If customer service is already excellent in a sector, how can a hotel differentiate itself from competitors?

Rin Yoon, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Iowa, determines this.

Rin Yoon is assistant professor of marketing at the Tippie College of Business, University of Iowa. She studies consumer psychology at the moment of transaction, with the goal of helping organizations design more effective incentives and payment environments. She holds a Ph.D. in Marketing from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University, a B.A. in Communication Studies, with a minor in Statistics, from UCLA, and an M.S. in Marketing from Korea University Business School.

When you hear the word, ‘hotel’, maybe you think of the soft robe, the Egyptian cotton sheets, the body wash bottles that somehow smell out of this world.

The hospitality industry, after all, is built on customer satisfaction. It’s hard to find any sector more obsessed with keeping customers happy. But here’s the catch: when every hotel already offers great service, satisfaction stops being a competitive advantage.

So what else makes guests become loyal to a hotel and write those five-star reviews?

Our research suggests it’s psychological ownership — that subtle feeling that a space is mine, even if it’s only for one night.

We analyzed thousands of TripAdvisor hotel reviews, ran a field study at a hotel, and simulated various check-in experiences, and found this -- guests who felt a greater sense of ownership of their rooms, were more likely to put more time and effort into endorsing the hotel, took better care of the space, and were more likely to remain loyal to the brand.

So our message to anyone in a market where satisfaction is no longer a differentiator but simply the floor is this: we can boost loyalty by making customers feel the product truly belongs to them. The best part? Psychological ownership is low-cost, easy to implement, and surprisingly powerful. For hotels trying to stand out in a sea of excellent service, turning “the room” into “my room” may just be the next big competitive edge.

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Rin Yoon, University of Iowa - Let Me Show You To Your Room

The Academic Minute

Rin Yoon, University of Iowa - Let Me Show You To Your Room