Guests have rising expectations for experiences that feel uniquely tailored to them. Hyper-personalization is now woven into everyday life. From the content in their social media feeds to the music they listen to, nearly every daily experience is designed around their individual preferences. So guests expect their stay to be personalized for their taste and preferences, their needs anticipated, and to be provided with thoughtful, individualized touches at every stage of their journey, especially if it isn’t their first stay at that property.
36.2% of hoteliers believe that personalized communication has become the most important guest expectation in recent years5. This shift reflects a broader desire for relevance and convenience: travelers gravitate toward properties that remember them and offer experiences that align with their interests.
In recent years, travelers have welcomed a new solution to travel planning. For many, travel planning is a hassle as they search the web trying to find the best accommodation, cheapest tickets, and create a fun and engaging itinerary, all of which is time-consuming and tiring. The time spent on this process has been significantly shortened and made easier with the development of AI assistance in this area. According to recent data, 61% of travelers report finding AI tools valuable when planning their itineraries. Beyond simplifying the logistics, AI offers something travelers increasingly crave: personalization.
Instead of generic recommendations, AI can interpret individual preferences, past behavior, and real-time data to suggest unique, meaningful experiences tailored to each traveler. This is going one step further with agentic AI, according to Skift and McKinsey’s Remapping Travel with Agentic AI, it is the ideal way for complex, multistep travel workflows or for handling high volumes of repetitive yet personalized tasks. As a result, travel planning stops being a stressor and becomes an easy step in the trip.