Guest experience in hospitality: Trends and best practices

Guest experience typically refers to the overall experience guests receive from a business and is often used in the hospitality industry. The guest experience includes everything from check in to check out but also extends beyond, to interactions before and after the stay.

• First impressions: How guests are welcomed, the environment, and the initial interaction with staff.

• Service quality: Consistency and personalization in meeting guest needs.

• Comfort and convenience: Ease of access, physical comfort, and smooth processes.

• Emotional connection: Making guests feel valued by remembering their preferences and acknowledging their loyalty without them having to ask.

• Problem resolution: Quickly addressing issues with empathy and accountability.

Guest experience is a critical aspect of guest satisfaction. Businesses can meet expectations by offering experiences that are tailored to guest preferences.  

When you recognize what guests want, and respond before they even have to ask, you create a sense of care, making each guest feel valued.

Strong guest experience management helps hospitality brands stand out, earn loyalty, build a trusted reputation, and support sustainable growth and profitability over time.

1. Unified commerce

Guests now expect a consistent experience regardless of location. Unified commerce connects every transaction, whether at the spa, the restaurant, or the front desk, into a single profile. This allows hotels to recognize a guest and offer their preferred payment method in Sydney just as easily as in Tokyo.

2. Self check-ins

According to our latest Hospitality Report, 13% of travelers say they avoid returning to a hotel because the check in and check out processes take too long. To solve this, properties are turning to self-service technology. Digital kiosks and mobile apps now let guests handle check-ins and checkouts on their own, quickly verifying their ID, collecting their room key, and heading straight to their room without waiting in a lobby line.

3. Guest recognition

Modern digital tools now allow hotels to elevate their loyalty programs by identifying guests at every touchpoint. Instead of relying on physical cards or outdated apps, properties can deliver personalized rewards, special rates, and exclusive benefits, giving travelers a genuine VIP experience from the moment they arrive.

4. Card-on-file

Card-on-file technology allows guests to authorize charges once, activating 'invisible' transactions for future purchases like room service or late-night snacks. By using tokenization, hotels can provide this convenience without ever storing sensitive raw data on their own servers.

5. Pay at table

Guests crave convenience. Mobile point of sale terminals (mPOS) provide flexible experiences for both staff and guests. As long as there is an internet connection, staff can move around and accept payments anywhere, for instance at the table, which is a key trend in the hospitality industry.

The most effective way to improve the experience is to centralize guest touchpoints. When booking, check-in, and on-site spending flow through one platform, hotels gain a clear view of guest behavior. This visibility helps teams identify where delays occur and remove friction in real-time.

Unified platform

Connecting all channels, from booking and check-in to on-site spending and check-out, creates a unified experience. Guests move smoothly between each step because the information they share and the actions they take follow them throughout their stay. This connected foundation makes every other improvement possible.

Understand the guest journey

When everything is connected on a single platform, hotels can see the entire journey in one place. This visibility helps teams understand how guests move through each stage, where delays happen, and what needs attention. Insights from this unified view guide better decisions and help remove friction quickly.

Personalize the experience

With a clear understanding of the journey and connected guest data, hotels can personalize interactions more effectively. Staff can recognize guests, understand their preferences, and offer relevant services and payment options without extra steps. This creates a smoother, more thoughtful experience that feels consistent across all channels.

Get insights

All activity flowing through one system gives hotels accurate, real-time insights into guest behavior and business performance. These insights support continuous improvements, helping hotels increase satisfaction while streamlining operations.

Belmond transformed its guest experience by using Adyen’s mobile payment technology to eliminate the friction of traditional front-desk check-ins. By replacing manual paperwork with digital signatures and wireless terminals, staff can now focus entirely on hospitality rather than administrative tasks. 

This shift to "invisible payments" and secure proxy tokenization resulted in a 4.2% increase in Net Promoter Scores (NPS) and a conversion rate exceeding 90%. 

Read the Belmond success story.

How Oetker Collection enhances the guest experience with unified payments

The Oetker Collection treats every guest journey as a "masterpiece," using unified payments to blend elegance with efficiency. 

By centralizing operations on a single platform, properties like The Woodward in Geneva have replaced fragmented third-party systems with a seamless, "one-stop shop" for transactions. Their integration with Oracle’s OPERA PMS allows staff to spend less time on manual reporting and more time on personalized guest experience. 

The use of tokenization ensures that sensitive data is replaced with secure identifiers, allowing guests to enjoy spa treatments or dining without ever needing to present a card. The result is a frictionless, secure environment where the "wow" factor remains the primary focus.

Get all the insights from Oetker Collection here.

How B&B hotels drive business growth through payments

As Europe’s second-largest budget hotel group, B&B HOTELS used Unified Commerce to maintain a consistent guest experience during a period of rapid international growth. 

By centralizing regional systems into a single platform, they eliminated the friction of guests having to repeatedly provide payment details at different locations. The group also added self-check-in terminals, allowing travelers to bypass reception queues and head straight to their rooms. 

With Adyen’s "plug-and-play" solution, B&B HOTELS can automatically offer the most popular local payment methods in every new market they enter. This tech-forward approach ensures that even as the brand expands globally, every guest receives a personalized experience.

Discover how B&B Hotels drive global growth here.

With Adyen’s unified commerce solution, hospitality businesses can connect all their channels, whether online or in-person on one platform, creating a consistent experience across every touchpoint. This makes it possible to recognize guests, offer fast and flexible payment options. 

By bringing everything together in one place, Adyen enables hospitality businesses to deliver smoother journeys, clearer operations, and more personalized experiences at every stage of the stay.

Get all the insights you need to offer personalized guest experiences in our Hospitality Report.