Purpose: This study explores US hotel guests’ privacy concerns with a twofold aim: (a) investigating the privacy categories, themes and attributes most commonly discussed by US guests´ in their reviews and (b) examining the role of cultural proximity on privacy concerns.

Design/methodology/approach: The study uses a mixed method approach combining automated text analytics with content analysis. The database consists of 68,000 hotel reviews written by US guests lodged in different type of hotels in five European cities. LIWC, Leximancer and SPSS were used for data analysis. Automated text analytics and a validated privacy dictionary were used to investigate the reviews exploring categories, themes and attributes of privacy concerns. Content analysis was used to qualitatively explore the narratives and select representative snippets.

Findings: The findings show categories, themes and concepts related to privacy concerns. Results reveal two most commonly discussed categories of privacy Restriction and Outcome State. The main themes discussed in association with privacy are room, hotel and breakfast, and several concepts within each are identified. Furthermore, U.S. guests show the lowest levels of privacy concerns when staying at American hotel chains compared to non-American chains and independent hotels, thus highlighting the role of cultural proximity on privacy concerns.

Originality: This study contributes to the hospitality literature by investigating a neglected issue: on-site privacy concerns of hotel guests. Using an unobtrusive method of data collection and a mixed approach to analyze online reviews, the study offers interesting insights on the categories of privacy, the most recurrent themes and the possible relationship between cultural proximity and privacy concerns. 

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