Hospitality And Guest Service Excellence Now Pays Off Even More For Franchise Hotels

Despite that most seasoned hoteliers instinctually know that providing authentic, heartfelt hospitality experiences, combined with smooth, efficient guest service, has a direct impact on revenue, there’s finally some great news about how doing so directly affects both the top and bottom line.

Whereas success in direct sales and online marketing can be measured directly by empirical key performance indicators, so far the best the industry has done to measure the impact excellent service has on profits has been guest satisfaction surveys and net promoter scores.

But now at least two of the major brands are starting to reward franchisees with discounts and fee considerations based on how real-world guests directly rate their experiences.

For example, during a second-quarter 2026 earnings call, Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta referenced a newer program called RISE that discounts fees for hotels scoring well on guest satisfaction surveys, thus incentivizing hotel leaders to train and motivate their staff members to provide good service.

Similarly, on Marriott’s second-quarter earnings call, CEO Tony Capuano said, “We are also now planning to roll out a new ITR, or Intent to Recommend incentive, in the U.S. and Canada that will provide a fee discount for top hotels that receive strong guest satisfaction scores.”

Later in the call, Jennifer Mason, EVP / CFO, added, “It’s up to 50 basis points of gross room revenue, fee reimbursement for achieving defined ITR thresholds. That will start to be baked in for the back half of the year.”

To me, this is fantastic news for the overall industry, and I truly hope that other major brands soon follow this trend. For far too long, brands have seemed to believe that their point-based programs alone were the biggest drivers of brand loyalty. Of course, points are important, especially to those who — like me — spend almost as many days in a hotel as they do at home. But they seem to overlook that most of us road warriors are members of multiple programs. Also, OTA programs such as Expedia’s OneKey Cash, which rewards universal credits as cash money toward any future stay across all three platforms (Hotels.com, VRBO, and Expedia), are very tempting alternatives.

Besides obsessing over frequent stay programs to foster guest loyalty, we have all seen the major brands try to command more market share for various niche demographics by introducing a conga line of new brands. But many of us are finding that many — perhaps most — of the brands are starting to feel like the same hotel, but just with a different logo on the door and key card. For example, this summer my wife and I took several drive-trips up throughout the Eastern USA. Along the way, we stayed at Spark by Hilton, Holiday Inn Express, and Fairfield Inn. Frankly, if you blindfolded me and walked me into the guest room and/or breakfast bar area, I’m sure I would not be able to tell you which brand I was staying with.

Alternatively, these smart new brand reward systems apparently show that leaders are finally realizing that the biggest asset a hotel has is its people! These are the familiar faces who recognize you when you pass by. In fact, I can easily name a few I encountered this summer:

• The maintenance tech at the Residence Inn Lexington, Kentucky, who allowed my extended family to stay in the pool a little past the 9 p.m. closing hour in July, since the little ones were having so much fun.
• The front-desk associate at the Spark by Hilton at Roanoke Airport who proactively offered an accessible room for my 82-year-old mother-in-law when she observed she was using a walker, despite the fact that we had booked a standard room and had been blocked at the end of a long hallway.
• The Holiday Inn Express colleague at the front desk who empathized when we reported our cat Waldo missing and offered to get the staff to help look for him. (Waldo was later found hiding behind the nightstand in our room.)

What really brings guests back to the same hotel is its people, and that is evidenced again and again in recent surveys. For example, the Hotels.com 2025 Hotel Room Innsights report (reported only 12 months ago this month), 70% of hotel guests said they prefer in-person check-in and support.

Despite all the talk about AI-powered searches helping guests plan, Expedia’s Path To Purchase report reported last year that the largest source of inspiration in the initial phase is a conversation with a family member (37%), while 17% of others indicated it was a conversation with a co-worker or friend.

As AI utilization continues to grow, so does its misuse to create slop and deepfakes, and people may increasingly suspect that AI results are being manipulated. Will all this cause us to rely even more on recommendations from actual people we know and trust?

So hoteliers, embrace the tech innovations this era presents. But remember that you cannot out-tech the competition. Vendors who are selling you all those expensive innovations are also marketing them elsewhere.

Focus instead on the remaining “people parts.” Technology will no doubt continue to chip away at the remaining touch points in the cycle of guest service experiences, so make sure your team knows that every remaining guest encounter is that much more important. Tech companies refer to any remaining non-automated guest conversation as a “friction point,” but we should really call these “connection opportunities.”

If you are an independent hotel, you must still rely on anecdotal evidence that positive guest survey results and high NPS will impact your bottom line. But if you are a Hilton or Marriott franchisee, you should soon be seeing evidence of it somewhere on the P&L.

Originally published in Costar News Hotels

Doug Kennedy is President of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. a leading provider of hotel sales, guest service, reservations, and front desk training programs and telephone mystery shopping services for the lodging and hospitality industry. Doug continues to be a fixture on the industry’s conference circuit for hotel companies, brands and associations, as he has been for decades. Since 1996, Doug’s monthly training articles have been published worldwide, making him one of the most widely read hospitality industry authorities. Check out his monthly webcasts at www.KTNwebcast.com or visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com.