Top Business Tools in the Hospitality Industry: 25 Trends for 2025

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 2025.

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 through the use of essential business tools.

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 rarely 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. This evolution is crucial for enhancing business operations, as it can streamline marketing strategies, improve customer engagement, and increase operational efficiency.

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.

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 the 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 as learned 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 a trend that’s been happening in the industry for a least the past five years, and I don’t see it slowing down anytime soon. In fact, the opposite.

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

Leveraging customer data and technology to initiate customized offerings and personalization could help 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 that do not contribute to relevance.

Dr Meng-Mei Maggie Chen, Assistant Professor of Marketing at EHL

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: customer relationship management (CRM) software to keep track of the data, and staff training to make sure they are collecting the information that matters to personalized interactions and marketing.

Dynamic pricing

Dynamic pricing is the practice of changing pricing depending on the demand for what you sell, often utilizing revenue management tools to optimize pricing and manage demand.

There’s some great insight from Jordan 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 of 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 a 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 not to be that effective.

There are probably hundreds of loyalty app companies for restaurants that have gone out of business in the 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.

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, leading to significant cost savings.

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.

The use of mobile check-in and contactless 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.

The cloud hotel property management system (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.

11. Tech enabled revenue management

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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Co-working spaces

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

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 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, particularly in task management.

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.

It can be challenging for prospective guests 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.

23. Hotel operations and management

Hotel operations and management are the backbone of any successful hospitality business. From front desk operations to housekeeping and maintenance, every aspect needs to run smoothly to ensure guest satisfaction. Property management systems (PMS) play a crucial role in this, helping manage room inventory, reservations, and guest information efficiently. These systems streamline processes, allowing staff to focus on providing exceptional service.

Revenue management systems (RMS) are equally important, enabling hotels to optimize pricing and maximize revenue. By analyzing market data and adjusting prices based on demand, hotels can ensure they are always competitive. Business intelligence tools further enhance this process by providing insights into market trends and guest preferences, allowing for informed decision-making.

Effective hotel operations and management require attention to detail, strong communication skills, and the ability to multitask. When done right, they lead to increased guest satisfaction, improved service quality, and higher revenue. Online reputation management tools are also essential, helping hotels monitor and manage online reviews, which can significantly impact their social media presence and overall reputation.