Loyalty Series

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Loyalty doesn’t start with guests. It starts behind the front desk.

Ask nearly any hotelier today what’s keeping them up at night, and you’ll hear the same thing: staff.

Not just finding them, but keeping them. Training them. Motivating them. Trying to maintain the same level of guest experience when your team changes more often than the lobby playlist.

The reality? You can’t build long-term guest loyalty without long-term team loyalty. It’s like trying to run a marathon with one shoe: it’s possible, but unnecessarily painful.

At Profitroom, we hear it all the time: “We’ve got a great service culture, but it’s exhausting rebuilding it from scratch every time someone leaves.” And given the constant churn many hotels are facing, it’s no surprise that consistency - once a hospitality hallmark - is becoming a luxury.

That got us thinking: what if technology could play just as big a role in retaining staff as attracting guests?

Because increasingly, we’re seeing that smart tools aren’t just supporting operations; they're quietly enabling cultures where high-performing teams want to stay. So instead of asking only how we retain our guests… maybe it's time we ask how we're retaining those who deliver their experience every day?

Let’s talk tech, loyalty—and where hospitality is heading next.

“Loyalty” isn’t just a guest word anymore

We usually talk about loyalty in terms of guests: point systems, upgrade tiers, the occasional late checkout email. But what if we took the same mindset and applied it to the people who work in our hotels?

We’re not saying you need to hand out gold status to your night manager (though hey, not a bad idea). But the concept - the reward for long-term engagement, the recognition for hitting milestones, the structure around advancement - works just as well internally as it does for guests.

Some of the hotels we work with are already exploring it. Reservation departments, in particular, are using Profitroom dashboards to track team performance: How many inbound calls became bookings? Who’s consistently converting? Bonus systems based on actual outcomes? Already happening.

And it works. Because people engage more when they see their impact. No complicated programmes, just clear data on what’s working. For guests and teams alike.

Reducing friction = increasing retention

Let’s make one thing clear: Profitroom isn’t getting into HR tech. (No “Internal Loyalty-as-a-Service” here.) But here’s what we are very much a part of: removing the friction that drives talented people out of hospitality.

We’ve seen this time and again: hotel staff aren’t walking away from the industry because they don’t love hospitality. They’re leaving because working with outdated, chaotic tech systems makes delivering a great guest experience feel impossible: 

• Manual reconciliations across six platforms. 
• Apologies delivered daily due to avoidable tech errors. 
• Processes built around workarounds instead of workflows designed for humans first.

Increasingly, younger hospitality professionals are applying for jobs with a simple question in mind: “Will I be expected to work with tools that make my shift easier or harder?” 

This is where the right platform makes a very real difference. We’ve even had hotel candidates highlight experience with Profitroom tools in their applications. We took the hint and launched a certification programme for hotel staff, because upskilling your team and helping them feel confident in their tools? That’s pretty powerful in today’s hiring market.

Automating recognition: it’s happening (kind of)

Have clients used Profitroom to reward staff with automated messages or points for service milestones? Not officially. But we know of a few creative properties who've started experimenting, like sending internal mailings celebrating guest satisfaction scores or conversion surges.

Do we think there’s potential for more of this? Absolutely. Post-pandemic, more hotels are leaning into performance visibility, and tying guest satisfaction to team action is a natural next step.

While most of our clients are still focused on external performance (guest engagement, bookings, revenue), it’s becoming harder to separate that from internal engagement. After all, happy teams make happy guests, and increasingly: guests can tell.

Flip the script: Market your team, not just your view

Here’s one example we love: a hotel group that designed uniforms with “The Super Team” front and centre, not the hotel logo. And guests noticed. The message? “You’re being looked after by an elite crew.”

Imagine extending this further using existing dashboard data, for example spotlighting top upsells per month or champion-level rebooking rates, in both internal comms and external content strategies (social stories tagged #TeamMagic anyone?)

Why limit recognition efforts solely inside break rooms? Public reinforcement matters too—because today travellers don’t just pick hotels based on thread counts, they return because Anna remembered their name… because David offered late checkout before they asked...

Hotels telling stories about people, not just places. That's where brand differentiation lives now.

So what’s next?

Hospitality is still, at its core, a human business. But the support those humans need is evolving fast—and hotels without strong digital foundations are falling behind.

If you’re thinking about loyalty, here’s our take:

• Start with your team. You won’t have consistent guest experiences without consistent people delivering them.
• Use the data you already have. Revenue teams track results. Reservation dashboards show conversions. Upsells, CSATs, return stays—it’s all there.
• Upgrade the tools. Not just for guests, but for staff. Modern platforms are no longer a nice-to-have perk—they’re a reason employees stay (or leave).
• Make loyalty internal, too. Show the people behind your property that they matter. Not just at the holiday party—every single day.

You’ve already invested in tech to attract the right guests.
Now it might be time to think about how that same strategy can help you keep the right team. Start here.