Hospitality trends in 2025: AI, loyalty, and personalization

Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) still dominate the travel industry. However, more guests are choosing to book directly with hotels and airlines. And hospitality businesses are seeing the shift: 36% of them believe direct booking strategies will reshape the industry. 

This trend is partly driven by generations. Younger travelers have a strong preference for the speed and simplicity offered by OTAs, whereas older generations are more likely to want personal contact during the booking process —18% of baby boomers say they prefer personal contact, compared to just 12% of Gen Z. 

What hospitality businesses can do

To meet customer expectations, businesses need to optimize their checkout. This involves unifying all payment channels, offering local and preferred by guests payment methods, and enhancing the customer experience while reducing friction. 

Adyen Uplift is an optimization product suite that uses AI built on Adyen’s $1.4 trillion worth of transaction data. It optimizes the full payment funnel with the aim to drive conversions, while keeping control of fraud levels and reducing costs. Adyen Uplift helps you convert more legitimate shoppers, simplify fraud management, and lower payment costs by personalizing the checkout experience.

Speed and simplicity are making guests turn to AI for inspiration and planning. AI agents also help to cut through the noise of online search and social media, and to get information and inspiration fast. 

The top reason guests and travelers use AI travel agents is to get personalized information in seconds (72%), and almost two thirds (65%) trust the accuracy of information provided by AI. 

Meanwhile, hospitality businesses are embracing AI to streamline operations and enhance personalization with virtual assistants and chatbots. These agents give travelers a detailed itinerary, restaurant recommendations, and even price comparisons in less than a minute. 

While many guests are embracing this with enthusiasm, not everyone is sold. Older generations who don’t yet trust AI agents remain hesitant.

What hospitality businesses can do

Many hospitality businesses see AI search tools, chatbots, and personalized automation as top innovations that will shape the future of travel. Half of the respondents are already using virtual assistants to support guests and offer recommendations. 

Building offerings around these needs, while being mindful of different generations preferences, can help improve the guest experience from booking to checkout. 

AI is just as valuable behind the scenes to improve conversion rates and combat fraud. With Adyen, hospitality merchants can leverage AI to optimize the entire payment funnel by automating fraud prevention, recognizing returning guests, routing payments efficiently, and boosting conversion rates.

The booking experience sets the tone for the rest of the holiday. A smooth, hassle-free payment experience builds confidence, and flexible cancellation options help travelers feel secure in their plans. In fact, 21% of guests want the peace of mind of being able to cancel, even at extra costs. 

The top five guest preferences when booking a trip are:

1. The ability to pay using their preferred payment method

2. The ability to complete payments quickly and without hassle

3. The flexibility to cancel for free, even if it costs extra

4. The ability to pay in their own currency without worrying about conversion fees

5. Hotels that offer strong loyalty programs

What hospitality businesses can do

It's vital to get the payment experience right for all the bookers. While older generations prioritize familiar payment methods, younger travelers prefer digital wallets, buy now, pay later (BNPL), and app-based options. 

Some travelers prefer not to carry cash while booking. In countries like Mexico, Malaysia, and the UAE, cash payments are still common. And markets like Japan and Germany still have a cultural preference for it.

In response, hospitality businesses should offer flexible, multi-currency pricing, support for the digital payment methods that their specific guests expect, and, if relevant, cash options as well.

Loyal guests don’t want to be treated as strangers — they now expect personalization as part of the experience. They want to be rewarded for repeat bookings with tailored promotions and recommendations. 

Thanks to technology, high-touch services previously reserved for VIP travellers are becoming standardized. 

35% of guests prefer to book with hotels and airlines that offer strong loyalty programs, and 33% of guests expect travel companies to invest more in personalized promotions and discounts. 

What hospitality business can do 

Connected data is essential if you want to offer guests a consistent, personalized experience across all touchpoints. And payments can help. 

By unifying all your payments on one platform, you’ll have a single source of truth, giving you guest-level insights to personalize your interactions. You can also link your loyalty program to your guests’ payment method so they can accrue points across all your sites and facilities.

68% of hospitality and travel businesses say fragmented payment systems create operational challenges. 77% agree that fragmented online and on-site payment systems make reconciliation inefficient, and 82% say it increases security risks. 

As hospitality businesses grow across channels and borders, many are feeling the strain. They’re struggling with the complexity that comes with managing multiple vendors, high cross-border fees, delayed refunds, and time-consuming admin. 

And, since most businesses don’t have a dedicated payments team, the burden sits with other departments.

What hospitality businesses can do

Operational efficiency is a top priority. Streamlining guest journeys across booking, payment, and check-out won’t just improve customer experiences; it also eases pressure on resources. 

By adopting integrated solutions that connect payments with other financial workflows, businesses can cut down on inefficiencies and focus on their guests. Unified Commerce can be an effective way to automate and streamline reconciliation and cross-border payments, and reduce the complexity associated with managing multiple providers and integrations.

Online and mobile payments make booking and paying easier. But any new channel comes with security challenges. 41% of businesses face challenges securing payments in mobile apps.

Security concerns go far beyond those affected. Even when guests who are not victims still worry about it. 28% avoid saving their payment details on websites and apps because of security concerns, and those same concerns are pushing 26% of guests to book directly with hotels. 

What hospitality businesses can do 

Adyen helps alleviate these fears with Adyen Uplift, our AI-powered optimization suite. The Protect module uses machine learning trained on over $1.4 trillion in annual transaction data to intelligently distinguish between genuine guests and fraudsters.

This allows you to:

• Convert more good shoppers: By recognizing legitimate customers, we reduce false declines and create a frictionless, secure checkout experience that builds trust and boosts conversion.

• Simplify fraud management: You can reduce reliance on manual setup - businesses who tried the product reduced the number of manual rules by an average of 86%, freeing up your team to focus on the guest experience.

• Secure every channel: Because our technology is built on a single platform, we protect payments consistently across online, mobile, and in-person touchpoints, helping you build a secure, unified guest journey.

Our research shows an industry at a tipping point—where guest expectations, payment innovation, and AI adoption are reshaping travel and hospitality. The findings make clear that those who invest in areas such as security, loyalty, personalization, and consolidation today will become tomorrow’s leaders.

Click here to see how payments can help your hospitality or travel business get ready for the future of the industry.