Online reviews prove to be overwhelmingly positive, study of vacation home reviews shows relatively few balanced reviews.

A study of a popular website that posts ratings and reviews from vacation home stays found that the bulk of the reviews are strongly positive.

However, as detailed in a report from the Cornell Center for Hospitality Research (CHR), the second highest category is strongly negative reviews, with few in the middle.

"We examined nearly 3,200 reviews from a popular site which posts reviews of vacation rental properties across the USA," said Racherla, who is at West Texas A&M University. "Not only did we find a vast number of favorable reviews, but the odd thing we noticed was that the "star" ratings didn't always match the consumers' assessments of the homes' specific features, such as value, cleanliness, and location. A "five-star review" might award an average rating of 3 on the home's features."

Connolly is on the faculty of the University of Denver, and Christodoulidou is at California State University.

The authors suggest that review sites should develop better methods to aggregate, synthesize, and publish the review contents, particularly the numerical ratings, and the sites should provide more information to help the consumers get the information they desire about prospective rentals.

The study "Unscrambling the Puzzling Matter of Online Consumer Ratings: An Exploratory Study," by Pradeep Racherla, Daniel Connolly, and Natasa Christodoulidou, is available from the CHR at no charge at:

www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr/pubs/reports/abstract-15759.html