Michelin Key recognition and hotel evaluation: The roles of perceived transferred essence and travel distance

This research investigates how Michelin Key recognition shapes consumer judgment in the hotel context. Across five experiments, participants evaluated fictitious hotels that either received or did not receive Michelin Key recognition, with variations in signal strength and travel distance. The results show that Michelin Key recognition increases attitude toward the hotel. This effect is consistently mediated by perceived transferred essence, defined as the belief that a hotel experience embodies a coherent and intentionally designed identity. This mediating role persists when perceived prestige and expected service quality are modeled as competing mediators. The mechanism emerges even in a mid-range hotel context designed to minimize explicit luxury cues, indicating that Michelin Key recognition operates beyond luxury-based inferences. The effect is further amplified when the hotel is framed as geographically distant, consistent with Construal Level Theory, through strengthened perceived transferred essence. Overall, Michelin Key functions as a meaning-oriented signal in pre travel hotel evaluation, shaping how consumers interpret the identity and coherence of the stay experience.