Hotel Upsells in 2025: Turning Travel Trends into Revenue
Upselling has long been a powerful part of hotel revenue strategy. It’s a proven way to capture incremental spend while enhancing the guest experience. The right offer at the right time can turn a good stay into a great one and deepen a guest’s connection to the property.
In 2025, the way guests discover, evaluate, and buy add-ons has shifted. AI-assisted trip planning, the rise of bleisure travel, and growing demand for authentic, local experiences are reshaping what guests value and how they choose to spend.
Properties leading the way in ancillary revenue are offering experiences that align with these evolving patterns, capturing spending at key decision points, and using technology to deliver offers seamlessly, so purchasing feels like a natural and valuable part of the stay.
Understanding the Upsells Guests Want
Travelers are looking for more than a place to sleep. They want experiences that feel personal, immersive, and worth sharing. Demand is especially strong for activities that connect guests to the destination and enhance their sense of well-being, and other upsells continue to resonate when they make travel easier or more rewarding.
Authentic local immersion
Cultural experiences lead the way, with 52% of global travelers planning to take part in them in the year ahead, according to Skift’s State of Travel 2025. Culinary exploration (34%) and adventure outings (35%) also rank high, offering a genuine sense of place guests can’t find elsewhere.
Wellness and restorative activities
The wellness travel segment continues to grow as guests seek ways to recharge during their trip. 36% of travelers cite wellness activities as a priority in their trip planning. Spa treatments, sunrise yoga on the terrace, or cycling tours can transform a stay into a restorative experience that guests remember long after they leave.
Convenience-driven enhancements
Offers that save time or simplify logistics can have as much appeal as premium experiences. Early check-in, late check-out, or on-demand airport transfers are especially valued by business travellers, families, or anyone with a tight schedule.
Trip extensions
Guests are more willing to add nights when compelling activities and experiences make the additional time worthwhile. Packaging additional nights with signature experiences can turn a short stay into a longer, and more profitable, booking.
AI’s Role in Shaping Travel Experiences
Guests are increasingly using AI tools to explore destinations, compare experiences, and create personalized itineraries in minutes. This means they’re arriving at your booking channels more informed and with a clearer vision of what they want. However, far fewer rely on AI once they are on the ground, with 67% of travelers using it for researching destinations and only 28% using it for local recommendations.
That gap presents a clear opportunity for hotels. Guests may arrive at the property with a trip outline influenced by AI, but still seeking trusted, local guidance to finalize purchases, and are more likely to book unique, high-value experiences directly with the property.
Hotels can bridge early-stage planning and on-property spending by:
Highlighting property-exclusive offers, such as experiences available only through direct booking.
Personalizing pre-arrival communications using booking details such as stay length, travel purpose, and past preferences.
Positioning the team as local experts through curated, insider recommendations that guests won’t find in generic guides.
Ensuring mobile-friendly booking through the hotel’s website, app, or QR codes so guests can act instantly.
Use your own AI tools to surface relevant upsell suggestions at the right moments.
Tapping into the Rise of Bleisure Travel
Business travel remains strong, but the bigger story is bleisure travel (the blending of business and leisure), which is projected to account for 79% of business trips this year. The rise of remote work has made it easier for guests to add extra days to their itinerary, work from anywhere, and enjoy more of the destination without taking additional time off.
This shift creates prime upsell opportunities, particularly when hotels make it easy to extend a stay and fill that extra time with meaningful experiences.
To capture this growing segment, hotels can:
Offer tailored extended stay packages that combine special rates with curated itineraries.
Provide workspace upgrades like private meeting rooms, ergonomic desk setups, or day-use office spaces.
Promote pre- and post-work experiences such as evening food tours, cultural performances, or early morning yoga.
Simplify last-minute extensions with technology that updates room access and billing automatically, without a front desk visit.
Making Upsells Seamless with Smart Access
While upselling focuses on creating more value for the guest, execution is just as important as the offer itself. If fulfillment is slow or inconvenient, enthusiasm can fade before a purchase is made. Technology removes friction so guests can discover, purchase and enjoy upgrades on their schedule. Smart access takes this further by helping to automate fulfillment of upsells, such as:
Early check-in or late checkout with automatic access updates
Room upgrades activated without reissuing keys
Extended stay access for last-minute trip changes
Amenity access to spaces like private lounges or co-working areas
It’s a simple way to turn a good stay into a great one, without adding extra work for your team.
Final Takeaway
Upselling in 2025 is about anticipating guest needs, timing offers to match their journey, and removing friction at every step. Rising demand for authentic local experiences, the growth of bleisure travel, and the influence of AI-assisted trip planning are creating more opportunities than ever.
Technology makes those opportunities actionable. Well-timed pre-arrival messaging and in-stay communications keep offers relevant, while mobile booking allows guests to act on impulse. Smart access completes the experience by enabling instant fulfillment for early check-ins, room upgrades, stay extensions, and amenity access. Together, these tools turn upsells into seamless enhancements that guests appreciate, while delivering consistent, incremental revenue that strengthens the hotel’s bottom line.
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