Sleeping and staying

Abstract

This chapter examines tourists behaviour and experiences in the lodging sector, particularly for luxury accommodation. Guests comments obtained from TripAdvisor.com were reviewed and analysed to investigate what tourists seek when staying in luxury hotels. Five luxury accommodation properties from the Traveller s Choice 2018 Winners were selected for the study. They are located in Maldives, Marrakech – Morocco, Cusco – Peru, Ubud, Bali – Indonesia, and Paris – France. In addition, reviews from three prominent luxury travel bloggers were analysed. The results show that the dimensionality of hotel guests’ experiences in various types of accommodation is generally related to the staff/the people, the service, the property and its facilities, the ambience, the hotel rooms and in-room facilities, the food, the design, and value for money. The luxury hotel guests, however, are highly concerned about personalised service and experiences that bring superior satisfaction for their self-esteem and pleasure. They also tend to exhibit strong emotional judgements and feelings.