In today's competitive tourism industry, providing customers with memorable and satisfying experiences plays a critical role in the sustainable success of businesses. In particular, thermal hotels offer an experience that targets both the physical and mental health of customers with their unique services. In this context, experiential marketing practices in thermal hotels have significant impacts on customer satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth communication. Experiential marketing is an approach that enables customers not only to consume a product or service but also to have unique and satisfying experiences in the process. This customer-experience-centered marketing strategy is critical to increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

The main purpose of this study is to examine in depth the experiential marketing perceptions of 4 and 5 star thermal hotel customers in Afyonkarahisar province and to evaluate the effects of these perceptions on customer satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth communication. In order to keep the scope of the research wide, it was aimed to reach at least 384 participants based on a 95% confidence interval and a 5% margin of error, and the analysis process was carried out with 420 questionnaires in total.

The convenience sampling method used in the study enabled a large sample group to be reached by providing fast and economical data collection. Analyses of the obtained data revealed that the sensory and emotional dimensions of experiential marketing have positive and statistically significant effects on customer satisfaction, revisit intention, and word-of-mouth communication. In particular, it was observed that an increase in the sensory and emotional experience dimensions significantly increased customer satisfaction and loyalty. In addition, an increase in the relational experience dimension was also found to positively affect customer satisfaction.

These findings suggest that by strengthening experiential marketing strategies, thermal hotels can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, thereby improving business performance through positive word-of-mouth. This study highlights the importance of experiential marketing for thermal hotel businesses and provides an important guide to understanding and improving customer behavior.