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What’s top of mind for hospitality professionals in 2025?
We asked.
In a recent customer survey, we asked one simple question: What are your top three objectives for the next 12 months? Nearly 70% of respondents pointed to operational efficiency and automation as their top priorities.
Below, we’ll explore why efficiency is moving up the priority list, the pressure points pushing it forward, and where you can make meaningful progress.
When hospitality professionals talk about “streamlining operations,” they’re often referring to making tasks more efficient, less manual, and better connected through tech. It’s about reducing friction, saving time, effort, and cost.
But behind that goal are some deeper challenges:
Hotels are still running lean. A December 2024 survey by AHLA and Hireology found that nearly 65% of properties are facing ongoing staffing challenges. That leaves little room for clunky systems or manual workarounds.
Deloitte’s data backs this up: only half of hotels have adopted new technology, and just 43% have automated repetitive tasks to help fill the staffing gap.
From lightning-fast check-ins to hyper-personalised service, today’s guests expect seamless experiences. But back-end inefficiencies get in the way. According to Hilton’s 2024 Trends Report, 80% of travellers now expect to book their entire trip online.
Too many tools, too little integration. It’s time for a tech detox. Years of adding on new tools have left many hotels juggling systems that don’t talk to each other.
According to Deloitte, 45% of hoteliers say fragmented tech and data are the biggest barriers to effective adoption.
Wages, utilities, supplies, you name it. Efficiency = survival.
In the UK, hospitality businesses are facing £3.4 billion in extra annual costs from wage increases, National Insurance contributions, and reduced business rates relief. As a result, 70% say they’ll need to reduce employment levels (UKHospitality).
It’s a similar picture in the US. Property operations and maintenance, sales and marketing, and IT expenses each rose by nearly 5%, further intensifying financial pressures on hotel operations, according to the AHLA 2025 State of the Industry Report.
Whether you're a GM or on the front desk, time is one of the scarcest resources. Streamlining saves minutes, and those minutes add up fast.
More time means more opportunities to elevate guest experience and drive revenue.
Whether you're a GM or working the front desk, time is one of your most limited resources, and every minute saved through smarter processes adds up. With more time on your side, you’ve got more room to elevate the guest experience and grow revenue.
This isn’t just about fixing what’s broken. It’s about building resilience, creating breathing room, and future-proofing your operation.
You don’t need to fix everything overnight. Start with these four plays:
Repetitive tasks take time away from what matters most: guest interactions.
Automation can take care of high-volume jobs like:
By automating the admin, you can meet guest expectations and improve job satisfaction for your team.
It might sound simple, but these changes really add up. Take Sydney Lodges, for example.
They saved 10 hours a week by automating check-ins and payments, freeing up the team to focus more on guests, not admin. Automating payments through RMS Pay also meant fewer errors and clearer records.
Tip: Help guests help themselves by implementing guest facing solutions like a guest portal (yes, RMS has that). Give the guest control over their planning and bookings, everything from buying a tour, sending their preferences, digital check-ins and payment links to reduce front desk congestion and offer contactless options.
Expectations are changing fast. Your guests want speed, convenience, and personalisation. But without a clear understanding of who your guests are, it’s hard to prioritise what matters.
Enter: guest personas. These fictional profiles help you design services, offers, and experiences around real needs, not assumptions. And instead of pouring time and budget into services that fall flat, you can focus your efforts where they’ll drive satisfaction and efficiency.
Tip: Build three to five personas based on demographic, travel purpose, booking data, staff input, and direct feedback. With these in hand, your team can:
Bonus: We’ve written a blog that walks you through how to get started. It’s a project that unlocks long-term clarity, and your future self will thank you.
Forget the “perfect stack” you saw in a webinar. What matters is what works for your team and guests.
Your PMS is the hub of your operation. Everything else should connect smoothly, solve real problems, and be easy for staff to use.
Start with your pain points. What’s slowing things down? What’s frustrating guests? Do systems talk to each other? What’s not delivering ROI?
The quote is real but the image is AI-generated ‘If Albert Einstein was Hotel GM‘
Tip: Use your next low season to run a tech review with key stakeholders. Try creating a Business Problem Statement, a simple way to spell out what the real issue is, why it matters, and what success would look like. It keeps everyone on the same page and focused on solving the right problems.
This approach can help your team:
Tech doesn’t drive transformation, people do. But only if they’ve got the tools and the confidence.
According to Deloitte, 4 in 10 hotel general managers place reskilling for tech adoption as a top workforce challenge. That skills gap slows everything down, from system rollouts to service standards.
Tip: Invest in onboarding and continuous training. It boosts productivity, morale, and retention while helping teams adapt to the tools you implement.
Operational efficiency isn’t about cutting corners, it’s about cutting the noise and it’s the #1 priority for nearly 70% of hospitality professionals we surveyed.
And no wonder. From staffing pressures to rising guest expectations and operating costs, there’s more demand than ever to do more with less.
But “streamlining” doesn’t mean cutting corners. It means:
With small but strategic steps, you can drive meaningful progress without overwhelming your team.
Stay tuned for part two, where we’ll explore how you can drive revenue growth and profitability in 2025.
By Maud Bruyere
Customer Advocacy Manager
