The biophilic hotel lobby: Consumer emotions, peace of mind, willingness to pay, and health-consciousness

Abstract

Drawing from the pleasure-arousal theory (PAT) and the effects of biophilic design, the purpose of this study was to understand how the emotional experience of hotel guests influenced their willingness to pay (WTP) and peace of mind (POM). In addition, this study examined the role of health consciousness in hotel guests’ emotional experience in the presence of biophilic design in hotel lobbies. Data from a sample of American consumers, was collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk’s Master List. An independent measure experimental design with online picture-based scenarios was operationalized with independent samples t-tests and linear regressions as data analysis methods. Results showed that the biophilic hotel lobby elicited a significantly higher level of pleasure and a significantly lower level of arousal than the non-biophilic hotel lobby. Furthermore, pleasure significantly and positively influenced arousal. Pleasure and arousal were found to partially mediate the relation between biophilic design and WTP and between biophilic design and POM. Furthermore, POM significantly and positively affected WTP. Lastly, health-consciousness significantly strengthened the relationship between biophilic design and POM, but not between biophilic design and WTP.