Tendências de experiência do hóspede que moldarão 2025 e além

The hospitality industry made a remarkable recovery in 2024, contributing a record-high $11.1 trillion to global GDP. But beyond financial success, what is truly driving this transformation? Guest expectations are evolving, and AI-driven insights, along with online reputation management, are reshaping the industry. Understanding these trends is crucial for hoteliers aiming to stay ahead in 2025 and beyond.

8 Guest Experience Trends Shaping 2025 and Beyond

Here are eight guest experience trends that will shape 2025 and beyond.

1. Guest Satisfaction is Rising

Guest satisfaction has been growing since the beginning of Q3 2022. Whether this is mainly the long-tailed effect of the market bouncing back from the Covid pandemic is disputable, but several indicators hint at that. The GRI evolution shows that pre-COVID patterns are reinforcing, such as the peak season drop around August and the subsequent bounce back, a typical pattern of the pre-COVID era.

At the same time, guest expectations are shifting. This can be seen in the Value for money index trend evolution, for instance, which points out that the perception of this ratio has changed quite dramatically in 2024; indeed, many regions are experiencing a trend reversal (Europe, Latin America and Africa). No other major department score recorded such an abrupt stop to its positive trend.

Guest experience shifts towards a more personalized one, thanks to the increased ability to collect and parse out data but with the limitation of market elasticity. A likely contributor to the latter is the short-term rental market, which pressures hotels with their ever-growing availability and price dynamics. Indeed, a good service includes key parameters such as room and facility cleanliness, qualified Staff and a room that does live up to the expectations the rates suggest.

2. Mid-Tier Hotels Are Winning in Reputation

Five-star hotels are indeed likely to face a more challenging environment as the recent inflation spike led to a further increase in rates, which, in turn, raised expectations even higher. Another factor is staff turnover. Though less relevant than before, this still affects the 5-star market. Data tells us, that while the luxury market has been able to contain the guest satisfaction loss caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, 4-star and 3-star properties GRI’s kept dropping up until August 2022.

Therefore, a more vigorous bounce back is now taking place for the mid-tier hotels, compounded by the rising rates that allowed them to attract some of the 5-star guests and grow their GRI faster than the luxury market.

3. Review Volume Is Declining

Review volume is influenced by several factors, with three key variables standing out. First, sentiment analysis indicates that overall guest satisfaction is increasing, making negative reviews less likely and contributing to the J-shaped effect common in review distribution. Second, the crackdown on negative reviews has especially affected regions like Latin America, which saw a 10% drop in review volume in 2023. Lastly, there has been a market share shift for Booking.com, which saw its share decrease from almost 50% in 2022 to 37% in 2024 despite a rise in positive mentions.

The increased competition from Expedia and Hotels.com and more satisfied guests have contributed to this trend. In 2024, Booking.com, experienced a 1.4-point increase in positive mentions, marking a significant improvement.

4. AI- Generated Reviews

The enormous potential of AI is challenging to keep in check. If used to generate believable reviews, it would alter the feedback loop, causing damage not just to travelers but also to the hotel itself. Indeed, over the long run, altering guest perception with fake reviews would only raise expectations that would not be met and add noise to the data, making it harder for the hotel industry to separate the wheat from the chaff.

As a precaution, AI tools that could police the review market would be beneficial in reassuring guests of the authenticity of the reviews they read. Still, the hotel industry will see the trade-off as not worth it. The reputation damage far outweighs the benefits of altering the review stream.

5. Reputation Trends Are Shifting by Region

The Asiatic market was the first to recover from the pandemic, showing positive guest satisfaction about eight months earlier than the rest of the world. Both luxury and mid-tier hotels performed well until October when signs of a trend reversal emerged. Europe’s GRI is affected by peak season performance, leading to a slowdown in the luxury segment similar to that in North America’s 5-star market. Value and room performance are key factors in this trend.

In contrast, the Middle East and Africa recorded stronger growth. The Asian and Middle Eastern markets have maintained consistent performance over the past two years, while European and Latin American markets have seen declines, with mid-tier hotels in Europe and high-end hotels in Latin America lagging behind other regions in GRI for 2024.

6. OTA Reputation Shake-up

In the wake of the pandemic, Booking.com’s quick and dynamic reaction to cancellation policies and other guest policies boosted its market share, leaving behind not just the minor OTAs but also its major competitors. In the pre-pandemic era, Google was poised to overtake Booking.com and become the leader in review generation worldwide. The post-Covid period saw Google regaining market share quickly thanks to the ease with which its users could post a review. As we said earlier, the clampdown on fake reviews altered this trajectory, grinding the positive trend to a halt.

7. AI- Powered Review Response Speed

Response time has dramatically increased over the past 3 years, with reviews now being responded to in around four days, down from more than six in 2022. At the same time, the review response percentage kept rising. Hotels have to adapt to this quickly evolving trend by ensuring they can keep the pace of their competitors. Automated responses can do harm only if the AI output is not supervised and reviewed before publication if no details are added whenever possible to make every review unique.

8. The Revenue Impact of Reputation

Traditional revenue strategies focus on pricing, competition, and market conditions, but guest perception and satisfaction influence demand just as significantly. Reputation also reflects operational performance, a key driver of any property’s long-term success. Therefore, reputation analytics should be integrated into revenue management, especially in a competitive market where reputation can play a significant role in the prospects’ final booking decision. Forecasting reputation trends would become a huge component of this process and the ability to execute a reputation strategy effectively.

What Will Define Hotel Reputation in 2025?

The luxury market will keep focusing on personalization by using the data they can capture to enhance the guest experience. Thus, a hotel’s reputation will be defined by its capability to apply the latest tecnologias to empower its operatives to deliver the experience their guests will remember.

The mid-tier properties have raised their rates by more than 25% since pre-pandemic in Europe. Balancing rates and guest expectations will play a crucial role. Optimizing costs and managing staff schedules may push the 4-star properties to embrace digitalization and make digital engagement part of their major revenue streams.

Relatório grátis: Guest Experience Benchmark Report 2025

The Guest Experience Benchmark Report 2025 provides a comprehensive analysis of global guest sentiment and hotel review performance, establishing 2024 as the new benchmark for the industry.

Clique aqui para baixar o “Relatório de referência da experiência do hóspede 2025”.