A picture is worth a thousand words. User-generated photos (UGPs) are increasingly accompanying online reviews of hotels. This article draws on media richness theory to estimate the effects of UGPs on hotel reviews’ helpfulness. Based on a sample of 1,159,590 valid reviews with 464,316 photos, we utilized an integrated analytical model incorporating both econometric analyses and image-processing techniques. The results show that reviews accompanied by UGPs are generally rated as more helpful than those with textual content only. Furthermore, photos showing guestroom objects were rated as more helpful than those showing food & beverages. Finally, the positive effects of UGPs on review helpfulness were especially prominent for hotels with lower prices and negative reviews. This study adds new insights to the online review literature and advances the methodological approach in analyzing unstructured user-generated content. This study provides important implications for hotel managers and online booking platforms regarding UGP management.

一张图片胜过千言万语。用户生成的照片（UGP）越来越多地伴随着酒店的在线评论。本文利用媒体丰富度理论来评估UGP对酒店​​点评的帮助的影响。基于1,464,590张有效评论的1,159,590张样本，我们利用了整合了计量分析和图像处理技术的综合分析模型。结果表明，与仅带有文本内容的评论相比，带有UGP的评论通常被认为更有用。此外，显示客房物体的照片比显示食物和饮料的照片更有帮助。最后，对于价格较低且负面评论的酒店而言，UGP对评论有用性的积极影响尤为突出。这项研究为在线评论文献增添了新见解，并提出了分析非结构化用户生成内容的方法论方法。这项研究为酒店经理和在线预订平台提供有关UGP管理的重要建议。