TripAdvisor comments: what are they talking about?

Social networks’ popularity has enabled new approaches in customer-business relationships, particularly in regard to tourism. Much of this is due to the global character of social networks, and the fact that tourists can freely discuss their experiences, making these comments available to others instantly. References found in literature considered the determinants, motivations and adoption of other tourists’ evaluations, and how they can be helpful to peers. These studies have been compiled based on quantitative information, particularly regarding rankings based on the number of comments and reviewers that companies have on content management sites. However, tourist evaluations go beyond just assigning a rating—there are also unstructured comments, and these have not been the object of much analysis. Thus, this work’s focus is on the analysis of the content of comments using the institutional Dineserv model, applied to restaurants and adapting it to social media.