How Hotels Can Prepare for the Guest of the Future
In Conversation with: Costar Hotel News Podcast
LISTEN NOW
What will tomorrow’s hotel guest expect—and how can owners, brands and designers begin preparing today?
The answer is not found in a single trend, technology or amenity. It begins with understanding how consumer priorities are changing, determining which investments will create meaningful value and designing hospitality experiences that can continue to evolve.
Ron Swidler, CEO of The Gettys Group, recently joined Sean McCracken on the CoStar News Hotels podcast to discuss how the hospitality industry can better anticipate the needs of future guests.
Their conversation explores the growing role of artificial intelligence, the relationship between physical experiences and brand perception, and why the value of a hotel investment cannot always be measured through an immediate increase in revenue.
Listening for What Guests Will Value Next
Predicting future consumer behavior has always been difficult. Today, however, hospitality companies have access to more information—and more powerful ways to interpret it—than ever before.
During the conversation, Ron discusses The Gettys Group’s work with Vurvey Labs, which uses artificial intelligence as a predictive tool for consumer products and experiences. The technology combines direct feedback from real consumers with a broader database of behavioral insight.
The objective is not simply to document what people prefer today. It is to better understand what may become important tomorrow.
As Ron explains:
“This is what’s most important to consumers now, and this is what’s likely to be most important to consumers later.”
For hotel brands, that distinction matters. Development and renovation decisions made today may shape a property for years to come. By the time a hotel opens or completes a major transformation, guest expectations may have already moved forward.
Research, strategy and design must therefore look beyond the present moment.
Using AI to Strengthen Human Insight
Artificial intelligence is creating new opportunities to recognize patterns, test ideas and gather consumer feedback at scale. But technology alone cannot define a meaningful hospitality experience.
Hotels are fundamentally human environments. They are shaped by emotion, behavior, service, comfort and connection. The strongest applications of AI will not replace human judgment; they will give hospitality teams another way to understand the people they serve.
That means pairing data with empathy.
AI may reveal what guests respond to, but owners, operators, strategists and designers must still determine why that response matters and how it should influence the experience. The opportunity is to use technology to ask better questions, uncover emerging priorities and make more informed decisions.
In hospitality, the future will not be created by technology alone. It will be shaped by how thoughtfully technology is translated into experiences that feel intuitive, personal and relevant.
Looking Beyond Immediate Return on Investment
The conversation also addresses one of the most persistent challenges in hotel development: deciding where investment will create the greatest value.
Some improvements have a relatively visible financial outcome. A renovated guestroom may support a higher average daily rate. A stronger food-and-beverage concept may attract more demand or increase the average check.
Other investments are more difficult to measure in isolation.
Arrival experiences, public spaces, service touchpoints and brand-defining details may not produce an immediate line-item return. Together, however, they influence how guests perceive a property and whether the experience strengthens or weakens their relationship with the brand.
As Ron notes:
“It isn’t as simple as saying, ‘Let’s put the money in the places where we can get an immediate return on investment.’ It’s more complicated than that.”
The value of design is not limited to what can be measured at one moment. It can also appear through stronger brand equity, greater guest loyalty, improved operational performance and a more differentiated position in the market.
The question is not simply, “Will this investment increase the rate?”
It is also, “Will this make the experience more relevant, memorable and valuable over time?”
Reconsidering Traditional Hotel Offerings
Preparing for future guests also requires hospitality leaders to examine long-established assumptions.
Services and amenities that were once considered essential may no longer operate in the same way—or deliver the same value. At the same time, emerging guest behaviors can create demand for entirely new experiences.
The goal should not be to eliminate tradition for the sake of novelty. It should be to understand which offerings continue to serve the guest, which need to evolve and which no longer support the property’s larger strategy.
Every decision should be considered in context:
How do guests use the hotel today?
How might those behaviors change?
What role does each space or service play in the complete experience?
Where can investment make the greatest difference?
Answering these questions requires collaboration across ownership, operations, strategy, branding, design and technology. Each discipline contributes a different understanding of performance and guest value.
Designing for Relevance, Not Prediction
No one can forecast the future with complete certainty. Hospitality companies can, however, build a more informed and adaptable approach to it.
That begins with listening closely to consumers, testing assumptions and recognizing that guest expectations do not change in isolation. They are influenced by developments across retail, technology, wellness, entertainment, residential design and everyday life.
Hotels must respond to those broader shifts while remaining rooted in their own identity.
The objective is not to chase every new trend. It is to identify the changes that matter, understand what they mean for the guest and make deliberate decisions that can endure beyond a single moment.
At The Gettys Group, we believe the most effective hospitality experiences balance foresight with practicality. They are grounded in human insight, supported by strategy and designed to perform—for guests, operators, owners and brands.
Explore the Full Conversation
Read Sean McCracken’s accompanying CoStar News article for highlights from the discussion:
Read “How Hotels Can Prepare for Guests of the Future” on CoStar News
Listen to the full CoStar News Hotels podcast featuring Ron Swidler:
Listen to the full podcast conversation
Preparing Your Property for What Comes Next
Changing guest expectations affect more than the appearance of a hotel. They influence positioning, programming, operations, service and long-term investment decisions.
The Gettys Group brings strategy, branding, interiors and procurement together to help hospitality companies understand what their guests value and translate that insight into experiences designed to resonate, endure and perform.
Explore The Gettys Group’s integrated hospitality services
