Psychology In Hospitality Management

Undoubtedly, psychology has a broad perspective in Hospitality Management. If we consider that the main subject of this career is to keep people comfortable and happy then we automatically step into the realm of human psychology. That science has tried to understand the mind from different perspectives until it present focus on behaviour as a tool to understand how the mind works and how it can be directed to mental states of more well-being. In Hospitality, our mission is to bring the best to our guests in order to make them feel safe, assisted and boosted to have a good experience in the place they are visiting. There is a double mission behind our efforts to cater to client’s needs: on one hand to make them feel relaxed but on the other

From this two topics, two inner concepts are going to be analysed and relate to hospitality management career in a detailed manner. Psychology had reflected on the mutual interaction of these two topics and the complex dynamics they have in our minds. Sensation is defined as the process of sensing our environment through physical senses, namely, touch, taste, sight, sound and smell. On the other hand, perception is seen as “the way we interpret these sensations in our mind and make sense of everything our physical sense capture”. (1) Therefore, the concept of the “5 senses” and how it relates to the Hospitality Management industry is going to be analysed. This way, starting from the process of attracting guests to our hotel or guesthouse we need to show all the advantages we offer. Here, we are not simply talking about aspects that bring the idea of a neutral pleasant stay but aspects that are related to the environment where we are located. Through advertisement, people will form a perception and use their visual and hearing senses to realize and make up an idea of the type of establishment we are and the services we provide. It is our mission to complete that experience when they arrive and we can offer a more varied set of sensorial elements of our place. For example, having an incredible and pleasant smell on the hotel lobby will reinforce the smell sense of the guests, or even having a good massage on the hotels spa will take their sense of touch. On the other hand, the delightful taste of our banquet and restaurants food will reinforce and increase the sense of taste in our guests. This is one first element in which psychology should assist us with ideas that guide us how to make people and guests feel good. As the next step, guests will complete a perception about out place. That perception is certainly defined by the way they sense their stay in our hotel within their mind,