Over the past two decades, research in the field of tourism and hospitality has focused on leveraging online content generated by consumers to improve customer satisfaction and overall business performance. These reviews serve as valuable tools for exploring customer satisfaction and preferences. Furthermore, it has been observed that not all service attributes carry the same weight in influencing satisfaction, with the relationship between the performance of an 
attribute and satisfaction often exhibiting nonlinear or asymmetric characteristics. Understanding these asymmetric effects is vital for hotels to effectively tailor their services to different customer segments. Research also highlights the need to delve deeper into the specific impacts of various service attributes on customer satisfaction across different types of customers. Such insights can inform strategic decision-making processes aimed at enhancing satisfaction and optimizing service delivery.
One of the main challenges hotels face today lies in analysing review data and effectively utilizing the information they provide for decision-making purposes. Therefore, further research is justified to better understand traveler behaviour and preferences, enabling tourism managers to develop strategic plans for service improvement.
The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an innovative system for using information from online reviews in decision-making, with the aim of increasing hotel customer satisfaction. This will raise hotel ratings and impact the hotel’s profits. As a result, the development of such a system would create an innovative, sustainable business model for managing customer satisfaction.
Project Τitle: Using customer generated content (CGC) for customizing the service mix and maximizing customer satisfaction: an empirical study in hotels
Project Duration: 3/2024-12/2025
Project URL: www.cgc4hotelsstudy.gr
Project Framework & Funding: Greece 2.0, Basic Research Financing Action (Horizontal support of all Sciences) Sub-action II Funding Projects in Leading-Edge Sectors
Scientific coordinator (UNIWA): APOSTOLOS GIOVANIS
Consortium – Partners: UNIVERSITY OF PELOPONNESE – UNIVERSITY OF WEST ATTICA
Publications made in scientific journals:
Athanasopoulou, P., Giovanis, N.A., Papakyriakoulos, D., Gdonteli, K, and Choustoulakis, M. (2025). The role of traveler type and hotel star rating in the effect of hotel service attributes on customer satisfaction. Journal of Information Systems Engineering and Management (JISEM), 10(34s), 413-421. https://doi.org/10.52783/jisem.v10i34s.5817 . (Scopus indexed)
Presentations in international conferences.
- Euromed Academy of Business Conference 11-13/09/2024, Piza, Italy
- International Marketing Trends Conference, Venice 23-25/01/2025
- International Conference on Hospitality Management (ICHOMA), Dubai, UAE, 12-13/02/2025
Publications in conference proceedings
- Athanasopoulou, P., Giovanis, N.A., Gdonteli, K., and Choustoulakis, E. (2024) Satisfying hotel customers according to their culture: an analysis of online reviews. In: Vrontis, D, Weber, Y. and Tsoukatos, E. (eds), Global Business Transformation in a turbulent era. 17th Annual Conference of the Euromed Academy of Business, Pisa, Italy, 11-13/09/2024, pp. 1073-1075. Euromed Press, ISBN: 978-9925-628-01-8.
- Giovanis, N.A., Athanasopoulou, P., Papakyriakopoulos, D. and Choustoulakis, E. (2024) The asymmetric effects of multi-attributes extracted from online reviews on hotel ratings: the role of culture. In: Vrontis, D, Weber, Y. and Tsoukatos, E. (eds), Global Business Transformation in a turbulent era. 17th Annual Conference of the Euromed Academy of Business, Pisa, Italy, 11-13/09/2024, pp. 284-290. Euromed Press, ISBN: 978-9925-628-01-8.
- Giovanis, N.A., & Athanasopoulou, P. (2025) Asymmetric Effects of User Generated Multi-Attribute Evaluation on Hotel Online Ratings: Do They Vary Among Cultures? Proceedings of 26th International Marketing Trends Conference, Venice, Italy (23-25/01/25), ed. Alberto Pastore, Julien Schmitt, Julio Jimenez, Klaus-Peter Wiedmann, Paris-Venice Marketing Trends Association.
- Athanasopoulou, P., Giovanis, N.A., Papakyriakopoulos, D., and Gdonteli, K. (2025) The role of type of customer and hotel star rating in the effect of hotel service attributes on customer satisfaction: evidence from online reviews. Proceedings of the International Conference on Hospitality Management (ICHOMA – 25), 12- 13/02/2025, Dubai, UAE.
Papers to be presented in upcoming conferences with conference proceedings:Athanasopoulou, P., Giovanis, N.A., Choustoulakis, M., and Papakyriakoulos, D. (2025-accepted for presentation) Using information mined from online reviews to develop customized services: a study in hospitality. Proceedings of the International Product Development Management Conference (IPDMC), Porto, Portugal, 11-13/06/25.
Athanasopoulou, P., Giovanis, N.A., Papakyriakoulos, D., and Choustoulakis, M. (2025-accepted for presentation). Where are you from and how are you satisfied? Asymmetric effects of service attributes on customer satisfaction and the moderating effect of culture. Proceedings of the Global Marketing Conference (GMC), Hong Kong, 24-27/07/25.
Papakyriakopoulos, D., Giovanis, A. and Athanasopoulou, P. (2025-accepted for presentation). Asymmetric Effects Of Service Attributes On Traveler Satisfaction With Semi Supervised Topic Modelling, Proccedibf of Leading and Managing In The Digital Era – Shaping the future with AI and Data Analytics, Athens, GR, 13-14/06/2025.
