Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just Daydreaming? A Wake-Up Call

Today’s tourism and hospitality managers face new challenges in dealing with travelers who are part of digital natives, brought up in a three-dimensional (3D) world of virtual communication, visual complexity, and online identities. There are plenty of ways hotels can incorporate virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) into the guest experience, and new ones are coming virtually constantly. The current review has demonstrated that virtual hotels could play a significant role in the hospitality and accommodation business. It need not just be considered “a gimmick,” but it also contains “hidden gems” that are important to know in doing future business. Therefore, this paper aims to define and recognize basic insights into the concept, best practices, types, characteristics, and components of virtual hotels according to virtual hotel operator objectives that have been implemented. Various thoughts and viewpoints present important definitions, categorizations, and a component of virtual hotels. The virtual hotel is categorized into two main types according to the number of players (users): single user or multiusers. Furthermore, the group is divided into various virtual hotel forms where the single user had been identified from (1) virtual hotel simulators, (2) virtual hotel showrooms, (3) hotel add-on reality, and (4) self-guided virtual tours, and for multiusers, it can take several forms such as (1) hybrid co-working spaces, (2) meta-version hotels, and (3) standalone virtual hotel. A virtual hotel should not be considered a competitor to a physical hotel. The assimilation of the physical and the digital environment will reinforce each other. This review discusses the paradigm and practices of a virtual hotel and takes it a step further to see if the virtual hotel can be regarded as a hotel in its own right.