Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) has released its 2025 Hospitality and Travel Report, providing insights into trends reshaping the hospitality industry.
Released recently, the report highlights the pivotal role of seamless payment experiences and the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) in enhancing guest satisfaction and driving business growth.
With insights drawn from global research, including a survey of 7,661 hospitality merchants across 19 countries, Adyen’s findings underscore the critical need for hotels to adapt to evolving consumer behaviors to stay competitive in a dynamic market.
One of the standout revelations from the report is the increasing demand for frictionless payment experiences.
Over a third (37%) of consumers have abandoned hotel bookings due to inflexible payment options, signaling that payment processes can directly impact revenue.
The report identifies digital wallets as a preferred payment method, with 15% of hotel bookings made online using this technology in 2024.
Additionally, emerging trends show 10% of guests booking stays via social media for the first time in the past year, and 6% utilizing Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) services.
These shifts reflect a move toward payment flexibility, with 40% of hotel guests expressing a preference for not paying the full amount upfront.
This trend aligns with the rising popularity of BNPL services, as travelers seek control over their budgets.
The report also emphasizes the importance of a seamless guest experience from booking to checkout, with 59% of consumers citing this as a key factor when choosing a hotel.
Offering a range of payment options is critical, as 49% of surveyed consumers noted that diverse payment methods influence their booking decisions, and 42% said greater options would encourage larger purchases.
To address this, 60% of hotel businesses plan to enhance their payment journeys in the next 12 months, with 58% recognizing that investment in financial technology can differentiate them from competitors.
AI is another game-changer highlighted in the report, with a rise in its adoption for booking travel experiences.
Notably, there has been a 106% year-on-year increase in Boomers using AI to book, marking the largest global surge among user groups.
Over half (63%) of American hospitality businesses believe AI search tools will reshape the industry in 2025, while 55% see AI-driven automation as a transformative force for personalizing guest experiences.
Adyen’s integration of AI into payment platforms, such as its Adyen Uplift suite launched in January 2025, optimizes transactions by improving authorization rates and reducing fraud.
With 39% of accommodation providers reporting a rise in payment fraud attempts over the past year, Adyen Uplift’s AI-powered fraud prevention module, Protect, cuts false positives by 86%, ensuring genuine guests face minimal booking friction.
The report also underscores the hospitality industry’s broader challenges, including rising operational costs and labor shortages, with over 6,000 new hotels under construction globally in 2024.
As the sector anticipates a booking value exceeding $1 trillion in 2025, technology—particularly unified commerce and tokenization—offers solutions to streamline operations and enhance guest trust.
Unified commerce synchronizes payment channels across online, in-app, and in-store platforms, while tokenization secures payment data, enabling faster checkouts and repeat transactions.
Adyen’s 2025 Hospitality and Travel Report serves as a call for the industry to embrace payment solutions and AI-driven personalization.
By addressing consumer demands for flexibility, security, and better experiences, hotels can potentially boost revenues and build lasting guest loyalty in an increasingly competitive environment.