Leonardo Hotel Digital Marketing Insights: Top Trends for 2024

We’re kicking off the year with some insights into the trends for this year. Forecasters are generally predicting a strong year for travel, with travelers looking for variety and personalization in their accommodations. These are the top 5 travel trends for 2024 that will dominate the conversation across the industry.  

1. Generative AI’s role in Travel Bookings 

First up: the ongoing rise of generative AI. What makes this different than the “AI” trends of the last few years? This version of artificial intelligence can create and curate content, not just connect the dots. Imagine artificial intelligence that goes beyond recommending destinations: it creates an itinerary to visit those destinations, based on specific user preferences and desires.  

For hotels, generative AI can be a digital concierge. Put an AI chatbot in guest-facing places like your website to answer questions, make recommendations, and get to know guest preferences before they even arrive. 

2. The Need for More Data   

Hotels have a lot of data coming in and out: guest info, revenue, arrivals, marketing information, and more. In 2024, technology providers in the travel space are starting to get on top of the need for more data everywhere. Hoteliers need to be aware of their data and put it to use across systems.  

While hotels historically have invested in channel managers or central reservation systems to manage revenue data, travel channels are increasingly requiring even more “static” data. Hotels looking to stand out need a system that can manage their descriptive content distribution, including granular information about rooms, amenities, location, and the hotel itself.   

3. More Destination Agnostic Travelers 

While many regions are facing cost-of-living crises, most people surveyed in major markets like the USA, Britain, and Europe, said they planned to travel more in 2024 than in 2023. In part, this is leading to a rise of searches for “travel anywhere,” and choosing destinations based on prices and availability.  

This means that travel shoppers are doing wide searches and narrowing down based on availability. This is yet another reason that channels are demanding more data (see above). It also underlines the importance of having current, 100% accurate listings on travel channels, so you’re not lost in a wide search.   

4. Ongoing Staffing and Labor Issues  

The third conversation topic? The pressing concern of the labor shortage in the hospitality industry. Despite increased demand, throughout 2023 most travel markets saw a decline in staff retention and new hires.  

This shortage is pushing the industry to innovate and grow in new directions. Hotels have started to, and will continue to invest in technology that streamlines operations to remove the need for some staff. This can mean automating manual tasks, increasing contactless technology, and some decreased service levels as some hotels try to go high-tech rather than high-touch.  

5. The new KPI: Total Revenue Per Guest  

And lastly, the evolving concept of total revenue per guest. Hotels are looking beyond room revenue. They’re calculating the overall revenue generated by a guest throughout their stay. Revenue generated from upgrades, amenities, and so on. Expect to see this KPI come up throughout 2024. 

Generating more revenue from each guest should be part of the technology upgrades required by the labor shortage and the embrace of AI. It’s all about creating unified, simplified experiences from booking through to stay!  

Leonardo Worldwide works with hotels, hotel brands, and travel channels, to create these unified experiences. Our content management and distribution solutions create hotel websites and manage descriptive content (media + text) across direct and indirect channels. We’re helping the travel industry stay on top of the trends in 2024 and beyond.