A conceptual paper on understanding the cross-cultural differences in online complain behaviour of hotel guests: the case of Sri Lanka hotel industry

 Consumer complaining behaviour is varied depending on the cultural background of the customers (Ngai et al., 2007; Yuksel et al., 2006; Kwortnik Jr and Han, 2011). Thus, understanding the cross-cultural differences of customer complain behaviours is vital for businesses which interact with a multicultural customer base, such as the hotel industry. On the other hand, the internet has changed the complaint behaviour of customers (Serra-Cantallops et al., 2018) by empowering them to express their emotions and dissatisfaction online in the form of negative online reviews, freely and easily to a wider audience (Au et al., 2014). This further complicates the matters for hoteliers to deal with different complaint behaviours on numerous online platforms by distinct cultural backgrounds in the diversified and dynamic industry.