How do online review valence and ratings interact with consumer-generated visuals?

The growth of social media and technology has given online reviews more importance and popularity. Consumer-generated visuals (pictures and videos), together with words and numerical components, are increasingly being used in online reviews. However, more research is necessary to understand how these components interact. This study aims to examine the relationships between review valence, numerical ratings, and hotel booking intentions, and investigate the interactions between consumer-generated visuals and demographics on these relationships. An online questionnaire was used to collect data using a convenience sample of 418 customers from Oman. The proposed model was tested using Structural Equation Modeling. The results demonstrated that negative review valence, positive review valence, and rating usefulness are all significant predictors of hotel booking intentions. The results also show that young and female customers are more affected by review valence and rating usefulness. Consumer-generated visuals play a moderating role, where the relationships between hotel booking intentions and review valence and ratings are weaker when customers are attentive to visuals. The study’s results underline the role of negative valence, rating usefulness and visuals, and offer theoretical and practical implications.