Metaverse applications in hotel chains: value creation and value capture mechanisms

How hotel chains are using immersive technologies (ITs), in particular the metaverse, remains an overlooked issue. This work aims at showing how ITs allow companies to create and capture value, integrating it into business models. Applying a qualitative method based on case studies, interviews, and observations, results show the mechanisms through which companies can integrate ITs in their business models to create and capture value. We found that these mechanisms are related to two areas, such as customer engagement and resource management. Metaverse can improve customer engagement by working as a means that allows pre-stay visualization, enriching tourism experience, MICE and events remote planning, new customer segment engagement, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) exploitation for loyalty programs, and events selling. It also works as a means to improve resource management by facilitating employee recruitment and training, integrating metaverse experiences, exploring novel offerings, and capturing web3 potentialities.