Skip to content
PsyServicesAcademy
Professional developmentIntermediate

Psychology in Hospitality, Tourism and Spa

Design guest experiences people remember, and teams that thrive while delivering them.

A professional course on guest expectations, memory, restorative environments, service recovery and emotional labour, built for hotels, resorts, spas and tourism teams.

Portrait of Dr. Elise Morel smiling against a light grey background

Led by Dr. Elise Morel

Founder and Lead Instructor

About this course

Every stay, treatment and excursion is a psychological experience before it is a commercial one. Guests arrive with expectations, move through moments of uncertainty and delight, and leave with a memory that decides whether they return and what they tell others.

This course brings together research on memory, choice, restoration, communication and emotion, and translates it into tools you can use on the floor, in the treatment room and in the planning meeting. You will map a real guest journey, redesign a space for calm, practise service recovery and build a wellbeing routine for the people who deliver the experience.

Lessons combine short video talks, written notes, downloadable worksheets and practical assignments reviewed personally by your instructor. Each lesson unlocks once the previous one is complete, so the course builds step by step towards a final exam and your certificate of completion.

What you will learn

  • Explain how expectations, choice and memory shape the way guests judge an experience
  • Map a guest journey and identify the moments that matter most
  • Apply research on restorative environments to the design of calm spaces
  • Use structured communication to recover trust after a service failure
  • Recognise emotional labour and build practical wellbeing routines for teams

Who this course is for

  • Hotel, resort and guest relations professionals
  • Spa therapists, managers and wellness coordinators
  • Tourism, excursion and destination teams
  • Hospitality students preparing for leadership roles

Curriculum

1The guest mindHow memory, expectation and choice shape every stay.
  1. 01

    Why psychology belongs in hospitality

    Experience versus memory, and why the end of a stay matters so much.

    Video lesson25 min

  2. 02

    Expectations, choice and the guest journey

    How expectations are formed, why too much choice can backfire, and how to map the moments that matter.

    Video lesson and quiz30 min1 download

2Designing restorative experiencesCalm spaces, clear communication and recovering trust when things go wrong.
  1. 03

    Restorative spaces and the psychology of calm

    What makes an environment restorative, and how attention can be invited to rest.

    Video lesson and assignment35 min1 download

  2. 04

    Communication, trust and service recovery

    Speaking so people listen, and turning a complaint into renewed trust.

    Video lesson and quiz30 min1 download

3Wellbeing behind the serviceEmotional labour, team wellbeing and bringing it all together.
  1. 05

    Emotional labour and team wellbeing

    The hidden work of managing emotions at work, and how teams can share the load.

    Video lesson and assignment35 min

  2. 06

    Designing experiences people remember

    Bringing memory, calm, recovery and kindness together into one experience blueprint.

    Video lesson25 min

Final exam: Psychology in Hospitality, Tourism and Spa

8 questions · pass mark 70% · 3 attempts

Assessment and certificate

How you are assessed

Two short quizzes, two practical assignments reviewed by your instructor, and a final exam of eight questions with a 70% pass mark and up to three attempts.

Certificate of completion

Complete all six lessons, have both assignments approved by your instructor and pass the final exam with 70% or higher. Your certificate is then issued automatically and can be verified online.

Issued automatically once you meet the conditions.

PsyServices Academy certificates confirm participation in or completion of an Academy course. Unless a course page explicitly states otherwise, they are not externally accredited qualifications.

Your instructor

Portrait of Dr. Elise Morel smiling against a light grey background

Dr. Elise Morel

Founder and Lead Instructor

PhD in Applied Psychology

Psychologist and educator who turns research on wellbeing, emotion and human experience into practical training for hospitality, wellness and education teams.