How Do Small Hotels Handle E-Complaints in Egypt?

This research aimed to assess the strategies implemented by small-sized hotels to handle e-complaints via website and TripAdvisor as a social media platform and to identify the most common reasons for online customers' complaints. To achieve research objectives, data were collected using a mix of quantitative and qualitative approaches. First, an online survey targeted 150 customers who had made e-complaints in the last year. Second, content analysis of 198 collected complaints from the hotels' websites and accounts on TripAdvisor site during the last 12 months. The findings have highlighted that the low quality of food and beverage service was the most common reason for online complaints. The results also revealed that the majority of hotels neither responded to nor monitored complaints via social media, so it was not surprising to find out that the respondents were not satisfied with the aspects of handling e-complain process that adapted by the investigated hotels. The results pointed out that the surveyed hotels did not provide an explanation of what mistakes have been made and did not describe the action taken to ensure it won't occur again. One of the main finding that the small sized hotels did not make the required effort for investigating and collecting all relevant information surrounding the complaints to make the picture clear and determine the suitable taken action. These results will benefit small hotels management to develop better handle customer e-complaints system with precise procedures as well as, they will distinguish the major aspects that they should change and improve. Future research may consider each hotel category investigations deeply to find more about their complaint management strategies.