Article published In:
Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict: Online-First Articles

When dissatisfactory experiences turn into conflict

A contrastive study of negative Spanish product and experience-based reviews on Trustpilot

ORCID logo | Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Online reviews have partly become a complaints channel in which posters vent their negative feelings (Henning-Thurau et al. 2004), but the contents, as well as the way posters express their opinions, may vary depending on the type of review, the platform, and the consumers’ expectations, among others. This study explores 600 negative reviews in Spanish, posted to the outsourced review site Trustpilot about three different companies: Zara, Airbnb, and Travelgenio. The aim of this study is to examine: (1) the themes that posters raise as the source of complaint or conflict; and (2) the impoliteness formulae (Culpeper 2016) found in the three datasets. The results show that reviews are structured around a limited set of themes and formulae, which range from rather descriptive evaluations that report moderate dissatisfaction (Zara reviews) to highly aggressive reviews related to communication problems and significant loss of money and time (Travelgenio).

Keywords: online consumer reviews, impoliteness, conflict, Spanish, anger
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
    • 2.1A classification of online review platforms
      • 2.1.1Business-to-person, business-to-consumer, and peer-to-peer platforms
      • 2.1.2Insourced and outsourced review platforms
      • 2.1.3Product and experience-based review platforms
    • 2.2Thematic categories in OCRs
    • 2.3When dissatisfaction turns into anger: Impoliteness and conflict in online reviews
  • 3.Data and method
    • 3.1Data
    • 3.2Method and framework
  • 4.Results
    • 4.1Thematic analysis
    • 4.2Impoliteness and conflict in OCRs
  • 5.Discussion and conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 April 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlac.00104.her
References
Ascaniis, Silvia, Alessia Borrè, Elena Marchiori, and Lorenzo Cantoni
2015 “ ‘Listen to your Customers!’ How Hotels Manage Online Travel Reviews. The Case of Hotels in Lugano”. In Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism: Proceedings of the International Conference in Lugano, Switzerland, February 3–6, 2015, 59–72. Springer International Publishing. DOI logo
Bernal, Marta
2007 Categorización sociopragmática de la cortesía y de la descortesía. Un Estudio de la conversación coloquial española. Estocolmo: Universidad de Estocolmo.Google Scholar
Bou-Franch, Patricia, and Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich
2014 “Conflict Management in Massive Polylogues: A Case Study from YouTube”. Journal of Pragmatics 731: 19–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bousfield, Derek
2008 Impoliteness in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bravo, Diana
2005 “Categorías, tipologías y aplicaciones: hacia una redefinición de la cortesía comunicativa.” In Estudios de la (des)cortesía en español. categorías conceptuales y aplicaciones a córpora orales y escritos, ed. by Diana Bravo, 21–52. Buenos Aires: Dunken.Google Scholar
Bridges, Judith, and Camilla Vásquez
2018 “If Nearly All Airbnb Reviews Are Positive, Does That Make Them Meaningless?”. Current Issues in Tourism 21 (18): 2057–2075. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cenni, Irene, and Patrick Goethals
2017 “Negative Hotel Reviews on TripAdvisor: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis”. Discourse, Context & Media 16 (2): 22–30. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cenni, Irene, and Camilla Vásquez
2020 “Reflection: Airbnb’s Food-related ‘Online Experiences’: A Recipe for Connection and Escape”. Food and Foodways 29 (1): 97–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cenni, Irene, Patrick Goethal, and Camilla Vásquez
2020 “A Cross-linguistic Study of Metacommunication in Online Hotel Reviews.” Intercultural Pragmatics 17 (4): 445–470. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Chandrasapth, Koblarp, Natalia Yannopoulou, Klaus Schoefer, Tana Cristina Licsandru, and Thanos Papadopoulos
2021 “Conflict in Online Consumption Communities: A Systematic Literature Review and Directions for Future Research”. International Marketing Review 38 (5): 900–926. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Culpeper, Jonathan
1996 “Towards an Anatomy of Impoliteness.” Journal of Pragmatics 25 (3): 349–367. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2005 “Impoliteness and Entertainment in The Television Quiz Show: The Weakest Link”. Journal of Politeness Research 1 (1): 35–72. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2016 “Impoliteness Strategies”. In Interdisciplinary Studies in Pragmatics, Culture and Society, ed. by Alessandro Capone, and Jacob L. Mey, 421–445. Springer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dayter, Daria, and Sofia Rüdiger
2014 “Speak your Mind, but Watch Your Mouth: Complaints in CouchSurfing References”. In Face Work and Social Media, ed. by Kristina Bedijs, Gudrun Held, and Christiane Maab, 193–212. Berlin: LIT Verlag.Google Scholar
Díaz-Muñoz, Patricia, and Carmen Maíz-Arévalo
Forthcoming, this issue. “‘We Are Completely Stunned’: Corrective Facework in Hosts’ Responses to Airbnb Reviews with Negative Valence.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict.
Ert, Eyal, Aliza Fleischer, and Nathan Magen
2016 “Trust and Reputation in the Sharing Economy: The Role of Personal Photos in Airbnb.” Tourism Management 551: 62–73. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Feng, Wei, and Wei Ren
2020 “Impoliteness in Negative Online Consumer Reviews: A Cross-Language and Cross-Sector Comparison.” Intercultural Pragmatics 17 (1): 1–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar
2010a “A Genre Approach to the Study of Im-politeness”. International Review of Pragmatics 21: 46–94. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010b “The Status Quo and Quo-Vadis of Impoliteness Research”. Intercultural Pragmatics 7 (4): 535–559. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2018 “Globalization, Transnational Identities, and Conflict Talk: The Superdiversity and Complexity of the Latino Identity”. Journal of Pragmatics 1341: 120–133. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2021a “Impoliteness and Conflict in Spanish.” In The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics, ed. by Dale Koike and César Félix Brasdefer, 371–386. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
2021b “ Getting into The Mob: A Netnographic, Case-Study Approach to Online Public Shaming.” In Analyzing Digital Discourse: Between Convergence and Controversy, ed. by Marjut Johansson, Sanna-Kaisa Tanskanen and Jan Chovanec, 247–274. London: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2022 “Moral Emotions, Good Moral Panics, Social Regulation, and Online Public Shaming.” Language and Communication 841: 61–75. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, Pilar, and Maria Sifianou
2019 “Im/politeness and Discursive Pragmatics.” Journal of Pragmatics 1451: 91–101. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
García, Carmen
2009 “Intralingual Pragmatic Variation in the Performance of Reprimanding.” Intercultural Pragmatics 6 (4): 443–472. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Giles, Howard, and Peter Powesland
1997 “Accommodation Theory”. In Sociolinguistics: Modern Linguistics Series, ed. by Nicholas Coupland, and Adam Jaworski, 232–239, London: Palgrave. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
He, Sherry, Brett Hollenbeck, and Davide Proserpio
2022 “The Market of Fake Reviews.” Marketing Science 41 (5): 896–921. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Henning-Thurau, Thorsten, Kevin P. Gwinner, Gianfranco Walsh, and Dwayne D. Gremler
2004 “Electronic Word-of-Mouth via Consumer-Opinion Platforms: What Motivates Consumers to Articulate Themselves on the Internet?”. Journal of Interactive Marketing 18 (1): 38–52. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hernández-López, María de la O.
2019 “What Makes a Positive Experience? Offline/Online Communication and Rapport Enhancement in Airbnb Positive Reviews.” Pragmatics and Society 10 (2): 177–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2022 “When Travellers’ Expectations Are Not Met: Dispraise in Airbnb Online Consumer Reviews.” Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict 10 (2): 241–268. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2024 Changing Discursive Trends in the Online Review Genre: A Cross-Linguistic Study of BlablaCar. The Netherlands: Brill.Google Scholar
Hidalgo Downing, Raquel
2022 “Quejas, elogios y cumplidos online: las reseñas en TripAdvisor”. Signos. Estudios de Lingüística 55 (109): 532–559.Google Scholar
Ho, Victor
2017 “Giving Offense and Making Amends: How Hotel Management Attempts to Manage Rapport with Dissatisfied Customers”. Journal of Pragmatics 1091: 1–11. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaul de Marlangeon, Silvia, and Laura Alba-Juez
2012 “A Typology of Verbal Impoliteness Behavior for the English and Spanish Cultures.” RESLA 251: 69–72.Google Scholar
Kienpointner, Manfred
1997 “Varieties of Rudeness: Types and Functions of Impolite Utterances.” Functions of Language 4 (2): 251–287. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiliç, Ali, and Çiğdem Karatepe
2021 “Electronic Complaints: An Empirical Study of Negative Reviews from Amazon.com Posters”. Advances in Language and Literary Studies 12 (5): 42–47. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lee, Kwang-Ho, and Dong Hee Kim
2019 “A Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Platform Business Model: The Case of Airbnb.” Service Business 131: 647–669. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Litvin, Stephen W., Ronald E. Goldsmith, and Bing Pan
2008 “Electronic Word-of-Mouth in Hospitality and Tourism Management.” Tourism Management 29 (3): 458–468. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lorenzo-Dus, Nuria, Pilar Garcés-Conejos Blitvich, and Patricia Bou-Franch
2011 “Online Polylogues and Impoliteness: The Case of Postings Sent in Response to the Obama Reggaeton YouTube Video”. Journal of Pragmatics 43 (10): 2578–2593. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mancera Rueda, Ana, and Ana Pano Alamán
2013 El Discurso Político en Twitter: Análisis de Mensajes que Trinan. Barcelona: Anthropos.Google Scholar
Moyna, María Irene, and José Luis Blas Arroyo
2021 “Pragmatic Variation and Forms of Address”. In The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Pragmatics, ed. by Dale Koike, and César Félix Brasdefer, 289–304. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nelson, Phillip
1970 “Information and Consumer Behavior”. Journal of Political Economy 78 (2): 311–329. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Parvaresh, Vahid, and Tahmineh Tayebi
2018 “Impoliteness, Aggression and the Moral Order.” Journal of Pragmatics 1321: 91–107. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patton, Michael
2014 Qualitative Research & Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Google Scholar
Rizer, George, and Nathan Jurgenson
2010 “Production, Consumption, Prosumption: The Nature of Capitalism in the Age of the Digital ‘Prosumer’.” Journal of Consumer Culture 10 (1): 13–36. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rose, Susan, Neil Hair, and Moira Clark
2011 “Online Customer Experience: A Review of the Business-to-Consumer Online Purchase Context.” International Journal of Management Reviews 131: 24–39. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sifianou, Maria
2012 “Disagreements, Face and Politeness.” Journal of Pragmatics 441: 1554–1564. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Terkourafi, Marina
2005 “Beyond the Micro-Level in Politeness Research.” Journal of Politeness Research 1 (2): 237–262. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Vásquez, Camilla
2011 “Complaints Online: The Case of TripAdvisor.” Journal of Pragmatics 43 (6): 1707–1717. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2014 The Discourse of Online Consumer Reviews. London: Bloomsbury.Google Scholar
Vivas Márquez, Julia, and Susana Ridao Rodrigo
2015 “ ‘Lo siento pero me parecen horribles!!!’: Análisis pragmalingüístico de la descortesía en la red social Facebook.” Revista de Filología 331: 217–236.Google Scholar