Guest retention in hospitality: active, lapsing, inactive and churned
What the answer looks like
Illustrative output on sample data
Illustrative example: how Lexi answers this for a hospitality group with nine restaurants and two hotels. It sorts guests by days since their last visit or stay, matched across POS, reservations and the PMS.
- Active, last 90 days: 84,000, down from 91,000
- Lapsing, 91 to 180 days: 46,000, up from 38,000
- Inactive, 181 to 365 days: 58,000, up from 55,000
- Churned, over a year: 162,000, up from 149,000
What the data shows
The active group is 8% smaller than a year ago, and the lapsing group is 21% larger.
What it means
Most of the new lapsing guests are hotel guests who used to dine at the group's restaurants between stays.
What to do
Send lapsing hotel guests a restaurant invitation tied to their home city, before they pass 180 days.
Want me to show how guests moved between groups over the year?
Why it matters
The size of your active guest base moves before revenue does. Splitting guests by how recently they visited, and comparing the mix with last year, shows whether you are holding on to guests or slowly losing them, while there is still time to act.
Frequently asked questions
How do you measure guest retention in hospitality?
Group guests by how recently they last visited or stayed, such as active, lapsing, inactive and churned, and compare the size of each group with the same date last year. Set the windows from your own visit and stay cycles.
Should restaurant and hotel guests use the same lifecycle windows?
Usually not. Restaurant guests visit far more often than hotel guests stay, so a lapsing diner might be 90 days quiet while a lapsing hotel guest might be two years. Set each window from that business's own repeat cycle.
What should you do about a growing lapsing group?
Act while those guests still remember you. Find what they have in common, such as a venue, an occasion or a channel, and send a reason to return that fits. Lapsing guests respond far more often than those who have already churned.