Neuromarketing in the hospitality industry as a tool for improving the economic efficiency of sales and promotion of hotel services

Abstract

The divergence between the steady growth of the average room rate and the decline in the occupancy of Russian hotels, recorded for the first time since 2019, sharpens the question of how to sustain room-fund profitability amid the shrinking price elasticity of demand. Traditional promotion channels relying on rational arguments and price competition exhaust their marginal return, whereas decisions on booking and on consuming additional services are largely shaped at a pre-explicit, sensory and emotional level. The aim of the work is to assess the economic effect of introducing a set of neuromarketing tools into the operating model of an accommodation facility. Using the author’s calculation model of a hotel enterprise with a room fund of 184 units, a scenario calculation is performed that compares the inertial trajectory with the trajectory of introducing sensory, pricing and interface tools; coefficient, factor (chain-substitution) and discount analysis are applied at a rate tied to the key rate of the Bank of Russia. The revenue increment attributable to the set amounts to 4,39% with an increase in revenue per available room of 207 rubles; the net present value of the project at a discount rate of 18% is estimated at 1,9 million rubles, the internal rate of return is about 23,5%, and the simple payback period is 2,89 years. The decomposition distributes the increment in room-fund income almost equally between occupancy and the average rate. The obtained relations show that neuromarketing functions as a mode of reconfiguring already existing contact points and the tariff architecture rather than as a separate advertising channel, and its return proves highly sensitive to the cost of capital.