is primary consideration, Indonesian budget hotel guests were mostly concerned with the cleanliness of the rooms and toilets, staff service and attitude, breakfast offerings, location, value for money, and parking availability. These findings can be used to develop strategies to improve guest satisfaction and improve online reputation of budget hotels in Indonesia and beyond.