Hotel guest satisfaction during COVID-19 outbreak: The moderating role of crisis response strategy

Taking appropriate strategies in response to the COVID-19 crisis has presented significant challenges to the hospitality industry. Based on situational crisis communication theory (SCCT), this study aims to examine how the hotel industry has adopted strategies in shaping customers' experience and satisfaction. A mixed-method approach was employed by analysing 6556 COVID-19 related online reviews. The qualitative findings suggest that ‘rebuild strategies’ dominated most hotels' response to the COVID-19 crisis while the quantitative findings confirm the direct impact of affective evaluation and cognitive effort on customer satisfaction. The results further reveal that hotels' crisis response strategies moderate the effects of affective evaluation and cognitive effort on customer satisfaction. The study contributes to new knowledge on health-related crisis management and expands the application of SCCT in tourism research.