A variable neighborhood search method for the orienteering problem with hotel selection

► We introduce the hotel selection variant of the orienteering problem. ► We present a mathematical formulation and possible applications of this problem. ► Two hundred twenty-four benchmark instances of varying size with known optimal solutions are created. ► An SVNS solution approach to deal with this problem is implemented. ► The SVNS obtains high quality solutions on 224 instances in 1.91 s on average.