Is it possible to fit everything that happens at the end of a day into a five-star scale?
Think of a journey that starts early in the morning, the people met, the sights seen, the excitement felt along the way, the little setbacks and perhaps a few moments that will be remembered for years to come.
All of this boils down to a single question on a rating screen that pops up after the tour: How many stars would you give this experience?
Five stars, four stars, maybe only two.
However, the way a person evaluates their lived experience is much more complex than a few numbers. Moreover, that score does not only describe the past day. It can also affect the decision of someone who has not yet participated in that tour, but is perhaps planning a trip to another part of the world.
This is where the interesting side of reviews in tourism emerges. One guest's personal experience becomes part of another guest's expectation of an experience they have not yet experienced.
So what's really behind a star rating?
Same tour, two different experiences
Let's take a one-day tour in Cappadocia.
The program is predetermined. The vehicle arrives on time, the guide explains, we go to the visiting points and the tour is completed as planned.
One of the guests gives it five stars at the end of the day. He writes that he was especially pleased with the guide's attention, the views he saw and the time he spent.
Another guest who participated in the same tour gives three stars. He says that the tour was generally good, but he wants to spend more time at some stops.
Both guests followed the same route in the same vehicle, with the same guide. So why are their experiences so different from each other?
Because people don't evaluate an experience solely based on the events that occur. What they expect from that experience is also part of their evaluation.
In psychology and consumer behavior research, meeting or not meeting expectations is one of the important approaches used to understand satisfaction.
For a guest, it may be enough for the tour to occur as promised. Another person may have expected a more personal, calmer or more comprehensive experience from the same program.
Therefore, just because two people give different scores to the same service does not necessarily mean that one is right and the other is wrong.
Sometimes what is different is not the service, but the meaning given to the service.
Booking begins before the experience
For a tour operator, the experience may seem to often begin with the guest boarding the vehicle. However, the experience in the guest's mind begins to take shape much earlier.
The first photo encountered on the OTA platform, product title, descriptions, included services and reviews from previous guests create an expectation.
For example, a traveler looking for a hot air balloon flight may see balloons rising above Göreme in the photographs he comes across. However, if the product he/she has booked is operated in a different flight zone, it is important to clearly understand this distinction.
Even if the flight goes smoothly, the view in the guest's mind may not be the same as the view he encounters.
A similar situation may occur on daily tours.
A traveler may think that he will take long walks in the valleys by looking at product photos. Yet the experience he is booking is a group tour with short visits at select locations.
It's not just about having accurate information in the product description. It is what kind of experience the guest imagines from all this information.
As the distance between the expectation created in the digital environment and the experience experienced in the field widens, the possibility of dissatisfaction may increase.
Therefore, the digital presentation of a tour cannot be seen as a showcase prepared only to take reservations. It is also the first point of contact that can influence how the guest evaluates the experience.
How do people remember a day?
A commentary written after a tour is not a complete account of every event that occurred throughout the day.
That's not how human memory works.
Some moments during the day can be remembered more clearly than others. Especially emotionally intense moments and those experienced towards the end of the experience can play an important role in retrospective evaluations.
One of the concepts related to this situation in the psychology literature is the peak-end rule. This approach suggests that in the retrospective evaluation of some experiences, the most intense moment and the end of the experience can carry disproportionate weight.
Of course, we cannot explain every tour or every guest's evaluation with this rule alone. However, it opens an interesting window when looking at tourism experiences.
For example, a guest who had a pleasant time all day may specifically emphasize a long transfer delay at the end of the tour in his review.
Another guest may evaluate the experience very positively, remembering the view he saw at sunrise or an unexpected gesture of the guide, despite minor disruptions in the program.
The duration of a tour can be measured in hours. But the place that tour occupies in the guest's memory sometimes depends on just a few moments.
This helps us understand why reviews do not always reflect the entire operation in the same detail.
How much trust does five stars really give?
When a traveler looks at reviews before booking, they don't just see the average rating. The number of reviews, the content of the posts, the up-to-dateness of the evaluations and the topics the guests are talking about may also attract your attention.
For example, deciding between a product with a rating of 4.9 but very few reviews and a product with a rating of 4.8 and hundreds of reviews may not be as easy for every traveler.
While some travelers place more emphasis on a high average score, others may find it reassuring that more people have shared their experience.
This situation can be associated with the concept of social proof. People may use the behavior and evaluations of others as a source of information to help their decisions, especially in situations where they experience uncertainty.
This uncertainty is quite evident in tourism.
You can try a shoe before buying it or examine a restaurant's menu. However, it is not possible to know exactly how a tour you will join next week will go.
Therefore, the experiences of others can become an important reference in the purchasing decision.
However, a high score does not mean that all guests will have the same experience. reviews are personal assessments of the experiences of particular people in particular circumstances.
This is important for both travelers and tour operators to remember.
Why does a single negative comment attract so much attention?
Let's imagine that there are dozens of positive reviews under a product.
The guests were satisfied with the guide, stated that the transfer was on time and recommended the tour.
However, there is a review among them: The guest says that he spent less time than he expected and felt rushed during the tour.
It is not surprising that a traveler considering making a reservation pays particular attention to this review.
The fact that people can give more weight to negative information than positive information under some conditions is considered negativity bias in psychology.
Especially in services that have not been experienced before and for which a certain fee must be paid, the desire to notice possible disappointments in advance may be strong.
This does not mean that every negative review is more effective than positive reviews. The content of the review, its credibility, consistency with other reviews and the traveler's personal priorities are also important.
However, there is a remarkable situation for tour operators: A review does not only tell about the satisfaction of the guest that day. It becomes one of the information that future guests will encounter before booking.
Therefore, digital reputation is not an issue that closes automatically after completed tours.
What's behind a comment?
OTA reviews are often sorted by star rating. Five stars is considered positive, one or two stars is considered negative.
But the real meaning of the review is not always found in the score itself.
When giving a low score, a guest may state that the tour was well organized, the guide was knowledgeable, but the program did not meet his expectations.
Someone else might give a high score and share a criticism about transfer time or group size.
These two reviews contain much more information than just looking at star numbers.
The content of the reviews can help understand what guests were satisfied with, where they had different expectations, and which aspects of the experience attracted more attention.
Of course, not every review reflects a situation that the business can control. Weather conditions, personal preferences, travel fatigue, or the guest's previous experiences may also affect its evaluation.
However, the repeated mention of similar topics by different guests may create a pattern worth considering.
At this point, reviews are no longer just evaluations that affect the digital reputation of the business. It becomes a source of information that can be used to understand the guest experience.
The invisible relationship behind the stars
In tourism, there is not always a direct and constant relationship between the quality of a service and how that service is evaluated.
A well organized tour may not get the expected score. Another experience with minor disruptions can have a very positive place in the guest's memory.
Because evaluations do not consist only of operational results. Expectations, emotions, personal preferences, past experiences and remembered moments are also involved in this process.
The stars seen on OTA platforms are the transformation of this entire complex experience into a number that can be understood in a few seconds.
This number is important. It can influence booking decisions, contribute to how products are perceived digitally, and provide valuable feedback for businesses.
But that alone doesn't tell the whole story.
Perhaps for this reason, review management in tourism should not be considered only as maintaining high scores or responding to negative reviews.
Understanding the expectations and behaviors behind the reviews can enable a business to look differently at both the relationship it establishes with its guests and the experience it offers in the digital environment.
After all, five stars isn't just a score given at the end of a round. It is the intersection point between the experience the guest imagines before booking and the experience he actually has and remembers afterwards.
Monotim Journal — On tourism, digital sales and human behavior.