Consumer decision-making based on review websites: Are there differences between choosing a hotel and choosing a physician?

Background: web users are increasingly encouraged to rate and review consumer services (eg,hotels,restaurants) and,more recently,this is also the case for physicians and medical services. the resemblance in the setup and design of commercial rating websites (crws) and web-based physician rating websites (prws) raises the question of whether choice-making processes based on the two types of websites could also be similar. objective: this qualitative study sought to explore the extent to which consumer decision making based on web-based reviews is the same for consumer services (ie,choice of a hotel) and health services (ie,choice of a pediatrician),while providing an in-depth understanding of potential differences or similarities. methods: between june and august 2015,we carried out a total of 22 qualitative interviews with young parents residing in the german-speaking part of switzerland. participants were invited to complete 2 choice tasks,which involved (1) choosing a hotel based on the commercial web-based rating website tripadvisor and (2) selecting a pediatrician based on the prw jameda. to better understand consumers' thought processes,we instructed participants to think aloud