You’ve Perfected the Luxury Hospitality Experience. So Why Doesn’t the Story Feel the Same?

As a leader in hospitality that is obsessed with creating the most incredible client experience, you know that immersion is a key factor for predicting loyalty and spend. Very rarely can other aspects outside of the experience itself be controlled to create immersion.

We know that guests that feel emotionally connected are far more likely to return, recommend, and even forgive minor flaws. The memory of the stay becomes relational, not transactional. They often don't remember the room, but how they felt.

Immersed guests are also more emotionally invested, and thus, more willing to spend to extend, enhance or repeat the experience. Because they're in a more emotinoal state, they're less price-sensitive.

When we look at psych journals on storytelling or UX design studies, increased immersion correlates with higher purchase intent and longer engagement windows. In hospitality, this translates to longer stays, upsells, and increased spend per guest.

Everything that comes before the experience in luxury hospitality — the marketing, the branding — these aspects typically do not create immersion.

But what if they could?

What if you could start integrating something into your strategy that creates an equivalent amount of depth, care, belonging, and immersion, something that represents the emotional frequency experienced during the stay?

If I said the word 'storytelling' to you, you probably don't realise the depths to which storytelling can go.

But a key aspect of a well-told story is creating what's known as 'narrative transportation'.

Narrative transportation happens when structure creates momentum, characters create empathy, and emotional specificity creates resonance — anchored in sensory realism and subtext that mirrors our deepest truths.

Narrative transportation is the psychological state where the individual becomes so absorbed in the story that they lose awareness of their surroundings and emotionally enter the narrative

Sounds awfully like an incredible 5-star experience, if you ask me. And is another reason, as a luxury hotel or hospitality group, why stories are your strongest untapped asset.

The 8 Core Ingredients of Narrative Transportation

That your marketing is in desperate need of...

1. A Character-First Approach

People don’t connect to properties or products, they connect to people. At IMPACT, our films are built around real characters, not pretty visuals. A former monk turned designer. A Michelin-star chef bringing soul to a resort. These characters are the emotional access point for the audience. They are the story.

2. A Story Arc That Builds Emotional Momentum

Our signature 6-act structure is designed to mimic the emotional arc of transformation. It starts with a hook, dives into desire and conflict, poses a central question, and escalates toward resolution, before landing with a final emotional jab tailored to the desired marketing outcome.

3. Conflict and Desire

Possibly the most important aspect needed to create narrative transportation. There is no story without stakes. We follow characters because they want something, and because something stands in the way. That tension builds investment from your audience.

4. Transformation

We’re wired to seek resolution. What matters isn’t just what happens, it’s how a person or place changes. If no one grows, we’re left untouched. I know that at IMPACT we're big on oxytocin, but this is where dopamine plays a part. We want our audience to feel rewarded for sticking it out to the end, having invested to see the transformation. And you can't do that with weak characters.

6. Sensory Immersion

Visuals, sound, silence, light and pacing are not afterthoughts, but are tools of immersion. Every interview question is intended to tell the uncovered story across 6 acts. And every act is accompanied by visuals that align with the story. Shooting random visuals that don't align with the message being said by the character create a subconscious disconnect. When our visuals are aligned, the viewer is more immersed.

Why It Matters

As you well know, immersion isn’t created through aesthetics alone. A beautiful brand without meaningful stories is like a stunning hotel with no soul. It might photograph well, but it won’t be remembered.

If luxury hospitality is ultimately about transformation through experience, then storytelling is how you pre-create that transformation in the mind. It’s how you prepare the heart before the guest ever walks through your doors.