Mapping the consumer journey in the hotel industry: guest segmentation and experience evolution

Purpose Understanding the consumer journey is crucial in hospitality, where satisfaction, delight and loyalty depend on service quality. While customer journey mapping is popular, research often overlooks variations in customers’ thoughts and feelings across the stages of the customer journey. This study aims to fill that gap by analyzing the customer journey in luxury hotels, examining how rational and emotional factors that influence consumer delight, behavior and satisfaction evolve across each stage – from initial engagement to post-stay evaluations. Design/methodology/approach K-means clustering was used to segment consumers based on delight. Chi-square and ANOVA analysis facilitated assessment of variances between delight segments along the customer journey. Findings K-means clustering identified three guest delight segments: “Dissatisfied seekers,” “Content but cautious” and “Delighted advocates.” Results highlight differing decision-making factors, experiences and emotions encountered at various stages of the customer journey by each segment, indicating the need to develop tailored service delivery strategies. Research limitations/implications This study was conducted in the luxury hotel segment in Istanbul, which may limit generalizability. Future research should replicate this study across different geographical regions and hotel categories to explore cultural variations and broader applicability. Longitudinal studies could assess how emotional engagement evolves across multiple stays. The focus of this research is luxury hotels; future studies could explore whether delight-driven segmentation applies to other hospitality segments, such as mid-range or budget hotels and alternative accommodations. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first holistic analysis of the entire consumer journey in the luxury hotel sector – from pre-stay decision-making through onsite experiences to post-stay evaluations. While previous studies have typically examined individual touchpoints or a single outcome variable, this research integrates both emotional and rational factors; segments guests based on their behavior and satisfaction profiles; and identifies critical touchpoints that influence both customer satisfaction and loyalty. It contributes to luxury hotel experience management theory and provides practitioners with concrete recommendations to improve each stage of the guest journey.