It doesn’t matter what sector you operate in. If you run a customer-facing business, you’re always aiming to win repeat business. After all, studies repeatedly show that not only is customer retention a lot cheaper than customer acquisition, but loyal customers who come back time and time again spend more, too.

Of course, getting the same people through your doors over and over is a lot easier if you run a local grocery store than if you run an upmarket hotel. People buy food a lot more regularly than they splash out on a luxury vacation.

But that doesn’t mean that hotel operators can’t or shouldn’t aspire to winning repeat business. In fact, according to a recent survey of decision-makers in the lodging industry by Hospitalitytech.com, driving guest loyalty is one of the top priorities for accommodation providers. 86% said it was a primary motivating factor as they weigh up tech investments for 2025.

So what kind of tech can hoteliers invest in to boost guest loyalty and have more people returning for repeat stays?

Raising the bar on (self) service

The key to winning repeat business in any context is providing an experience that customers just can’t get enough of. In the hotel industry, the quality of experience goes hand in hand with the level of service. So the kind of technologies that will improve customer satisfaction and therefore win repeat visits are those that help to raise the bar on service.

What’s fascinating to note in the hospitality industry right now is how much love self-service options are getting from customers. In another Hospitalitytech.com survey, 54% of guests said they liked having the option of check-in/out kiosks, versus 8% who expressed dissatisfaction with them.

It appears that the rise in appreciation for self-service technology correlates with frustrations caused by widespread understaffing across the hospitality industry. As labor shortages continue to bite post-pandemic, 46% of people say they have experienced extended waiting times, and 34% report substandard service. If ‘doing it yourself’ means checking in and getting to your room faster after a long journey, or booking a table in the restaurant without having to wait, that’s a tick for the quality of the overall experience.

Kiosks are not the only tech option that can help to secure greater loyalty by empowering guests. In any walk of life, most people would agree that the most important piece of tech they have nowadays is their cell phone. They really have become the Swiss army knife of electronic gadgets, with a tool (or rather an app) for every task.

Including, it appears, how hotel guests want to manage their stays. 64% of survey respondents told Hospitalitytech.com they’d like to check-in using their smartphones, and 60% said they wanted to use it as their door key. 57% said they’d like to be able to control the guestroom environment by speaking to a voice assistant on their devices.

This certainly gives hotel operators food for thought about how they integrate mobile services into their on-premise tech stacks. Omnichannel alignment – i.e. bridging the traditional divide between on-premise systems like POS and online services – is a major trend across all industries right now. For the hotel industry, it promises a more coherent and unified guest journey, where researching places to stay, booking, checking-in and then managing your stay can all happen from the same device.