Frontiers in Business, Economics and Management ISSN: 2766-824X | Vol. 8, No. 3, 2023 119 Research on the Service Quality Improvement of Guilin Homestay Based on Online Bad Reviews Yangwen Li1, Yuxia Hou1, 2, * 1 College of tourism and landscape architecture, Guilin University of Technology, Guilin, 541006, China 2 Guangxi Tourism Industry Research Institute, Guilin, 541006, China * Corresponding author: Yuxia Hou (Email: seawindzzz889@foxmail.com) Abstract: In the era of digital economy, customer online reviews are an important basis for measuring the service quality of homestays and a keyfactor influencingfuture consumer decisions. Taking Guilin homestay as an example, we collected online bad review texts on Ctrip.com, coded the content of online bad reviews in layers by applying the grounded theory method, and sorted out and summarized the model offactors influencing the service quality of Guilin homestay. The results show that among the main factors causing customer dissatisfaction, operation service is the core factor, facilities and equipment is the key factor, transportation location is the basic factor, and safety and hygiene is the guarantee factor. Based on this, countermeasure suggestions such as improving infrastructure, implementing standardized management, and attaching importance to tourism experience are proposed at both government and homestay levels in order to improve the service quality of Guilin homestay and help Guilin build into a world-class tourism city. Keywords: Homestay, Grounded theory, Online bad reviews, Quality of service. 1. Introduction In 2021, the State Council pointed out in the "14th Five- Year Plan" for tourism development that it would "standardize the development of rural tourism and promote the high- quality development of tourism homestays". In 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism released the "Basic Requirements and Grading of homestays" (GB/T411648- 2022), which provides a reference for further improving the service management level of the homestay industry and promoting the standardized development of homestays. The basis for this is In the era of digital economy, online reviews have become an important way for consumers to evaluate the quality of homestay services. Digging deeper into the information of customers' online reviews can help clarify the current situation and problems of homestay services from multiple perspectives, break through the bottleneck of development and realize the improvement of homestay quality. In 2021, during his visit to Guangxi, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed a new requirement and mission for Guilin to "build a world-class tourism city", of which building a world-class service system has become one of the key landing points. As an indispensable part of the service system, the accommodation industry needs to be optimized and changed in order to adapt to future development. At present, the research on B&B in foreign countries and Taiwan is relatively mature, and the research content is mainly conducted at three levels: macro, meso and micro. The macro level focuses on the competitive situation analysis and development prediction of B&B industry[1-2] ; the meso level mainly reflects the management strategy and business performance of B&B enterprises[3-4] ; the micro level focuses on the relationship interaction between B&B owners and customers and the behavior of B&B tourists[5-6], and B&B research based on the perspective of tourists' experience gradually becomes the focus of scholars' attention, and the research methods are based on simple descriptive and explanatory analysis and quantitative research, and less often qualitative research such as content analysis method is used.This paper takes Guilin homestay as the research object, analyzes the online bad reviews of homestay customers by applying the rooting theory, studies the main factors causing customer dissatisfaction, and proposes countermeasures from the government and homestay level, in order to improve the service quality of homestay and promote the construction of a world-class tourism city in Guilin. 2. Study Design 2.1. Study sample selection This study takes Guilin homestay as a sample. Guilin, known as "the most beautiful city in Guilin", it’s a world- renowned scenic city and one of the earliest regions in China where the bed and breakfast industry started. Relying on the world-class landscape, profound history and culture, and rich ancient villages and towns in northern Guilin, Guilin's homestays are highly representative and influential nationwide. 2.2. Data Acquisition Ctrip is the largest online travel service platform in China and a model of seamless integration of traditional tourism and big data. On September 28, 2022, the research team used Python to conduct data mining, using "Guilin accommodation" as the keyword and "inn homestay" as the room type, and selected homestays with high quality, three stars and above, and obtained a total of 1860 online bad reviews from January 2019 to August 2022. We obtained a total of 1860 online reviews from customers from January 2019 to August 2022. After manual screening, reviews with duplicate content from the same account, as well as some semantic and meaningless reviews were excluded, and a total of 540 valid reviews were retained. To ensure the scientific validity of the coding, 2/3 (360) online reviews were randomly selected for rooting coding, and the other 1/3 ( 180) 120 online reviews were tested for the saturation of grounded theory. 2.3. Research Methodology Grounded theory is one of the important methods in qualitative research, and its main purpose is to build a theory based on empirical data[7]. NVivo software is designed and developed based on grounded theory, which can realize fast and seamless matching of data with original data and reduce coding omissions caused by manual errors[8].This paper uses NVivo 12 Plus analysis software to conceptualize and codify the data of online poorly rated samples based on the grounded theory research method, and a total of three levels of coding are used to finally sort out and summarize the model of factors affecting the service quality of Guilin homestays in order to conduct an in-depth analysis of the problems existing in Guilin homestays. 3. Analysis of the Content of Online Bad Reviews of Guilin Homestay Customers 3.1. Open coding The purpose of open coding is to form initial categories after conceptualizing and sorting out the original information. The 360 bad review texts were imported into NVivo 12 Plus software for processing, and a total of 450 coding points were obtained from 24,000 word sample reviews, and 22 initial categories were abstracted, including room hygiene, decoration design, food, service attitude, surrounding environment, and experience feeling. Due to the limitation of space, only the open coding process of some of the initial categories is shown here (Table 1). Table 1. Example of open coding Initial Scope Part of the original statement (initial concept) Room hygiene There were mosquitoes flying around all the time, and in the early morning hours there were actually crickets chirping all the time . (Mosquitoes) The smell of dampness in the house is very heavy, the toilets are reactive, and the ventilation in the house is not good. (Odor) Decoration design The interior decoration of the homestay is also rather sloppy and not sophisticated enough. (Decoration) Dishes Breakfast is truly bad, the powder is hard to eat, the bun is hard, and it's the sameevery day. (Breakfast) Service attitude The service is cold and expressionless, feeling more like a consultation desk. (Service experience) Surroundings There is nothing to eat in the vicinity and no other supporting entertainment venues. (Entertainment venues) Sense of Experience The physical environment is too poor compared to the pictures, the pool is not big, the air is not fresh, a very bad experience. (bad) 3.2. Spindle sex coding The main axis coding aims to further generalize and rearrange the categories obtained from the open coding, and to develop the main categories as the "axis of categories" by exploring the internal logical connections between the categories[9].By comparing the 22 initial categories with the conceptual dimensions of existing homestay service quality research results, nine main categories were developed .Due to space limitations, this article only shows some of the main axis encoding content here(Table 2). Table 2. Spindle coding analysis Main Category Initial Scope Scope Content Room Decoration design Simple decoration, outdated facilities, patchwork design style Soundproofin g effect Single-pane glass, walls and wood-frame floors are not soundproof Bedding Poor quality, moldy, too soft, too hard Restrooms Shower Shower leakage, unstable water pressure Toilet Clogged toilet, loud sound Courtyard Swimming Pool Unclean water quality, too small area Children's facilities No children's facilities or not enough variety Catering Services Breakfast Less variety, less quantity and repetition of breakfast Dishes Lack of food features and expensive prices Accommo dation Services Service attitude Service attitude is perfunctory, indifferent, not active Service Level Irregular and inefficient service process Business Integrity Manipulation Comments Asking for good reviews, painting good reviews Failure to meet commitments The room type does not match the picture, the transfer service is not timely, and the set fruit is not provided Traffic Location Transportation On the mountain, far from the airport and train station, confusing car rental fees Surroundings Dirty water ponds, no dining and entertainment venues, small stores Location Remote, hard to find, rural Safety and Health Security Damaged cat eyes and security chains, insufficient security personnel Health status Consumable items not replaced in a timely manner, mosquitoes and cockroaches, debris and dust, moisture and mold Comprehe nsive evaluation Value for money Average, low, not worth the price Sense of Experience General experience, poor, very poor, disappointed 3.3. Selective coding The purpose of the selective coding is to extract the core categories from the main categories that can explain most of the research phenomena and can be easily linked with other data, and to form a clear theoretical lineage by deeply analyzing the logical relationships among the categories[10].Through repeated comparison and 121 consideration of the main categories and the initial categories, "factors influencing the service quality of Guilin homestay" was extracted as the core category of this study. In addition, considering that the "comprehensive evaluation" in the main category is the result of influencing factors, it is not included in the scope of influencing factors. Therefore, in the process of selective coding, the remaining seven main categories were further categorized into four dimensions: facilities and equipment, business services, traffic location, and safety and health (37.4% of the coding points for facilities and equipment, 23.9% for business services, 19.7% for traffic location, and 19% for safety and health). (19%), and built a model of factors influencing the service quality of Guilin homestay around the core categories (Figure 1). Figure 1. Model offactors influencing the service quality of Guilin homestay In Figure 1, operation service is the core factor influencing the service quality of tourism homestays in Guilin, and it appears most frequently in customers' online bad reviews. The soft index of operation service can best reflect the shining point of homestays, and customers usually evaluate them in terms of catering service, accommodation service and business integrity; facilities and equipment are the key factors affecting the service quality of homestays in Guilin, and are second only to operation service in the text of poor reviews. The quality of facilities and equipment has a direct impact on the accommodation experience, with decoration design, sound insulation, bedding, showers, toilets and swimming pools being of greater concern to customers; traffic location is a basic factor affecting the quality of service in Guilin homestays, with customers' first feelings about the homestay coming from the process of finding its location, with the surrounding environment, peripheral facilities and ease of travel being factors to be considered by customers; safety and hygiene is a key factor affecting the quality of service in Guilin homestays. Safety and hygiene is the guarantee factor that affects the service quality of homestays in Guilin, only on the basis of personal and property safety, physical health and quality of life being guaranteed can customers settle down to experience homestay services in depth. 3.4. Theoretical saturation test Theoretical saturation means that no new concepts or categories emerged during the data analysis and was the basis for stopping the data collection process. The theoretical saturation test using the remaining 1/3 (180) online differential reviews showed that no new relationships or categories emerged. Therefore, the model constructed by the author on the factors influencing the service quality of homestay in Guilin city reached theoretical saturation. 4. Conclusions and Recommendations 4.1. Conclusion This paper takes Guilin homestay as the research object, obtains online bad review data from Ctrip.com based on Python web crawler technology, applies the grounded theory to the online bad review text in order of open coding, main axis coding and selective coding, and constructs a model containing four dimensions of Guilin homestay service quality influencing factors. It was found that among the factors influencing the service quality of Guilin city homestay, operation service is the core factor, facilities and equipment is the key factor, transportation location is the basic factor, and safety and hygiene is the guarantee factor, and these factors directly affect the overall customer perception, thus forming a lower comprehensive evaluation. 4.2. Recommendations 4.2.1. Improve the infrastructure and enhance the tourism environment In terms of tourism transportation, homestay clusters should plan the area and location of parking lots according to the actual situation, and more remote homestays should take the initiative to jointly build roads with communities and other management departments; in terms of public services, on the one hand, the construction of medical facilities should be improved. On the other hand, the relevant government departments should introduce investment projects such as entertainment shopping centers around the homestay clusters; in terms of intelligent tourism facilities, homestays can establish a homestay information management system, and also optimize the service scene through contactless technology and intelligent systems, and empower the fabric washing link with digital technology. 4.2.2. Implementation ofstandardized management and industry census Combined with national and local policy guidance documents, the homestay industry in Guilin should conduct extensive self-examination and census work[11].From the homestay level, one is to designate a reasonable management system, standardize the service process, correct the service attitude, insist on honest operation, and enhance the professionalism of homestays. The second is to strengthen equipment maintenance and safety and health management, to ensure that the standardization of homestay catering, fire, hygiene, security, sewage, etc.; from the government level, one is to implement the rating evaluation matters as soon as possible, in collaboration with universities, associations and other departments, the establishment of homestay assessment work committee, to encourage homestay owners to actively participate in the rating work. The second is to communicate and collaborate with the homestay Association, and reasonably organize professional training for homestay-related practitioners to enhance the level of tourism services. 4.2.3. Pay attention to the tourism experience and enrich the product level Guilin tourism homestays should be good at making reasonable use of landscape, history and culture, residential architecture and other resources to highlight their own characteristics, integrating them into the construction of homestay products and enriching product levels. On the one hand, homestay owners should flexibly develop outdoor 122 tourism experience activities and provide "private custom" routes for tourists with special needs to meet their diverse needs; on the other hand, they can develop indoor experience activities based on their own thematic characteristics, such as script killing, yoga, concerts, etc., to expand their service scenarios; in addition, in terms of cultural and creative products.In addition, in terms of cultural and creative products, we should explore the intrinsic elements, combine the advantages of regional culture, and design distinctive cultural and creative products to enhance the attractiveness and core competitiveness of homestays. Acknowledgment This work is supported the following fund: The key project of Guangxi Tourism Industry Research Institute's Open Fund "New Problems, New Opportunities and New Direction for the Development of Guilin homestay inn under the Prevention and Control of Normalized Epidemic Situation (LYCY2022- 01)". References [1] Hsi-Peng Tseng, Ying-Ying Wu. A discussion on the competitive group of B&Bs in Taiwan and their competitive strategies[J]. Rural Tourism Research, 2013, 7(2):15-24. [2] Hsiao-Ching Huang, Jui-Liang Hsu, Chi-Hung Chao. A study on the construction of competitive advantage assessment index for the operation of B&B industry in Kenting area[J]. Sports and Recreation Research, 2016, 11(1):1-15. [3] Kuo F C , Kuo C T . Integrated Bed and Breakfast into Eco- Tourism in Guan Ziling areas in Taiwan[J]. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2012, 57:503-510. [4] Chih-Yun Yang, Ya-Hui Kuo, Yu-Liang Sie, et al. 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