Exploring customer experience in luxury hotels in Thailand.

Abstract

It has been widely argued that in the tourism and hospitality industry, reliable products delivered with competent and friendly service are becoming hygiene factors, and differentiation occurs in the basis of customer experience. With the rise of the Experience Economy coined by Pine and Gilmore in 1998, a new economic era in which every business is a stage, companies must design memorable events for outstanding customer experience and satisfaction. We argue that the best people to define customer experience are the customers and with the ever powerful online communication such as Trip Advisor, we could gather details of customer experience in these sites. This paper via exploratory approach aims to explore customer experience in luxury hotels in Bangkok, differentiated between heritage and design hotels using the reviews entered by customers in Trip Advisor in 2013. Using these secondary data, two key analysis methods; triangulation process and mind mapping can help identify key drivers that drive customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction through their experience staying in the hotel. Implications are made at the end of the paper to focus on these key drivers in order for customer experience improvements. Future research recommendations for customer experience study are also suggested.

KEY WORDS: Customer