What we found
The split is tech against touch, and one group wants the choice.
Guests rated personalization features as part of a package of services, spanning technology-based amenities and human-delivered ones. Three mindsets emerged, and the disagreement between them is not about whether to personalize. It is about the channel: a device, a person, or whichever suits the moment.
Fielded 25 October 2024. The most recent of our hospitality studies.
Method
How the study was run
Participants were shown a series of personalization features and asked to rate the appeal of each as part of a package of services. Features spanned technology-based amenities, AI-powered room controls, real-time concierge, and human-centered services such as personalized welcomes and customized dining. Optimize then separated respondents into three psychographic mindsets by which attributes mattered most to them.
- Instrument
- ProspX.ai Optimize
- Fielded
- 25 October 2024, 11:30 a.m.
- Time to complete
- Under two hours
- Attributes
- 16 personalization features
- Output
- Three psychographic mindsets and a mindset-attribute matrix
- Published by
- ProspX.ai
Finding one
Three mindsets, divided by channel
The three groups are described here by what they rated highly.
Tech Enthusiasts
Digital-first guests who value seamless, tech-driven experiences, prioritizing convenience and self-sufficiency over traditional hospitality.
Rated highly
- AI room setup suggestions: lighting, temperature, music
- Real-time concierge chat
- Personalized activity recommendations
- In-app spa and dining reservations
Personal Touch Seekers
Drawn to high-touch service. They prefer in-person interactions that make a stay feel warm and memorable, valuing human-centered hospitality over technology.
Rated highly
- Personalized welcome and check-in by staff
- Family-friendly room setup
- Wellness package: yoga mats, aromatherapy
- Celebratory surprises for special occasions
- Business traveller package
Blended Experience Guests
Seek a balance. Comfortable with digital tools, but want the option of a person when they choose.
Rated highly
- AI room setup and real-time concierge chat
- Customized dining suggestions
- Digital and human hybrid service: order in the app, delivered by staff or robot
- Room temperature and mood control by app or voice
Finding two
Some features reached more than one mindset
Attributes did not divide cleanly by group. Several appealed to two mindsets at once, and the study identifies features with appeal across mindsets as the ones worth prioritizing. The extract below shows how that pattern looks across nine of the attributes tested.
| Attribute | Tech Enthusiasts | Personal Touch Seekers | Blended Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inclusive hotel app Multiple languages, accessible design | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI room setup suggestions | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Real-time concierge chat | ✓ | · | ✓ |
| Personalized welcome and check-in by staff | · | ✓ | ✓ |
| Digital and human hybrid service | · | ✓ | ✓ |
| Room temperature control via app | · | · | ✓ |
| In-room mood control by voice | · | · | ✓ |
| Recommended activities | · | ✓ | · |
| Business traveller package | · | ✓ | · |
An extract from the study’s mindset-attribute matrix covering nine of the sixteen attributes tested, not the complete matrix. Source: ProspX.ai Optimizing Guest Experiences Through Psychographic Insights, fielded 25 October 2024.
Why it matters
The disagreement is about delivery, not about the amenity
That makes it a cheaper problem than it first appears. A hotel facing three groups that wanted different things would have to build three products. These groups largely wanted the same things, a room set up to suit them, help when they need it, dining that fits, and disagreed about who or what should provide them. One set of services with a choice of channel covers all three; one set of services with the channel chosen for the guest covers one.
It also frames the automation question properly. Investment that removes the human option to fund self-service, or that declines digital service in the name of hospitality, loses one of the three groups outright and part of the blended group with it.
How to apply it · ProspX.ai recommendations
Where this changes a guest-experience or marketing decision
These are our recommendations, drawn from the findings above. They are actions to consider, not outcomes the study measured.
- Build the channel choice into booking and pre-arrival. Ask whether the guest would rather arrange things in the app or with a person, instead of deciding for them. The answer is the segmentation.
- Fund the features with the broadest appeal first. Attributes that reached more than one mindset carry the least segmentation risk, and an inclusive, accessible, multilingual app was among them.
- Offer hybrid delivery wherever it is cheap to do. Order in the app, delivered by a person is exactly what the blended group rated highly, and it does not require choosing a side.
- Vary the description, not the product. The same wellness package can be presented as a self-service booking or as something staff will set up before arrival.
- Keep human service selectable, not residual. For Personal Touch Seekers the staff interaction was the amenity, not the fallback when the app fails.
- Hold the channel preference in the CRM so the second stay starts from the first, and so pre-arrival messaging can differ without surveying every guest.
- Size the groups for your own property before committing capital. A property-level study would establish how much of your own demand sits in each mindset, which is what a capital decision needs.
From the original report
What the 2024 study concluded
The conclusions stated in the original report, in its own terms.
- Tech Enthusiasts and Blended Experience Guests showed high comfort with AI-driven features, real-time concierge chat and other digital amenities.
- Personal Touch Seekers responded positively to personalized dining, room setups and staff-guided experiences, pointing to the lasting value of personal connection.
- Blended Experience Guests favored flexible options, preferring the ability to choose between digital and in-person service by circumstance.
- Mindset tags held in a CRM let a hotel differentiate pre-arrival communication, on-property service and follow-up without surveying every guest individually.