International Journal of Hospitality Management 47 (2015) 76–84 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect International Journal of Hospitality Management jou rn al hom ep age: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijhosman Responding to the bed bug crisis in social media Bingjie Liu a,∗ , Hany Kim b , Lori Pennington-Gray c a Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida, 206C FLG, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States b Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida, 206J FLG, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States c Department of Tourism, Recreation and Sport Management, University of Florida, 325C FLG, P.O. Box 118208, Gainesville, FL 32611, United States a r t i c l e i n f o Keywords: Hotel crisis management New York City Bed bug crisis Social media Crisis communication Health-related crisis a b s t r a c t The increasing trend in social media changes the landscape of crisis communication and thus, calls for innovation in hotel crisis management practices. This research examined how New York City hotels responded to recent issues surrounding the bed bug crisis on the social media site TripAdviosr. This study adopted a mixed methods research design. The quantitative findings revealed that hotels’ response behaviors were associated with organizational factors (e.g. hotel’s popularity, average rating, and star rating) and the rating of online reviews. The qualitative findings indicated that hotels employed various types of strategies in the response, which were dominated by strategies of bolstering and enhancing. In conclusion, this study addressed the need for a proactive approach in hotel crisis management and provided practical implications. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Health and safety are public concerns that play a key role in individuals’ choices of hospitality products as well as their level of satisfaction. The hospitality industry is responsible for offering a safe and secure environment where guests’ well-being is the top priority during travel (Henderson, 2007; Ritchie, 2008). Bed bug infestation is one of the major public health concerns that are associated with the hospitality industry in recent years (Center for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] and US Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2010; Davies et al., 2012; Liu and Pennington-Gray, 2015). As a national survey reports, about 75% of the bed bug incidents take places in hotels/motels (National Pest Management Association [nPMA], 2013). Hotel properties are vulnerable to bed bug infestations due to their role as traveling hubs, and the occurrence of bed bug infes- tation in hotels is always associated with negative consequences (Davies et al., 2012; Liu and Pennington-Gray, 2015). Bed bug encounters in hotel rooms not merely can expose guests to var- ious health risks (e.g. physical discomfort, emotional stress), but also have the potential to become crises (Davies et al., 2012). Neg- ative impacts of a health-related crisis in the hospitality industry include disruption of daily operation, declines in revenue margin, damaged reputations, postponements of capital investment, and ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 352 294 1676. E-mail address: icebecky@hhp.ufl.edu (B. Liu). even downturns in the entire market (Henderson, 2007; Pine and McKercher, 2003; Ritchie et al., 2011). While crisis management becomes a popular topic within the hospitality industry, findings in empirical research reveal sev- eral shortcomings with regards to hoteliers’ inabilities to handle health-related crises (Henderson and Ng, 2004). The industry is still lagging behind detailed plans that concern about health- related crises (Henderson, 2007); while managing a health-related crisis requires proactive efforts in preparedness, planning, and responding (Ritchie, 2008). Particularly, strategic and effective cri- sis responses can protect an organization’s reputational assets during a crisis and reduce negative consequences (Coombs, 2014). With the development of information technology, social media now plays an important role in crisis communication (Veil et al., 2011). Social media creates an innovative platform that allows various hospitality suppliers and guests to communicate openly, and stay connected during times of crisis (Sigala, 2011). But many organizations have not fully integrated social media into their crisis response systems, and therefore failed to embrace the poten- tial benefits of using social media in crisis management (Liu and Kim, 2011). In the meantime, without properly managing user- generated contents on social media sites may lead to a social media crisis, which can harm an organization’s reputation and amplify the crisis situation (Coombs, 2014). A growing number of scholars have begun examining the use and impact of social media in tourism crisis management (Sigala, 2011). However, the majority of studies were conducted on the basis of experiences; few assumed a nature of explanation or pre- diction (Ritchie et al., 2011). Similarly, research that scrutinized http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.03.005 0278-4319/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.