Major hotel and travel groups deploy a variety of techniques to capture consumer insights. Artificial intelligence is expected to make these processes easier and result in better outcomes.
As a vertically integrated tourism business with its own flights, transfers, hotels, and excursions, TUI has direct access to a wealth of customer data.
“From the time of booking to the time they return home, we know exactly what our customers did,” said Peter Krueger, CEO holiday experiences, TUI Group.
If permission is granted, TUI saves digital data on its customers in the cloud and runs algorithms to build out customer profiles and customer segments. “Of course, how we run the algorithms has changed a lot with AI now,” said Krueger.
One of the main goals of TUI’s customer research is to develop new products and activities that will appeal to specific customer segments.
Marriott tracks internal trends (booking pace, guest segments, guest demographics) and external trends (airline routes and capacity, credit card data) to arrive at a comprehensive picture of demand that informs strategy, said Neal Jones, president EMEA, Marriott International.
In-person insights
In addition to digital data, how do hotels capture information about guests from in-person interactions?
Barbara Muckermann, group CEO, Kempinski Hotels, said: “We hire our team members for their emotional intelligence and then we train them, and we use technology on the back end to really support the emotional interactions.”
As a pure luxury and upper-luxury operator, Kempinski holds guest preferences (flat white or cappuccino? gin & tonic or dry martini?) within its CRM for staff to access and interpret.
“It's about recognition. What you need to be able to do is basically recognise the guest in the moment, when they enter an outlet,” she said.
Hilton gathers its customer intelligence from four main sources, said EVP and president EMEA Simon Vincent: “What our customers are saying about the brand; what they are doing on property; what owners are informing us; and also, what our team members are saying.”
The data shows customers value experiences over things across all price points within the chain scale, said Vincent: “The trick for us is to make sure that we're playing in every single segment and that we've got a brand for every single trip occasion.” Keeping customers within the Hilton ecosystem via its loyalty programme is a key goal, he said.
New experiences
Muckermann at Kempinski highlighted how the popularity of experiential stays is relatively new. US citizens, who are still the largest cohort of wealthy travellers in the world, traditionally wanted to be somewhat shielded from the foreignness of local cultures; hence US hotel brands provide a consistent and familiar environment for guests away from home.
In contrast, today’s US wealthy travellers of all ages are far more adventurous and want to immerse themselves in the destination, said Muckermann: “We call them the Anthony Bourdain generation. You now have guests who will try street food in Singapore, which honestly, 20 years ago was completely unheard of.”
For TUI, analysis of the customer’s appetite for new experiences is leading to a shift away from mass tourism. Krueger said: “We're building out new holiday destinations like Zanzibar and Oman. My vision is that in five years we will have a lot more different products away from mass tourism in undiscovered destinations.”
Gen Z travel discovery
The rise in the popularity of experiential travel means consumers, especially young ones, get their inspiration from Instagram and Tik Tok and will search first for activities (the best diving spots in Africa, or the best surfing spots in the world) and not hotels.
Krueger said that TUI has the products that these travellers are looking for, but needs to change how it promotes them and how it reaches these young consumers in non-traditional distribution channels.
Increasingly, consumers are relying on AI to search and plan travel because it is an efficient use of their time and delivers a personalised service quickly, commented Dillip Rajakarier, group CEO of Minor International and CEO of Minor Hotels.
“AI is good for experiential hotels and we've been mostly an experiential-driven brand since Anantara Hotels and Resorts was launched 25 years ago,” he said.
Loyalty across generations
Hilton is aiming to attract younger consumers into its loyalty programme. Vincent said: “We have the brands and the technology to do that. We just need to double down and really start to show that our brands are relevant to those groups.”
The way generations use loyalty programmes differs. Older guests tend to save up points for special occasions while younger guests are more interested in instant gratification and redeeming their points faster.
According to Vincent, hyper-personalisation at scale will be a new capability at Hilton within the next five years: “We’re right on the cusp now because we’ve spent the last ten years reinventing our tech stack. It's now fully in the cloud, flexible and scalable, and I believe we are on the cusp of hyper personalization at scale.”
He added: “Today I can’t guarantee that if you order a flat white in Barcelona, you'll get a flat white in Bangkok. I think that's coming.”
Hyper-personalisation is on its way
Despite more than a decade of marketing messages, the deployment of personalisation (and hyper-personalisation) in hotels has not been widespread, according to research.
Hotel leaders are now confident that a breakthrough is imminent thanks to the foundations laid by cloud systems and AI.
Rajakarier at Minor Hotels said: “We will see more predictive, hyper personalised service where the guests don't have to actually ask but we anticipate what they need using technology at the back end.”
Jones at Marriott added: “The personalisation piece driven by generative AI is key. It goes right across the guest journey, so your actual stay experience is designed exactly how you like it: the colouring in the room, everything you touch and eat is all kind of predetermined. And then post stay, the follow-up is exactly in the format and the content that you like to see and engage with.”
All quotes take from the panel: ‘Trends in action: Leaders' perspectives on adapting to drive growth,’ at IHIF EMEA 2026. The panel was moderated by Kenneth Hatton, managing director, head of hotels Europe, CBRE.