hoteles emociones

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ABSTRACT

This paper outlines the methodology andresults of an attempt to assess influences onthe emotional states of hotel guests. Whenconsuming tourism products, tourists do notonly expect professional services but also

desire satisfying experiences. According toPine and Gilmore (1998), goods and servicesmust be experientialized becausecustomers seek for rewarding, memorableand pleasurable consumption experiences.Quality management research suggests thattraditional service quality measures areinsufficient in evaluating the satisfaction ofthe new tourists with consumed services.In order to measure customer satisfaction, itis important to take into account factorsconcerning the psychological environment

such as subjective personal reactions orfeelings experienced by consumers. Thus,experience quality should be the startingpoint for developing models to assessemotions in tourism industry. Afterreviewing the latest literature in the field ofservice and experience measurement inleisure and tourism, the paper presents anexperience model highlighting causalitiesmeasuring flow experience during theconsumption of activities. The results showthat the hotel setting has strong influence

on the emotional state of the guests and thatthe staging of the service environment aswell as the service process constitutes acrucial part of the hotel strategy. Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 7 July 2008; Revised 18 December 2008; Accepted 22December 2008

Keywords: hotel guest experience; emotionalstates; flow; measurement of satisfaction.

INTRODUCTION

While the consumption of many differ-ent types of services is primarilydriven by extrinsic motives, in leisure

services such as amusement parks, theatres,resort hotels tourists mainly consume ser-vices to stimulate emotions (Otto and Ritchie,1996). Previous research (e.g. Russell and Pratt,1980; Mano and Oliver, 1993) confirms thisstatement and indicates that the degree ofarousal or excitement experienced by custom-ers when consuming a service may be a major

determinant of pleasure and satisfactionyielded through the experience. Therefore, theexperience value of tourism products is a dom-inant factor influencing consumers motivationto buy a service. As the experience-generation(Schulze, 1992; Wolf, 1999) searches foremotional experiences, like fun or excitementtogether with a tendency for experience inten-sity and lifestyle offers, todays tourism enter-prises are forced to sell experience services(Otto and Ritchie, 1996; Weiermair, 2006).

Because the service delivery process plays acrucial role in customers service experiences,the operational, organisational and personalcharacteristics are of interest. These can bedivided into the terms hardware, software andhumanware. Hardware (setting) correspondsto service environments where the touristicperformance is offered. The setting mainlyconsists of architecture, design, lighting andcolouring. Humanware relates to humanresource management and focuses on the

Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TOURISM RESEARCHInt. J. Tourism Res.11, 171183 (2009)Published online in Wiley InterScience(www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jtr.718

What Influences Guests Emotions?The Case of High-quality Hotels

Alexandra Brunner-Sperdin

1

* and Mike Peters

2

1Department of Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism, Innsbruck University School of Manage-ment, Universittsstrasse 15, A-6020, Innsbruck2 School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon,Hong Kong

*Correspondence to: A. Brunner-Sperdin, Departmentof Strategic Management, Marketing and Tourism,Innsbruck University School of Management, Univer-sittsstrasse 15, A-6020, Innsbruck.E-mail: [email protected]


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Copyright 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Int. J. Tourism Res. 11, 171183 (2009)

DOI: 10.1002/jtr

employees, the customers and the serviceperformance. Service performance can beinterpreted as the core of every service experi-ence: it takes place in certain settings and willbe provided by certain interactions betweenstaff and consumers (Arnould and Price, 1993;

Normann, 1996, Fitzsimmons and Fitzsim-mons, 2007). Finally, the software supportshard- and humanware with technology andprocess management, making sure memorableexperiences are offered to guests.

Pine and Gilmore (1998) define experience asthe latest stage in the evolution of post-industrialeconomies, engaging clients by turning servicesinto memorable events. Experiences are morethan additional benefits and supplementaryoffers to the basic services (Pine and Gilmore,1998; Grtsch, 2001). Through staging the service,

emotional experiences such as flow and immer-sion (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) can be createdfor the customer. Regarding tourism products,innovative experience design and orchestra-tion will become increasingly critical corecapabilities of successful hotel-managementcompanies (Gilmore and Pine, 2002).

Thus, the staging of experiences plays animportant role in the service delivery process(Schechner, 1988). In order to design memorableexperiences, tourists needs have to be analysed.All five senses should be engaged and tourism

entrepreneurs should try to surprise the guestsover and over (Pine and Gilmore, 1998). On theone hand, this requires service managers toachieve high emotionality of services and prod-ucts and, on the other hand, they have to directmore efforts towards design and maintenanceof service experiences (Grtsch, 2001).

The aim of this paper is to present an attemptto assess influences on customers emotionalstates in the hotel industry. To do so, the firstpart of the paper presents a literature reviewon previous studies and initiatives measuring

emotions in general and in tourist settings.Therefore, the review presents conceptual aswell as empirical work in the field of emotionaland environmental psychology and flow expe-rience. In the second part of the paper, aresearch model for measuring flow experienceduring the consumption of activities in thehotel sector will be developed. In order tomeasure experience quality in a holistic way,the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) of

Csikszentmihalyi (1985) is adapted for thetourism industry. By this means the individualexperience of an activity and the impact offirms input factors on these individualconsumer experiences will be investigated.Therefore, concepts of emotion psychology,

management science and environmental psy-chology (Kotler, 1973; Mehrabian and Russell,1974; Baker et al. 1992; Bitner 1992) will be inte-grated in a research model. In a next step, aquestionnaire is designed to assess influenceson hotel guests emotional states during theconsumption process. The results based on theexperience quality model will be presentedand the importance of several hotel-businessinput factors illustrated. The final part of thepaper concludes with implications for tourismand leisure enterprises concerning the man-

agement and design of guest experiences. Inaddition, the authors point out main areas forfuture research in this field.

LITERATURE REVIEW

The design of experience is an ancient practice:rituals, ceremonies, drama and even architec-ture (e.g. medieval cathedrals) are designed toprovide a certain kind of experience (Prenticeet al., 1998). To some extent, everything hasbecome an experience even the traditional

4-S paradigm (sun, sea, sand, sex) constitutesan experience which differs from everyday life.However, the novelty of the experience conceptcan be seen in the fact that today experiencesare regarded as a specific type of product- orservice- bundle which can be actively designed,produced and/or staged by the entrepreneur(Grtsch, 2001; Stamboulis and Skyannis, 2003).Experiences of leisure and tourism can bedefined as mental state felt by participantsduring an event or encounter (Otto and Ritchie,1996; Price et al.,1995).

In emotion psychology, experience is per-ceived as a feeling which triggers an expres-sion, like laughter, crying, etc., and physicalchange (pulse, blood pressure, etc.) (Mandler,1980; Plutchik, 1980; Eckmann, 1981; Holbrooket al., 1984; Lazarus, 1991; Scherer, 1995; Izard,2004). Thereby a trigger of experience can bedescribed as impulse and experience itself as areaction to it (Mehrabian and Russell, 1974;Donovan and Rossiter, 1982). Experiences


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require the involvement and participation ofa person, because only participants can ex-perience. By reason of this internal nature,experiences are very individual and personal(Knutson and Beck, 2003). This means thatindividuals react differently to the same events

and stimuli (Graburn, 2001). How the experi-ence is perceived depends on the mental andphysical condition, personality factors as wellas factors such as gender, age, experience, etc.(Hartmann and Haubl, 1996). Establishedexpectations also play an important role(Mller et al., 2004).

The development towards an experiencesociety concentrating egocentrically uponmaximising pleasure (Schulze, 1995) andresulting implications for the economy hadbeen studied by Pine and Gilmore (1999). The

authors anticipated that the key innovation intodays business is experience and coined aterm experience economy describing the busi-ness of selling experiences. Pine and Gilmore(1999) postulate that the economy has movedfrom a service to an experience economy andthat experiences are the basis for future eco-nomic growth. They distinguish services andexperiences as follows: . . . when a personbuys a service he purchases a set of intangibleactivities carried out on his behalf. But whenhe buys an experience, he pays to spend time

enjoying a series of memorable events that acompany stages as in a theatrical way toengage him in a personal way (p. 2). In thiscontext an experience occurs when companiesare able to engage their customers to use ser-vices as stages and goods as props. Customersreduced their consumption of goods to spendmore money on services, and they are willingto buy memorable experiences, which createthe highest possible individual value (Priceet al., 1995; Gilmore and Pine 2002; Scheurer2003).

In this respect, entrepreneurs will have tostage their service products in order to createexperiences and emotions that influence theperception of quality in a positive way andthus create customer satisfaction. Hence, it willbecome necessary to stage quality attributesalong the whole service chain (Weiermair,2001) in order to create exciting and rich expe-riences (Pine and Gilmore, 1998; Voelkl andEllis, 1998; Gilmore and Pine, 2002). The only

way to achieve margins will be in establishingcore competencies based on the delivery ofquality experiences. Therefore, experience canbe seen as the new phase in the developmentof a memorable service encounter (Kiiskil andKalenoja, 2001). Experience takes place when-

ever a company or destination decides to useservices as the stage to engage and goodsas props to engage an individual wherebymemory is the most important characteristic ofthe experience (Pine and Gilmore, 1998;Pikkemaat and Peters, 2003). Based on the factthat products in the service sector are verysimilar, staging an experience will be a triggerfor higher revenues. Customers would onlypay admission fees if they decided that theoffered experience meets their expectations(Gilmore and Pine, 2002). Barsky and Nash

(2002) state if hotel entrepreneurs can offer allthree key loyalty emotions (feeling of beingpampered, relaxed and sophisticated), guestsare willing to double their expenses.

Traditional quality management theorieshave developed and tested numerous qualitymodels (Donabedian, 1980; Grnroos, 1984;Parasuraman et al., 1985, 1988; Zeithaml, 1991)in order to measure service performance andsatisfaction. These models emphasised func-tional and technical aspects of the servicedelivery perceived through cognitive informa-

tion processing. Quality dimensions typicallyare reliability, responsiveness, assurance,empathy and tangibles (Parasuraman et al.,1985, 1988). Thus, clients are typically askedwhat they know about a service but rarelyhow they feel at the service encounter. Despitethe fact that customers emotions affect thedecisions (Otto and Ritchie, 1996; Izard, 2004),cognitive quality measurement models previ-ously mentioned do not target the assessmentof emotional aspects.

As a second stream of literature, environ-

mental psychologists contribute to the expla-nation of consumer behaviour as an outputof emotional states. Mehrabian and Russels(1974) model of environmental influence wasadapted by Donovan and Rossiter (1982) whoattempt to reveal the influence of environmen-tal stimuli on emotional states (such as plea-sure or arousal). In a next step, emotional stateslead to either consumers approach or avoid-ance responses (Donovan et al., 1994). Within


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this field of research, several authors tried todevelop typologies of environmental factorsconceptually (Kotler and Rath, 1984; Baker,1986; Bitner, 1992; Arnould and Price, 1993).For instance, Baker (1986) proposes three cate-gories of environmental factors: social factors

(e.g. people such as consumers or employees),design factors (e.g. visual amenities, layoutand colours) and environment (e.g. the serviceencounter facility). Beside these theoreticalcontributions, we find a number of empiricalanalyses using experimental design approaches:Babin and Darden (1996); Baker et al. (1992).Donovan et al. (1994) and Wakefield andBlodgett (1994) tested the impact of specificatmospheric impulses on consumer behaviour.The latter could reveal that experience-oriented settings strongly influence the

emotional state of consumers. Other studiesoutlined the importance of various factors andtheir impact on consumers emotion: Areni(1993), Hui et al. (1997), Milliman (1986) andOakes (2000) identified the relevance of music,Bellizi and Hite (1992), Crowely (1993) investi-gated the influence of colours on consumersemotional states. The phenomenon of crowd-ing was also subject in several studies (e.g.Eroglu and Machleit, 1990; Hui and Bateson1991). The majority of empirical investigationsobserved these relationships in trade and

service industries (e.g. supermarkets, car deal-erships) but only a small number of studieswere carried out in the tourism and hospitalityindustry (Robson, 1999; Siguaw and Enz, 1999).In addition, all these studies focus on a singleenvironmental stimulus only, although it canbe assumed that stimuli holistically affect con-sumer behaviour (Mattila and Wirtz, 2001).

From the aforementioned literature review,the following results can be derived:

(1) The majority of Service Quality models are

of cognitive nature: In the traditionalservice quality research, mainly cognitivecomponents are measured and emotionalaspects are excluded to a large extent.

(2) There is a lack of studies measuring thequality of experiences in the hospitalityindustry. Research has shown that affec-tive and emotion-based reports, whichform the basis of the quality-of-the-serviceexperience, contribute a significant but

often ignored part of explained variance insatisfaction evaluation (Otto and Ritchie,1996). So far this facet of consumption hasreceived attention from researchers in thefield of sociology, anthropology or psy-chology, but these have been confined to

the investigation of the emotions of theindividual in a certain environment (e.g.Donovan and Rossiter, 1982; 1984; Milli-man 1986; Baker et al. 1992; Belizzi andHite, 1992; Areni, 1993; Babin and Darden,1996; Spangenberg and Crowley 1996; Huiet al., 1997; Turley and Milliman 2000).

Besides the aforementioned hardware factors,one can assume that human- and softwarefactors might influence the emotional state ofconsumers. It is argued that firm- and service-

encounter-specific factors affect customerperceptions and substantially influence hisemotional states (Zeithaml et al., 1988; Bitner1992; Arnould and Price, 1993). Humanwareincludes variables as proposed by the servicemanagement literature: empathy, qualificationrespectively expertise of employees, respon-siveness and the ability of the customer to takepart in the service delivery process (Harriset al., 2003; Zeithaml et al., 1988). Other factorsinfluencing the emotional state are defined asinteraction quality. This term describes the

satisfaction consumers perceive interactingwith employees and other customers (Meyerand Mattmller, 1987) and the perceived imageof the service provider, as well as the price/performance ratios.

In order to measure experience quality in aholistic way, an explanatory model was devel-oped to focus on the phenomenon of flowexperience based on the ESM by Csikszentmi-halyi (1975). In Csikszentmihalyis study, flowexperiences have been described as . . . holis-tic sensation(s) that people feel when they act

with total involvement (Csikszentmihalyi,1975, p. 36 ). Csikszentmihalyi tried to measureflow experiences as close as possible to theactual state. In his approach, he applied theESM, asking respondents (e.g. consumers)to carry a beeper device that sends signalson a time-based protocol determined by theresearcher. Each time the beeper is going to beactivated, subjects fill out a survey that typi-cally includes questions asking what the subject


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was doing and how the subject was feeling atthe time of the alarm. With a sufficient numberof subjects and samples, a data collection ofactivities can be generated. According toCsikszentmihalyi (1992), several feelingscharacterise flow, e.g. degree of involvement,

timeliness, the sense that one can controlones action, focused and intense concentra-tion on the present moment, and joy.

Csikszentmihalyis (1975) model, whichoriginated in psychology, postulates that flowexperiences appear if challenges of activitiesare in balance with the skills of a person. Thefield of application has been the measure-ment of flow experience during consumptionof leisure activities and practising extremesports.

In order to assess emotions in tourism and

to answer the research question, the Flowmodel of Csikszentmihalyi (1975) had to beadapted. So the authors state that experiencingan activity or a certain situation is not onlydetermined by the aforementioned emotionalfactors, but also by firm-specific factors. There-fore, not only the research areas of emotionpsychology concerning the experience ofthe individual but also concepts of the en-vironmental psychology should be includedin an explanatory model of experiencemeasurement.

In a next step, the aforementioned researchgap will be closed with the development ofan experience-quality model that is valid fortourism product and service bundles.

METHODOLOGY

Model development

Referring to the literature review, the authors

present a model that attempts to include thebasic concepts of experience measuring:

(1) Staging potential: The influence of theservice environment (hardware, software,humanware) e.g. potential of the servicefacility, of entrepreneurs and employees,social factors, design elements and atmo-sphere are variables influencing customersquality perception (Zeithaml et al., 1988;Bitner, 1992). Thus, the potential quality

substantially influences the guests percep-tion and emotional state.

(2) Situative factors, demographics and degreeof involvement and intuition: The individ-uals tendency to make decisions eitherin a more rational or a more intuitive

way plays a substantial role when experi-encing flow. In the model, this variable isnamed degree of intuition. In addition,situational (such as daytime, weekday)and demographic factors (such as age, sex)of guests have to be considered in themodel.

(3) Emotional state: According to Csikszent-mihalyi (1992), several variables influencethe emotional state of individuals. Momen-tary characteristics, i.e. flow-like emotionsfelt in a moment, are described by factors

like e.g. to feel to be in good hands, losetrack of time, or to become immersed insomething (see Figure 1).

The experience-quality model shown in Figure1 includes the staging potential (firm-specificfactors) (1), the situational factors, demo-graphics and the degree of involvement andintuition (2), as well as the emotional stateof the guest (3):

The model assumes several causal relation-

ships, which should be analysed in the empiri-cal survey. The following hypotheses will betested:

H1: The emotional state depends on thecustomers degree of flow-like feelings duringthe service delivery process.

H2: The emotional state depends on firm-specific factors (staging quality).

H3: The emotional state depends on personaldemographics of the guest when consuming

the service.H4: The emotional state depends on theinvolvement of the guest during the servicedelivery process.

H5: The emotional state depends on situationalfactors during the service delivery process.

H6: The emotional state depends on custo-mers degree of intuition during the servicedelivery process.


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Research design

The aim of the study was to test the hypothe-ses. A survey was carried out during spring2007. After pre-testing the questionnaire, eighthotels were selected in Austria, SouthernGermany and South Tyrol (Italy). Question-naires were distributed to the guests. Hotelsare categorised as four- and five-star hotels

with typical alpine- and/or spa-orientedproduct and service bundles. These hotelsreceived between 20 and 40 folders. The folderscontained three questionnaires for differentservice situations. Each guest received onefolder and was asked to answer the question-naires by reflecting and expressing their moodand feelings during the consumption along thehotels value chain (e.g. breakfast, lunch,dinner, beauty area and sauna).

In training sessions, the survey was brieflyexplained to the hotel customer-contact per-

sonnel: The guests were asked to fill out thequestionnaire during their stay interpreting itas a well-being diary. The folders were offeredin German, English and Italian.

A total of 239 questionnaires have been com-pleted and used for statistical analysis. Eachquestionnaire consisted of four questions,which listed a bundle of attributes and state-ments. The questionnaire was structured asfollows:

(1) In the first part, the interviewees had toselect that activity and/or service whichthey consumed at that moment. A list ofoffered hotel activities along the valuechain was presented here.

(2) The next step was to evaluate the guestsfeelings and indicate how they feel in thatspecific situation of consumption (a five-point scale was used indicating whether

the statement meets the feelings or not (no(1), yes (5)).

(3) The methodology section measured theinfluence of hardware items (design,lighting, colour, scent and sound effects),humanware items (empathy, expertise andresponsiveness of employees) and softwareitems (image, take part in the service process)on guests satisfaction. In this section, par-ticipants were asked to reflect on the chosenactivity by means of the aforementionedfactors and to indicate their satisfaction

(a five-point scale was used to indicatesatisfaction (5) and dissatisfaction (1)).

The authors argue that the neutral ratingin a five-point scale is needed whenconducting survey research. Sometimesrespondents truly feel neutral about a topicand choosing a scale without midpointforces respondents to choose a more posi-tive or negative response (Bhl and Zfel,2002).

Involvement

Degree of

intuition

Situational

factors

Demographic

factors

(1) Staging potential

HARDWARE

Interior design

Lighting effects

Colour effects

Scent effects

Sound effects

HUMANWARE

Empathy of employees

Expertise of employees

Responsiveness

Ability to take part in the

service delivery process

SOFTWARE

Composition of guests

Image of Hotel

Price/performance ratio

Emotional

State

(3)To feel to be in good hands

Lose track of time

Time passesEnjoy

Immerse oneself in somethingUnder control

Being happy

H1

H2

H2

H2 H4

H6

(2)

H3

H5

Figure 1. The experience quality model (source: own illustration).


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(4) In the final part of the questionnaire, theatmosphere and the staging potential wasevaluated and a semantic differential wasused so interviewees could express theirmood (e.g. happy vs. unhappy, thrilled vs.bored, energetic vs. weak).

Results

Forty percent of the guests were male. A totalof 87.8% of all interviewees were between 25and 44 years of age. Austria (35%), Germany(39.3%), Italy (10%) and Switzerland (6.3%) arethe main countries of origin. Fifty-five percentof the guests were visiting the hotel for the firsttime, 45% were repeat customers. The averagestay in the hotels was 13 days.

The following section presents the test

results regarding the previously discussedhypotheses.

H1: The emotional state depends on thecustomers flow-like feelings during theservice delivery process.

At the beginning, the relation between theemotional state and the variables whichdescribe flow-like feelings was examined. Inthe literature individuals who experience suchfeelings, describe these with statements such

as I feel like to be in good hands, I loose trackof time and do not realise how time passes, Ienjoy the situation, I am lost in what I amdoing, I have a sense of potential control andI am happy (Csikszentmihalyi, 1985, 1992;Rheinberg et al., 1997).

First a regression was calculated, where allvariables at the same time were included intothe analysis. The beta values of the regressionanalysis lie between 0.360 and 0,023. A total

of 41.9% (= R2) of the variance of the emotionalstate can be explained by these variables (seeTable 1).

In the next step of the analysis, the regres-sion was carried out stepwise, so that onlyindependent variables are included which con-

tribute to R. The variables which appear to besignificant are happiness and time passes.The emotional state is not influenced by furtherfactors according to the stepwise investigation.A total of 40.2% of the independent variableemotional state can be explained. The hypo-thesis cannot be rejected.

H2: The emotional state depends on firm-specific factors.

If the influence of firm-specific factors on

emotions of guests is analysed, the regressionanalysis points out that, under inclusion of allvariables, determinants such as compositionof guests and expertise of the employees andcolour effects influence the emotional state ofthe guests (R2 of 26.1%).

If we only include variables in the modelwhich show significance of< 0.01, the model isexplained by the variables composition ofguests and colour effects to 20.8% (=R2; seeTable 2). The hypothesis cannot be rejected.

H3: The emotional state depends on personaldemographics of the guest when consumingthe service.

To test this hypothesis, demographic variablessuch as age, gender and marital status of thehotel guests were used as determining vari-ables. The influence of the personal character-istics on the emotion potential is very low (theR2 is only 1.2%). The correlation analysis shows

Table 1. Regression: the emotional state and customers feelings duringthe service

Model R R-square Corr. R-square Deviation

1 0.647a 0.419 0.397 0.55965

a Determining variables: (constant), Happiness: I was happy; Control: I had asense of potential control; Immersion: I was lost in what I was doing; Feeling ingood hand: I felt to be in good hands; Losing track of time: I didnt even realisehow time was passing.


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a similar picture: both gender and age showweak negative correlations. Because these cor-relations are neither significant at the 0.01 levelnor at the 0.05 level, it must be assumed that

no significant relations between gender, maritalstatus, age and the emotional state exist duringthe service production process. H3 cannot beconfirmed (see Table 3).

H4: The emotional state depends on theinvolvement of the guest during the servicedelivery process.

The emotional potential depends on theinvolvement of guests during the service pro-duction process. By means of a linear regres-

sion and partial correlation analysis, therelation between the guests degree of involve-ment and the emotional state was analysed. Inthis case, the results differ from those before.Thus, it can be confirmed that all variables,describing the involvement in a service situa-tion, have significant influence on the emo-tional state. As Table 4 shows, the 24.8% (R2)of the model is explained by the variablesassessed in the semantic differential: feel

safe/confident, to feel free of fear, self-determined, energetic, thrilled and free.Furthermore, the correlation analysis showsmedium/strong positive connections at 0.01

level. For this reason, it can be supposed thatthe involvement influences the emotions ofguests in a consumption situation.

H5: The emotional state depends on situa-tional factors during the service deliveryprocess.

The day of a week or the time of the day duringwhich a service was consumed were definedas situational factors. This assumption couldnot be confirmed. There are no significant dif-

ferences when analysing daytime or weekdayand the emotional experience of guests in dif-ferent consumption situations. The assump-tion arises from the following regressionanalysis. The independent variables explainonly 10% of the model.

Hence, the hypothesis must be rejectedbecausep> 0.05. Furthermore, there are hardlyany correlations between the variables (seeTable 5).

Table 2. Regression: the staging potential and firm-specific factors

Model R R-square Corr. R-square Deviation

1 0.370a 0.137 0.131 0.663012 0.456b 0.208 0.197 0.63712

a Determining variables : (constant), immerse oneselfb Determining variables : (constant), immerse oneself, colour effects

Table 3. Regression: emotional state and personal demographics

R R-Quadrat Corr. R-square Deviation

0.108a 0.012 0.002 0.72099

a Determining variables: (constant), age, marital status, gender

Table 4. Regression: emotional state and involvement

R R-square Corr. R-square Deviation

0.498a 0.248 0.227 0.62806

a Determining variables: (constant), safe/confident, self-determined, energetic,thrilled, feel free


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H6: The emotional state depends oncustomers degree of intuition during theservice delivery process.

The assumption that the degree to whichdecisions are made either rationally or emo-tionally (gut feeling) has an impact on theemotional state cannot be confirmed, neither atthe 0.01 nor at the 0.05% level. Guests wereasked to indicate how they decide on a scalefrom 1 = rational to 5 = intuitive. The regres-sion analysis shows no significant relationbetween the decision behaviour of the guestsand their emotional state (R2 of 0.5%). The

hypothesis must be therefore rejected (seeTable 6).

Figure 3 summarises the hypotheses testingand shows the R-squares and the correlationcoefficients for the single variables.

Hypotheses postulating significant correla-tions between the staging potential of hotelsand emotional states of guests cannot be rejected.The results suggest that the perception of stagingdepends on the capabilities of the employees:The more competence is associated with theservice-contact personnel, the more empathy isshown in the service delivery process and theeasier it is to satisfy the hotel guests.

Table 5. Regression: emotional state and situational factors


0.102a 0.010 0.000 0.64888

a Determining variable: (constant), daytime, weekday

Table 6. Regression: emotional state and the degree of intuition


0.068a 0.005 0.000 0.72361

a Determining variables: (constant), decision of guest

arrival accom-

mo-

dation

food activities

wellness/

beauty

activities

wellness/sports

other

activities

guest1 guest2 guest3 guest4 guest n

hotel

room

lounge

breakfastlunchdinner

bar

Fitness room-courses:e.g.(Step)

Aerobic, Yoga)

departure

skiingbilliard

archery

sauna, steambathsolariumswimming

pooltreatments

Figure 2. Value chain in the hotel industry (adapted from Bieger 2005, p. 59).


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IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSION

The empirical analysis reveals that humanwareshows stronger correlations than typical hard-ware factors such as design, lighting, colour,scent and sound. In contrast to secondary

literature, neither the degree of intuition ofcustomers, nor situational factors (like daytimeor weekdays) showed significant correlationswith the emotion potential of guests. Furtherdemographic factors such as age, gender andmarital status of guests have no influence onthe emotions during the service process.

The variable involvement constitutedthrough feelings like feeling self-determined,being free, energetic, free of fear and excite-ment of the service delivery process influencesthe emotional experience of the offered hotel

services on a highly significant level.Although it could be considered as a limita-

tion of the sample that the distribution wascarried out by the customer-contact personnelat the hotel reception rather than directly bythe interviewer, nevertheless, the study doesreveal some initial insights into the experiencesetting of hotels. The theoretical as well as theempirical investigations have shown that toexplain the function of experiences in the field

of hospitality and tourism, still more researchis necessary.

The review of the theory has shown thatpsychosocial aspects of service design are themissing link from traditional to experience-ori-ented service decisions. Whereas measurement

of traditional service quality is analysed alongthe value chain, problems of measurementarise in the case of experience products becausethe behavioural and emotional aspects havealso to be considered. Therefore, psychologicaltheories need to be incorporated into the areaof service experience management research. Acombination of both disciplines was carriedout in this investigation. There is no convinc-ing account in the management literature as towhat an explanatory model for assessing expe-rience quality in the tourism industry should

or could look like.The present work delivers new insights

because the investigation of emotions is still at itsbeginning in the field of economics in generaland tourism in particular. Nevertheless, thestudy faces its limitations as the findings havemore of a conceptual and explorative than a rep-resentative character. Accordingly, further inves-tigations should be carried out for a longer periodand for a substantially larger population.

-0.021

0.1750.220

0.074-0.113

-0.033

0.261-0.107

-0.021

0.2650.034

-0.065

Rationality vs.

Intuition

Demographic

factors

Staging Potential

HARDWARE

Interior design

Lighting effects

Colour effects

Scent effectsSound effects

HUMANWARE

Empathy of employeesExpertise of employees

Responsiveness

Ability to take part in theservice delivery process

SOFTWARE

Composition of guestsImage of Hotel

Price/performance ratio

self-determined (0.345**)free (0.384**)energetic (0.293**)

free of fear (0.382**)

thrilled (0.422**)

-0,68*R

2=0.00

R2=0010

R2=0.01

time of day (-0.096)*

day of week (-0.086)*

InvolvementR2=0.248

age (-0.063) *

gender (-0.068)*marital status (0.00)*

Situational

factors

Emotional

State

Figure 3. Correlation of demographic, situational variables, mental base attitude and involvement onemotional state (source: own illustration) (**significant, * not significant).


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DOI: 10.1002/jtr

The issue of whether a study for the mea-surement of experience quality can be accom-plished solely by means of questionnaireswithout the use of face-to-face interviewsalso should be considered critically. Becauseexperiences are internal emotional events of a

person, it is difficult to chart them by means ofquantitative research methods. Whereas somepsychologists prefer qualitative in-depthinterviews, facial measurements and narrativeinterviews, other psychologists support theapproach developed by the authors as theybelieve that the measurement of emotionsshould be done during or immediately afterthe consumption of a service.

The implications for resources should alsobe thought about. The analysis shows thathumanware plays the most important role

when offering experience-oriented services.Therefore, the strongest emphasis should belaid on human resource management, whichplays the major role in creating successfulexperience-oriented service encounters. Theknowledge about the relevance of business-internal aspects in relation to the experiencequality-of-the-service enterprise can form thebase for a variety of further investigations.These could focus on two aspects. First, as pre-viously discussed, the methodology should beimproved as it is of utmost importance when

and how researchers attempt to gather infor-mation about the flow experience of consum-ers. For future research, new mobile technologiessuch as mobile phones could enable the assess-ment of flow-like feelings (emotional states)closer to the actual state of consumption.

In a second step, tourism research should tryto explore the validity of existing theories ofthe constructs of staging experiences. In thispaper, a first attempt was to explain underly-ing variables of the staging potential. However,it remains uncertain whether all the relevant

effects of hardware, humanware and softwarewere fully explored. Further service qualityresearch is needed to more thoroughly definethe relevant service dimensions and their con-tribution to customers emotional states.

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