Post-consumption evaluations in luxury hospitality: a qualitative analysis of online customer reviews

Purpose This study examines how post-consumption evaluations are expressed in online reviews of luxury hotels and considers the implications of these retrospective narratives for understanding the broader digital customer journey. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative research design was adopted. Using qualitative content analysis, 250 TripAdvisor reviews from five luxury hotels in Istanbul were analyzed. Reviews were coded according to the FMOT-SMOT framework and examined through thematic analysis. Each review was assigned to one dominant thematic category. Findings The findings reveal a strong dominance of SMOT-related evaluations. Of the 250 reviews analyzed, 238 were coded as SMOT, while 12 contained both FMOT and SMOT elements. No review was classified exclusively as FMOT. Thirteen themes were identified, with service quality, personalized service and staff recognition, revisit intention and loyalty, and recommendation and electronic word-of-mouth emerging as the most prominent. The reviews were primarily retrospective expressions of SMOT, while references to pre-consumption expectations appeared only when embedded in post-consumption evaluations. Interpersonal service was more prominent than tangible luxury attributes in guests' dominant narrative emphasis. Originality/value The study distinguishes empirically observable SMOT narratives from their theoretically proposed role in subsequent customer journeys. It shows that expectations become visible primarily through retrospective confirmation or disconfirmation and proposes that publicly circulated SMOT narratives may enter prospective customers’ FMOT. This cross-customer mechanism is presented as a conceptual proposition requiring direct empirical testing.