Purpose of stay and willingness to stay as dimensions to identify and evaluate hotel experiences

The market of experiences promises business opportunities to service-based sectors. However, company managers miss procedures for strategic decision-making. This paper presents a practical procedure to help managers to move into the experience business in the hospitality sector. Sector experts participated in a session identifying hotel possible uses. 290 clients evaluated the promotional brochure of 18 hotels stating their intention to stay and perception of hotel adequacy to the uses experts proposed. A PCA identified five stay purposes: couple, collective, business, elderly and soloing. A logistic regression analysis showed that couple and collective have the highest positive influence in staying intention whereas elderly and business have the most negative influence. Experiences elicited by hotels were assessed as belonging to a series of clusters defined by “will to stay” and stay purposes. Results allow managers to better understand consumer's experiences and to manage their offerings into the experience market.