In the face of low or flat rate growth, hotels will turn to ecommerce, actionable data insights, and generative AI to maintain profitability.
What’s on the cards for hotel performance 2025? More low rate growth, a slightly more positive outlook for RevPAR in the US than in Europe, but what seems sure is that hotels will not be able to count on the increases seen during the immediate post-pandemic bounce.
“Hotels will have to be more creative in adapting to different ways of working without impacting on customer service, to combat rising costs so as not to hit the bottom line,” said Robert Holland, managing director UK & Ireland, HotelPartner Revenue Management.
“We expect to see hotels working to leverage their guest data and create revenue strategies tailored to their properties, drawing on their experience of the local area and collaborating with technology to drive profitability."
Ecommerce
One particular focus is to follow the ecommerce path and capture more ancillary revenue at the booking stage.
Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa, Interlaken, Switzerland, ran a digital marketing campaign to increase ancillary spend on items like spa treatments, kids clubs, room amenities, and afternoon tea. The return on ad spend was 17 to one, and the property generated an additional $34,000 in six weeks.
Lux Le Morne Resort, Mauritius, offers experiences including swimming with wild dolphins and a 500 candles dinner. At the room booking stage, the resort generated $27,000 in ancillary revenue during 2024.
Both of these hotels work with Sabre’s retail growth team to configure their websites and run conversion campaigns. Sabre said that on average its EMEA hotels receive $275 in ancillary spend per booking.
Other providers of ecommerce services include Journey and Profitroom. Journey’s ecommerce platform reportedly increases average order value by 10 per cent. Profitroom says it can integrate targeted deals without the need for manual intervention, for instance, recognizing guests booking two-person weekend stays over Valentine’s day are receptive to romantic getaway deals or family bookings targeted with ‘kids eat free’ deals.
Actionable data
Moving on from the specifics of shopping carts and the initial booking stage, business intelligence (BI) will play an ever more important role in hotel operations.
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