Managing brand experience and reputation in the hotel business

Abstract

As “the business of brands”, with more than 300 brands worldwide, the hotel industry has been focused on brand experience since the development and expansion of international brands over the last few decades. New brands and brand extensions with numerous tiers, namely sub-brands, extend from luxury to economy chains, offering a wide variety of accommodation facilities within various contexts of experiential dimensions. On the other hand, hotel groups extend the borders of experience to encourage their customers to create and share their stories through social media (SM) as a means of reputation management. In this context, this chapter first explains the concept of brand experience, with its distinct angles in the hotel industry given its principal role within tourism – which is, in essence, an experiential industry. Second, it presents the relationship between brand experience and reputation management with reference to the use of SM. Finally, these issues are examined in the case of Hilton Worldwide, one of the leading international hotel groups with 17 brands operating in 117 countries.