This study raises the discussion of experience-based travel to the next level by showing potentials for enriching the already-existing ABB model with emotional offers and therefore creating hyperindividualized hotel experiences. The research question answered by the study is: How does the Experience-Based Booking and Selling (EBBS) model contribute to offering experiences rather than hotel rooms to meet currently visible societal trends and forming user demands?
The relevance for this study is provided by an increased demand for personalized, emotional experiences rather than standardized hotel room categories on which today’s hotel industry is widely based. To enable hotels to take an active role in shaping and controlling guest experiences, this study presents a theoretical vision of an Experience Based Booking and Selling (EBBS) model which is based on so-called extended service experiences. The model integrates a wide variety of features (room attributes, ancillaries, policies, and duration of stay) on different spatial levels (room, hotel, neighborhood, cooperation partners) throughout the guest’s whole user journey (Feature Pyramid). The features are individually combined according to a guest’s stated and non-communicable preferences and formed into hyper-personalized hotel room products.