The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on customer experience design: The hotel managers’ perspective

•Hotel managers are investing in both physical and digital firm-controlled touchpoints to create safe customer experiences.•The main expected effects of the Covid-19 safety measures on the intended customer experience comprise reassurance, quickness, intimacy, and proximity.•Technology and digital innovations improve the overall hotel experience by enabling customers to have a fast and efficient service delivery.•The restrictions and reorganizations deriving from the hotels’ response to the pandemic can help hotels to redefine a new normal with positive effects on the intended customers experience over time.•The lessons learned from dealing with this unprecedented crisis will serve as a reference for hotels in case of future outbreaks. This research responds to calls for research on the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry by investigating how hotel managers are designing safe customer experiences. Specifically, this study examines the measures adopted in high-end and luxury hotels and identifies the effects of such measures on the intended (or planned) experience. Based on thematic analysis of interviews with hotel managers, this study identifies seven safety measures: hygiene and protection, internal work reorganization, servicescape reorganization, investments in technology and digital innovations, customer wait time reorganization, staff training, and updated communication. These measures are expected to affect the intended experience in terms of reassurance, quickness, intimacy, and proximity, as emerged from correspondence factor analysis. Based on these results, this research proposes a model for safe customer experience design and suggests practical implications to help hotel managers formulate strategies aimed at customer experience creation under safe conditions.