Understanding the Consumer Experience: An Exploratory Study of Luxury Hotels

TLDR

This study explores luxury hotel consumer experience through in-depth interviews and proposes a framework to help managers understand how various factors influence experiences. The authors collected in-depth, semistructured interview data from luxury hotel guests and developed a framework linking factors to consumer experiences. Findings show that luxury hotel experiences comprise physical environment and human interaction dimensions, are shaped by trip‑related factors and consumer characteristics, and offer implications for experience‑marketing strategies to differentiate competitors.

Abstract

This study explores the consumer experience by examining empirical data collected via a series of in-depth, semistructured interviews with luxury hotel guests. The study findings indicate that hotel guest experiences constitute both physical environment and human interaction dimensions. The research findings suggest that luxury hotel experiences are affected by trip-related factors and personal characteristics of consumers, which impact perceived experience dimensions. The research findings provide specific implications for hotel executives looking for ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors through using experience marketing strategies. In particular, the proposed framework in this study can help practicing managers understand how different factors play a role in consumer experiences. This article contributes to the overall understanding of consumer experience by illuminating the experience perceptions of consumers within the luxury hotel segment.