The hotel industry is saturated with promises of personalised service. Here are two examples pulled at random. The new Hilton AI Planner is laying the groundwork for “even more personalised experiences.” IHG says a new Kimpton opening in Qatar will offer: “the personalised, experience-rich stay that today’s discerning travelers seek.”
The rhetoric and reality
The personalisation promise is not confined to luxury but exists across the chain scale. However, according to research, there is a gap between the rhetoric and reality.
A 2024 study by research company Medallia of 3,654 hotel guests and retail consumers found that 61% were willing to spend more for a customised experience, yet more than half recalled past experiences where brands had promised a personalised experience and then failed to deliver. Only 23% of participants reported receiving meaningful personalisation during recent hotel stays.
Guests are less likely to recall personalisation during the actual hotel stay itself and more likely to report personalised service when making the booking and after the stay, says the survey.
A report on technology investment trends by Amadeus says: “Hotels must personalise their offerings to match the individual wants and needs of the customer, while maintaining brand identity and keeping operating costs low.” Fragmented tech stacks and labour shortages and turnover are major barriers to delivering personalisation, finds the report.
It is interesting to note the use of language here: Amadeus, a technology company, telling hotels what they “must” do.
Service delivery
The boundless enthusiasm for personalisation from tech firms and hotel marketing departments is not necessarily shared by owners, investors, and operators. Hoteliers may be sceptical for good reason.
Higher operating costs are putting hotels under pressure to maintain basic service standards, according to a U.S. based guest satisfaction survey. In this context, personalised service will be a secondary concern.
“We’re starting to see some challenges emerge where guest satisfaction is faltering, particularly for quality of food and beverage, the cleanliness of dining areas, and the facilities upkeep of pools, fitness centers, and laundry areas,” said Andrea Stokes, hospitality practice lead at JD Power.
Know your guest
A deeper look at personalisation exposes just how complicated and contentious it is.
Firstly, it is often overlooked, but not all hotel guests want personalised service. Some dislike hotels collecting or using personal data. In some cultures, overly personal service feels intrusive, and not everyone wants to be ‘known’ or engaged; they want neutrality. Guests may prefer good, consistent, standard service over anything tailored.
Furthermore, the ROI from personalisation is not always evident. Hospitality strategist and advisor Matthias Huettebraeuker recalls working with a major airline to increase online recognition of individual passengers: “You log in to the general website and it knows who you are and if you have a flight to Barcelona, it will tell you that you have 48 hours until departure and what you need to do.”
A straightforward capability, but in the end, the airline decided against it because the ROI was not clear. It was expensive and its effectiveness was partly undermined by EU data laws that delete personal data after six months.
Crossing the creepy line
Still, the message to hoteliers for the past decade has been to collect more data, know more about your guests, and personalise every interaction. This is far easier said than done.
Owners and investors need to pay for the infrastructure necessary for personalisation, and operators must absorb the operational complexity, compliance and security, staff training, and the risks of getting it wrong.
Vibhu Gaind, CIO, RBH Hospitality Management, commented: “Knowing a guest’s birthday might be okay but anything more than that may be too much information. It’s about getting the balance right between targeted marketing and getting creepy.”
Some hotels have already crossed that line. At an industry event, the chef and TV presenter Monica Galetti described arriving at a luxury property to find framed photos of her friends and family in her room. “How did they get those photos?” she wondered. “It was quite creepy.” What the hotel apparently intended as a ‘wow’ moment only caused discomfort.
People change
Knowing more about your guests is a challenge because people change. A guest who enjoyed champagne last year may be teetotal today.
“Personalisation of processes is fine [i.e. auto-filled forms based on recognition] because it removes friction, whereas predictive personalisation based on what we have done in the past hardly ever works,” said Huettebraeuker.
Even for an organisation with vast amounts of data, Amazon’s predictive personalisation does not amount to much: buy a book by Ken Follett and the algorithm recommends more books by the same author.
Which leads to a wider point about predictive personalisation as an enemy of discovery. Algorithms tailor news and content, based only on what we have viewed in the past, inevitably narrowing our exposure to other points of view or subjects, and keeping us in an ‘echo chamber.’
Such narrowness is anathema to travel and tourism and the desire for new experiences, said Huettebraeuker: “If we look back at our best memories of hospitality and travelling, chances are they had nothing to do with personalisation.”
“We want to experience stuff that is outside of ourselves. Open my horizons as opposed to keeping me in the prison that you think is my preference.”
SOPs versus intuition
While the principle that guests want to be treated as individuals is valid, it is misguided to think this can be done with a technological tool, he reckoned.
“If you don’t take care of me, the CRM will not make things better. Treat me like another human being. That means listening, observing, being present in the moment, rather than following a SOP.”
He offered an example: a solo guest at aperitivo hour, visibly miserable, with an empty wine glass. The SOP response is to offer another drink. The human response is to take her to see the sunset and spend a few minutes with her.
To assess investments in personalisation, owners should ask the following: is the ROI clear? If personalisation requires new training and new data collection processes, the benefits must outweigh the time and money invested.
Does it align with the identity and positioning of the asset? A boutique hotel built on artistry and atmosphere may not need personalisation, whereas a large resort with repeat guests might benefit from it.
“Rethink your service design. The idea of creating personal experiences is a good one. Try to do it by being human and not by investing in software,” suggested Huettebraeuker.
By Ben Walker
