Positioning five-star hotels in city destinations: The case of Istanbul, Turkey

Destinations and hotel businesses take advantage of many benefits of the online world. Extensive qualitative (review texts) and quantitative (review scores and room rates) data sources enable them to assess their positions through the eyes of their customers. The aim of this study is to propose a method focusing on customer reviews and rates in order to help hotel businesses with assessment of their positioning strategies. The dataset included a selection of five-star hotels in Istanbul, a city destination of Turkey. Room rates and the findings from a thematic narrative analysis of TripAdvisor reviews from a cognitive and experiential perspective were combined to create a position map. The findings extend traditional classification systems and reveal three competitive groups of five-star hotels with specific attributes in a city destination. Other findings offer some insight for hotel and destination managers, enabling them to evaluate the performance of positioning strategies of five-star hotels in the market.