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Choosing a hotel dominated by emotional drivers

June 14, 2012 | Hotel Marketing

A new study has shed some new light on how consumers are engaging major hotel brands as well as perhaps a fresh perspective on where to take your brand in the near future. The researchers have found that choosing a hotel is dominated by emotional drivers - such as connection, warmth, excitement and pleasure - over rational features and benefits.

A new study conducted by Protean Strategies, working in conjunction with the research firm, Hotspex, in March 2012 has shed some new light on how consumers are engaging major hotel brands as well as perhaps a fresh perspective on where to take your brand in the near future.

Using Hotspex's proprietary MarketSpex™methodology and a sample survey of 800 North American travelers, the researchers have found that choosing a hotel is dominated by emotional drivers (67% of the decision process) - such as connection, warmth, excitement and pleasure - over rational features and benefits (33%).

When it comes to the hotel landscape, how people feel is far more important than what they think - by a factor of two. Their study also showed that a hotel decision is more emotionally-charged than for their comparison studies in choosing an airline, a beer or a smartphone. Moreover, the researchers found that the three most powerful hidden drivers of these emotional choices were excitement, surprise and acceptance, of which hotels have plenty of room to improve.

Get the full story at LMA Communications

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