What influences guests' emotions? The case of high‐quality hotels

Abstract

AbstractThis paper outlines the methodology and results of an attempt to assess influences on the emotional states of hotel guests. When consuming tourism products, tourists do not only expect professional services but also desire satisfying experiences. According to Pine and Gilmore (1998), goods and services must be ‘experientialized’ because customers seek for rewarding, memorable and pleasurable consumption experiences. Quality management research suggests that traditional service quality measures are insufficient in evaluating the satisfaction of the ‘new’ tourists with consumed services. In order to measure customer satisfaction, it is important to take into account factors concerning the psychological environment such as subjective personal reactions or feelings experienced by consumers. Thus, experience quality should be the starting point for developing models to assess emotions in tourism industry. After reviewing the latest literature in the field of service and experience measurement in leisure and tourism, the paper presents an experience model highlighting causalities measuring flow experience during the consumption of activities. The results show that the hotel setting has strong influence on the emotional state of the guests and that the staging of the service environment as well as the service process constitutes a crucial part of the hotel strategy. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.