{"paper_id":"056ff98b-e444-49be-b684-1c5157f714c9","body_text":"Decoding Hotel Ratings: A Cultural and Developmental Lens on Traveler Behavior | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Decoding Hotel Ratings: A Cultural and Developmental Lens on Traveler Behavior Daria Marukhlenko, Artem Lensky, Gohar Feroz This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-5667486/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Using a large dataset of 545,000 reviews from 27,000 hotels, this study investigates how travelers’ nationalities influence hotel review ratings and their relationship with cultural dimensions and human development indicators. The presented analysis shows that hotel ratings can serve as predictors of components of the Human Development Index, with the Education Index showing the strongest association (adjusted R2 is 42.6%). The predictive power of hotel ratings was also compared to Hofstede’s dimensions in the context of predicting Human Development Index components. In terms of Hofstede’s dimensions we discovered that ”Individualism vs Collectivism” and ”Long-Term Orientation” dimensions exhibit the strongest associations with hotel ratings (adjusted R2 is 44.9% and 30.1% correspondingly), though the study’s focus on European hotels may limit generalizability. In terms of rating patterns, English-speaking countries and Israel use narrower score ranges with higher means (8.66±1.46), while predominantly Muslim countries employ wider ranges, resulting in lower means (7.96 ± 1.79). European and Asian countries generally fall between these extremes. The paper concludes with practical implications of the presented findings to the tourist recommender systems. Online reviews Hotel ratings Cultural bias Hotel guests Human Development Index Hofstede’s cultural dimensions Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {\"props\":{\"pageProps\":{\"initialData\":{\"identity\":\"rs-5667486\",\"acceptedTermsAndConditions\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"archivedVersions\":[],\"articleType\":\"Research Article\",\"associatedPublications\":[],\"authors\":[{\"id\":392959772,\"identity\":\"e5a23038-d394-4cb1-984a-4124cb66287e\",\"order_by\":0,\"name\":\"Daria Marukhlenko\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Daria\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Marukhlenko\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":392959778,\"identity\":\"38b3e529-67f3-4e7e-96b6-f5968193e003\",\"order_by\":1,\"name\":\"Artem Lensky\",\"email\":\"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA90lEQVRIiWNgGAWjYFAC5gYgkcDDwN4AFThAUAsjVAsPTCmxWhgYJBKI1MLfwNj4uOBPmozBzTdmD3+2Mcjx3Uhg/MyDR4vEAcZm45ltOTwGt3PMjXnbGIwlbyQwS+PTwnCAsU2at6ECpMVMmnEbQ+KGGwkMeLXIH2Bs/83zB6jl5hkzyZ/bGOqBWph/49NiALSFmYcN6LAbPGYSvNsYEgxuJLDhtcXwMGOzNG9bGo/kmbQyad5/EoYzzzxss5yDR4vc8eaDn3n+JNvzHT+8TfLHGRt5vuPJh2+8wed9ZiitcABMSTBAY4oIIE+kulEwCkbBKBiBAAAUjkoj7gOrPAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"UNSW Sydney\",\"correspondingAuthor\":true,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Artem\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Lensky\",\"suffix\":\"\"},{\"id\":392959779,\"identity\":\"73c96148-2884-49e1-b17a-e6fc08170026\",\"order_by\":2,\"name\":\"Gohar Feroz\",\"email\":\"\",\"orcid\":\"\",\"institution\":\"Zayed University\",\"correspondingAuthor\":false,\"prefix\":\"\",\"firstName\":\"Gohar\",\"middleName\":\"\",\"lastName\":\"Feroz\",\"suffix\":\"\"}],\"badges\":[],\"createdAt\":\"2024-12-18 08:23:22\",\"currentVersionCode\":1,\"declarations\":\"\",\"doi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5667486/v1\",\"doiUrl\":\"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5667486/v1\",\"draftVersion\":[],\"editorialEvents\":[],\"editorialNote\":\"\",\"failedWorkflow\":false,\"files\":[{\"id\":73754194,\"identity\":\"52df26a4-b2ce-4557-a0b1-7ccd2b59b681\",\"added_by\":\"auto\",\"created_at\":\"2025-01-14 10:17:06\",\"extension\":\"pdf\",\"order_by\":1,\"title\":\"\",\"display\":\"\",\"copyAsset\":false,\"role\":\"manuscript-pdf\",\"size\":791835,\"visible\":true,\"origin\":\"\",\"legend\":\"\",\"description\":\"\",\"filename\":\"mainarticlelatex.pdf\",\"url\":\"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-5667486/v1_covered_84702c0a-93a3-4e3c-84b7-6a0305a16a3f.pdf\"}],\"financialInterests\":\"No competing interests reported.\",\"formattedTitle\":\"Decoding Hotel Ratings: A Cultural and Developmental Lens on Traveler Behavior\",\"fulltext\":[],\"fulltextSource\":\"\",\"fullText\":\"\",\"funders\":[],\"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow\":false,\"hasManuscriptDocX\":false,\"hasOptedInToPreprint\":true,\"hasPassedJournalQc\":\"\",\"hasAnyPriority\":false,\"hideJournal\":true,\"highlight\":\"\",\"institution\":\"\",\"isAcceptedByJournal\":false,\"isAuthorSuppliedPdf\":true,\"isDeskRejected\":\"\",\"isHiddenFromSearch\":false,\"isInQc\":false,\"isInWorkflow\":false,\"isPdf\":true,\"isPdfUpToDate\":true,\"isWithdrawnOrRetracted\":false,\"journal\":{\"display\":true,\"email\":\"info@researchsquare.com\",\"identity\":\"researchsquare\",\"isNatureJournal\":false,\"hasQc\":true,\"allowDirectSubmit\":true,\"externalIdentity\":\"\",\"sideBox\":\"\",\"snPcode\":\"\",\"submissionUrl\":\"/submission\",\"title\":\"Research Square\",\"twitterHandle\":\"researchsquare\",\"acdcEnabled\":true,\"dfaEnabled\":false,\"editorialSystem\":\"\",\"reportingPortfolio\":\"\",\"inReviewEnabled\":false,\"inReviewRevisionsEnabled\":true},\"keywords\":\"Online reviews, Hotel ratings, Cultural bias, Hotel guests, Human Development Index, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions\",\"lastPublishedDoi\":\"10.21203/rs.3.rs-5667486/v1\",\"lastPublishedDoiUrl\":\"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5667486/v1\",\"license\":{\"name\":\"CC BY 4.0\",\"url\":\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/\"},\"manuscriptAbstract\":\"\\u003cp\\u003eUsing a large dataset of 545,000 reviews from 27,000 hotels, this study investigates how travelers’ nationalities influence hotel review ratings and their relationship with cultural dimensions and human development indicators. 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