ИСТИНА

The personal traits of staff play an important role in shaping the tourist experience. In the case of small family run hotels, not the staff but the owners interact with the guests at almost all touchpoints. This paper aims to examine the role of owner personality in creating the experience of hotel guests based on content analysis of tourists’ online reviews for hotels in Kamena Vourla, Greece. The results confirm the influence of hosts on the guest experience. Mentioning the owner in the review is associated with more emotional experience and with a lower likelihood of complaints about inconveniences with accommodation.