Abstract: This study investigates the collective influences of cultural, hotel, and reviewer characteristics on online ratings in the hotel sector. Based on over 243,000 TripAdvisor reviews for hotels in 24 US cities, we empirically find a negative relationship between the reviewers’ power distance and their online hotel ratings, thereby indicating that cultural factor plays a significant role in the customers’ online rating behavior. The negative effect of power distance on online hotel ratings is weaker for chained hotels than for independent hotels. This negative effect is also weaker for reviewers with more travel experience than for those with less travel experience. The robustness check demonstrates that these findings are applicable for ratings on product features that involve staff interactions, such as service, value, rooms, and cleanliness.

　　Key words: online rating, TripAdvisor, hotel, power distance, hotel chain, reviewer travel experience, multidimensional rating

　　本文刊登于Tourism Management, 65 (2018), 176-186。本文第二作者李祥歌为高宝俊指导的2016级硕士研究生。

　　Tourism Management 2016年影响因子4.707，5年影响因子；6.048;在HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM学科分类下排名1/45，为学院英文B类奖励期刊。

　　ABS(The Association of Business School)期刊列表将商学领域的期刊由高到低分为5个等级：4*，4，3，2，1。Tourism Management为第二等级( 4分)的期刊。

　　链接：//www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517717302273