How B&Bs Manage Customers’ eWOM in Multichannel Retailing

The prevailing use of online multichannel marketing in the B&B hotel industry drives electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. eWOM has had a clear and significant impact on tourist customer purchase decisions, which raises important unresolved questions, such as which B&B customer experiences drive eWOM and how B&Bs can encourage guests to provide positive eWOMs while avoiding negative ones. To answer these questions, this study uses the person???situation fit theory to establish a theoretical model and implemented a cross-sectional survey to collect valid data from 544 B&B guests in East Taiwan. SPSS 22.0 and AMOS 22.0 were used to analyze the survey data, providing descriptive, regression, and confirmatory factor analyses. The findings provide insight into how customers’ perceived quality of a B&B’s physical environment and core service influences customer online reviews and how B&Bs should effectively manage customer negative eWOMs. B&B operators should provide careful, considerate, and prompt online explanations to address negative comments on their multiple booking channels, such as official websites, commercial platforms, special line users, and Facebook fan pages.