Top 22 Trends in the Hospitality Industry for 2024

Over the years, I've spoken with many hospitality professionals who agree: a hotel is more than just a place to stay. It's a brand, an experience, and a haven that evokes emotions in its guests.

Hospitality brands excel at creating memorable experiences that foster loyalty and repeat visits. While some trends, like virtual reality, have fizzled out, innovations like mobile technology have revolutionized the industry.

As we move towards a more digitalized society, hospitality remains a balance of tech innovation for efficiency and human connection for authentic experiences. With robust growth projected in sectors like bleisure and wellness, the hospitality industry is poised for significant transformation in 2024.

This sets the stage for discussing emerging trends driven by technology, evolving consumer preferences, and sustainability—a formula for enhancing guest experiences and ensuring long-term success.

Why do we care about hospitality trends?  

Most hospitality trends that make a difference to operators are more subtle and harder to spot. I've learned to largely ignore big, buzzy trends as they almost always never change anyone's behavior, (or make anyone more money.)

But trends, particularly technology trends, are important for hospitality operators to keep track of because as trends change, companies need to evolve to remain competitive and attractive to potential guests.

With marketing, keeping up with the latest trends will give you the best possible chance of reaching your target audience - and doing it a lot faster. 

Trends need to be understood for what they are - ideas you can use, ignore and develop.

"Following a trend is useful, until you start alienating the original. The last thing we want is to live in a world where everything is the same. Originality and individuality is key.”

 

― J.S. Strange

Many times I've heard stories of brands or operators investing six figures into some new technology only to realize a year later it was a complete waste of money - don't let that be you!

My advice - follow trends but be critical and use them creatively.

With that said, I've compiled a list of best trends in the hospitality and restaurant industry right now. I've spoken to experts on restaurant technology in Eat App like Joseph Boston and Nezar Kadhem, as well learnings from marketing and operations experts like Dawn Gribbles, Michael “schatzy” Schatzberg and Shawn Walchef.

These are the best hotel and hospitality trends that are aimed at efficiency, enhancing the guest experience, and boosting revenue.

Rich guest data and personalization

Personalization driven by rich guest data is trend that's been happening in the industry for a least the past five years and I don't see it slowing down any time soon. In fact the opposite. 

As Dr Meng-Mei Maggie Chen, Assistant professor of Marketing at EHL says:  

"Hoteliers cannot afford to give up though and must stay relevant.

Leveraging customer data and technology to initiate customized offerings and personalization could help to make them more relevant.

However, when some industry experts advocate personalization, somehow the suggested solutions tend to be more related to selling upgrades or improving their e-mail marketing – precisely the kinds of activities which do not contribute to relevance."

It's not about trying to upsell guests with add-ons, it's about providing a memorable experience that drives loyalty and customer satisfaction.

Examples include asking returning hotel guests if you'd like to book them an experience they liked last time, or reserving a particular spot, lounger etc they enjoyed last time. This is ultimately the holy grail of personalization and data.

According to research from McKinsey Consulting, 71% of buyers expect personalized experiences and to get there hospitality businesses require two things - CRM software to keep track of the data, and staff training to make sure you are collecting the information that really matters to personalized interactions and marketing. 

Dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing pricing depending on the demand for what you sell.

There's some great insight from Jorden Hollander, CEO of Hotel Tech Report about dynamic pricing, its potential impact on RevPar and how to implement it here. 

Dynamic pricing is also a trend becoming more common in restaurants. Here for example hospitality influencer Shwan Walchef discusses dynamic pricing with a tool called Juicer

All hospitality businesses that run F&B will look into this type approach more - especially when the pricing is dynamically changing with low friction for the end user.

New loyalty marketplaces

Loyalty in the hospitality industry is usually about locking in the customer to single brand with points, bonuses and exclusives - especially at Hotels. Name me one hotel brand that doesn't have a loyalty program? 

But in other parts of the hospitality industry the landscape is less clear. Restaurant loyalty programs tend to me not that effective.

There are probably hundreds of loyalty app companies for restaurants that have gone out of business in last 10 years. This is mainly because outside of lunch spots in big cities - we just don't eat at the same restaurant all that often.

There are some new ideas coming to the loyalty world and I would bet on them becoming a trend in the coming years.

One is decentralized loyalty like Blackbird. A company started by industry heavy weight Ben Leventhal, which he describes as:

"Blackbird will be the first decentralized platform built especially for the hospitality industry, Unlike legacy rewards marketplaces which maroon and lock earned points, the Blackbird protocol will eventually allow users to take the points they earn anywhere they go on public blockchains."

Basically, its a seamless way to earn credit you can use at multiple restaurants - enabled by Blockchain. 

Sustainability

Increasingly, customers are concerned with environmental issues and want to know that the businesses they deal with are behaving ethically.

For this reason, sustainability has been one of the most noticeable hospitality marketing trends of recent times, with a growing number of hospitality businesses promoting their eco-friendliness.

Examples of this range from restaurants promoting their vegetarian and vegan options, to hotels that use smart light bulbs and smart heating to save energy.

Within the accommodation sector, there are also decisions to be made about using more sustainable materials for things like towels and bedsheets.

You can see this trend really developing with industry leader Radisson's goal of standardizing sustainability in hotels. 

Will AI be a hospitality trend?

There plenty of ways AI could speed up work in the future for hotels and restaurants in all aspects from planning to marketing but the impact is likely to be marginal. 

We've written about Chat GPT and AI in hospitality before at Eat App. I think it will have some impact as a trend but probably much smaller than a lot of people are predicting - especially when it comes to guest experience. 

Hospitality Industry Trend 2024 Survey

What is the future of hospitality in the short term? We surveyed hospitality leaders at Eat App with a combined 100+ years experience of in building technology for the hospitality industry.

Overall, our experts suggest the following advice for the industry:

1. Personalization is a major focus

Learning how to implement proper personalization and marketing strategies, is direction the industry is moving in - and customers are expecting it.

2. Training, training, training

Joseph Boston, VP of product at Eat App works with hundreds of operators and front-line staff every quarter.

He suggests that "training is crucial for success. In a business with high staff turn over the ability to train fast and effectively is a key differentiators between OK and runaway success.   

3. Deploy technology to improve efficiency

The hotel experience will be deeply intertwined with technology, not only within the confines of guest rooms but also before and after the journey. As a result businesses must consider technology at every touchpoint.

4. Air BnB will Decline, Hotels will Rise

A respondent said that“hospitality operators should quickly try and capitalize on the decline of Air BnB - a service which is now expensive and underwhelming. Differentiating on experience can be the key driver here." 

5. Sustainability

Sustainability is a major trend in all industries, and the hospitality industry is no exception. Hotels and resorts are increasingly looking for ways to reduce their environmental impact, through sustainable practices such as using renewable energy, sourcing local food, and reducing waste. It's all about attracting guests!

Smaller trends in hospitality

I've noticed a few more trends over the past year and expect these to continue.

1. Localized guest services

Hoteliers can use location-based services to create personalized, localized experiences that are the hallmark of modern travel. 

2. Mobile enabled check-ins

The use of mobile check-in has many benefits for both hotels and their visitors. The availability of mobile check-in via the hotel app does away with the need to maintain a large reception desk.

While staff members are free to handle other tasks, hotels can free up space for luggage storage, common areas, and branded merchandise counters.

With mobile check-in, guests won't have to wait in line at the front desk, which can be essential for business travelers and families with young children. 

3. Automated guest messaging

Using the right integrated management system at your hotel can enable automatic guest messaging campaigns or allow you to export rich guest data to be used for external marketing.

4. Contactless payments

Contactless payments are one of the most popular technological trends in the hospitality sector because they have many benefits for hotels, resorts, restaurants, bars, and cafes.

5. Cloud PMS

The cloud hotel PMS is a piece of software that includes various modules and features to automate every aspect of your hotel's operations. I expect it to become more and more common. 

Note: If you use the right restaurant management software at your hotel properties, your PMS can be integrated to give rich insight into every one of your diners at a glance. 

6. Tech enabled revenue management

The foundation of a hotel's pricing strategy is a revenue management system. The sophistication of these systems will only increase and enable fine tuned pricing and optimization for small hotels as well as large brands.

7. Chatbots

Driving direct bookings is just one of the many uses that chatbots can be put to. Customer service is likely to be disrupted in some capacity AI and ChatGPT style chatbots but I'm skeptical it will revolutionize hotel customer service.

8. Smart energy management

Occupancy changes can be tracked and handled by smart thermostats and occupancy sensors.

The same goes for smart energy management systems, which continuously analyze historical thermodynamics, regional weather patterns, and peak demand loads to optimize energy consumption in real-time, all year long.

9. Co-working spaces

A lot of hotels are building some kind of co-working option beyond a cafe into their hotels.

The NEST by Wyndham is a great example of this. It encourages engagement with the brand, adds an extra source of revenue for example by cross selling the Spa to the Co-working space subscribers.

I predict we will see a lot more of this but success will depend a lot on location.

10. Predictive property analytics

As the saying goes, information is power. The software and devices will generate more and more data about how visitors interact with staff and amenities across the campus as more technology is added to enhance the guest experience.

11. Robots 

I don't expect robots to have a massive impact in areas like check-in or carrying bags like some are predicting, but I do think a huge trend will be robots in F&B and restaurants.

The technology here makes much more sense where the actual cooking and preparation of food is not a customer facing part of a hospitality business.

12. Booking on mobile devices

Would you be able to survive without your smartphone if you had to make a last-minute hotel reservation in a strange and foreign location?

Smartphones have significantly influenced how people interact with the outside world, and in many situations, their popularity surpasses that of desktop computers due to their simplicity and convenience.

13. Virtual reality

It can be challenging for travelers to picture their upcoming vacation rental before they depart.

How can owners of boutique hotels in Santorini effectively convey to prospective customers the carefully curated charm of their establishment?

Virtual reality (VR) technology allows businesses to give prospective customers first-person digital tours of their space. 

In order to highlight the hotel's key features, Atlantis Dubai for example offers a virtual tour. The advantage: VR encourages potential travelers to daydream about experiencing amenities before they travel.

A Tourism Management study by Sage found that VR enhances the brand experience by increasing the elaboration of mental imagery and presence in comparison to other virtual tours.

VR is a definitely a trend - but will it be revolutionary? In my experience I have my doubts.

14. Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance enables hoteliers to use sensor data to identify wasteful or hazardous trends and alert maintenance staff before a specific issue escalates into a much more expensive one. 

15. Smart reserved parking

Nowadays, hotels can use sophisticated sensors and hotel-specific apps to let visitors reserve parking spaces in advance and have those spaces assigned to them when they arrive.

16. Online review management

Online reviews of a hotel not only aid in forecasting future reservations, but also give owners important information about how well a facility met visitors' expectations. 

17. Gamified travel planning

The world is more desperate than ever for spontaneity because cabin fever is at an all-time high.

In order to make travel planning less of a chore and more of a guilty pleasure as people think about their next getaway, hospitality companies can use gamification, which involves incorporating game design elements into non-game contexts.

Conclusion

In conclusion, hospitality technology is a rapidly growing and evolving field that encompasses a wide range of technologies and tools used by the hospitality industry to enhance the guest experience, streamline operations, and improve efficiency.

Some of the key trends in this field include the increasing use of AI restaurant software and machine learning, mobile technology, VR and AR, and data analytics and reporting tools.

However, it is important for hotels to strike a balance between the use of technology and the personal interactions that guests expect.

Frequently asked questions about trends in hospitality industry

What are 3 major trends in today's hotel industry?

1. Rich guest data and personalization: According to research from McKinsey Consulting, 71% of buyers expect personalized experiences and to get there hospitality businesses require two things - CRM software to keep track of the data, and staff training to make sure you are collecting the information that really matters to personalized interactions and marketing.

2. Dynamic pricing: Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing pricing depending on the demand for what you sell.

3. Artificial intelligence: There plenty of ways AI could speed up work in the future for hotels and restaurants in all aspects from planning to marketing.

What is the future of hospitality in 2024?

The hotels are expected to adopt green technologies to become more environmentally friendly in the coming years. Another initiative is installing LED lighting, using recyclable material and energy-efficient appliances.

How is technology used in the hospitality industry?

Cloud technology is a common technology used by hospitality industry professionals and includes Cloud computing functions. Payment via mobile phone. Payment by phone. Contactless booking in/out.

Is technology the future of hospitality?

Future of hospitality focuses on enhancing guest services and personal experience while improving business models. Technology will continue routine operations, allowing employees to offer personalized services they could not commit to.

What is digital technology in hospitality industry?

Digital adoption in hospitality consists of the implementation and use of different digital solutions, such as online reservation systems, digital menus, contactless payment and hotel management tools.