Effects of spatial colors on guests’ perceptions of a hotel room

Color is one of the key visual dimensions of the environment that has an impact on behavior and emotions. The emotional effect of color is particularly important in the hospitality industry because emotions comprise a powerful affective component of customer satisfaction. However, to date, no empirical research on the role of color in shaping hotel guests’ perceptions has been conducted. The purpose of the current study was to understand the relationship between color attributes and the perception of a hotel room. The differences between two contrast hues (blue and red) with two levels for saturation and brightness were examined in an experimental study. The study adopts virtual reality techniques to provide a deep emersion of the participants in the manipulated hotel room’s design settings. The results indicated red hotel rooms were associated with the highest arousal levels among participants. However, participants enjoyed staying in blue hotel rooms more than in the red ones.