Everybody understands that music affects us profoundly, it alters our mood and creates or triggers rich memories, it is no wonder then that music has a big impact on guests when implemented in hotels.

In this e-book we will shed some light on the workings of music in the hospitality business. We will share scientific insights on the influence of music and translate these into some practical do’s and dont's.

The Atmosphere

Hotels are in the experience business. From the moment guests check in, until they leave a review of their stay on social media, it is all an experience-based customer journey. It is tempting to think of individual parts of this journey as separate elements; interior design, service staff, atmospheric scent, room cleanliness, etc.

It is important to understand that this is not how our minds work when it comes to evaluating an experience.

A simple example: If we ask you to focus on the feeling of the soles of your feet on the ground right now, you will notice a bunch of subtle sensations.

Temperature, texture, humidity, a tiny itch perhaps. If we had not asked you to focus on these sensations, you would not have noticed consciously. Still, these sensations would have influenced your current mood and experience nonetheless.

Our minds are masters at taking a massive amount of sensory input and summarizing, deducting, simplifying and distilling until we have a comprehensive and manageable “overall sensation”.

Back to the hotel practice. Music is not just an element that you might add or leave out, if only to keep your staff entertained. It is a major influencer of the overall image people form of your business, as shown by a scientific study back in 2007 (Morin, Dubé & Chebat).

Time and again, studies show how music influences our mood, evaluation of service, purchasing behavior, loyalty and many more variables.

The most important factor to keep in mind is to make the music suitable to the context and situation. With modern technology, it is now easier than ever to pipe different music styles to different parts of your venue to make every interaction with your guests count.

Some concrete ideas to make it work can be viewed here.