How measuring return visits links guest experience to profit

The word “experience” has become overused in our sector and risks losing its meaning, but let’s be clear: guest experience is not a soft metric, it is a commercial driver. In my view, it will become one of the most important performance indicators in hospitality.

I see it daily across our hotels. When a team genuinely engages with a guest – when they understand what matters to them and build a relationship – that connection becomes an asset. Guests don’t simply return to a building; they return to familiarity, recognition and trust, and trust in hospitality is economically powerful.

For years, I’ve believed the industry has focused on measuring satisfaction but not behaviour. We obsess over review scores and Net Promoter Scores, yet very few operators rigorously track repeat visits as a core KPI. If we systematically measured repetition rate alongside satisfaction scores, we would finally connect experience to profit in a meaningful way and bring the metrics alive.

At the moment we are looking at raw data points, marks out of 10. But if we understand that if, for example, 30% of our guests come back with a hotel score of seven out of 10, then surely if we could make that eight out of 10, maybe 35% of our guests return. If that’s the case, then the requirement to find new guests comes down. The commercial implications are significant: reduced customer acquisition costs, lower reliance on third-party distribution, stronger direct booking ratios and therefore materially improved margins.

The most profitable customer is the one you don’t have to reacquire.

Over time, operators consistently observe that stronger guest relationships lead to more candid and constructive feedback. Engaged guests tell you what works, and what doesn’t, because they want the relationship to succeed. That feedback becomes strategically valuable intelligence rather than transactional commentary.

We have also seen a clear correlation between emotional comfort and ancillary spend. Guests who feel at home spend more – in the bar, the restaurant, and on-property services. Familiarity reduces friction. Recognition builds confidence. That incremental spend, multiplied across repeat visits, becomes a powerful revenue engine.

As an industry, we have sophisticated tools capable of analysing guest sentiment at a granular level, but insight without behavioural tracking is incomplete. Understanding what a guest felt is useful. Understanding whether they return is transformative.

My focus throughout my career has been to understand not just satisfaction, but loyalty drivers. Why do guests come back, why do they book again and why don’t they? In most cases, the differentiator is human interaction at a micro level. It’s not simply giving an expected service; it’s noticing what a guest forgot before they realise it themselves. Those moments build memory and loyalty.

That requires empowered teams. Hospitality cannot be reduced to process and compliance. When colleagues feel trusted to act in the guest’s interest, rather than simply execute a checklist, they create value that no technology can replicate.

Culture is a multiplier, starting at the top. Leadership teams must model guest engagement, not just review dashboards. We can become overly comfortable analysing performance data while neglecting the human dimension that drives it. When leadership signals that relationships matter, it gives teams permission to behave with authenticity, building relationships, building trust, earning the repeat visits of the future.

I don’t believe anybody comes to work to do a bad job. I think they come to work to do a good job, but we’ve also got to give them the ability to be themselves, to not feel as though they’re in a corporate box where they just come in and go through a process and then go home. I’m not sure that that’s good for them and I’m not sure it’s good for the guests. I’m always encouraging leadership in our business to foster that freedom.

If we genuinely understand what brings guests back, we can refine our proposition with precision – adapting product, service and communication to meet evolving expectations. That creates a virtuous cycle: stronger relationships, higher retention, increased spend, increased return visits and ultimately improved profitability.

When guest experience is measured not only by sentiment but by repeat behaviour, it stops being a buzzword. Will that lead to improved profitability? Absolutely it will.