Quick-reference: Top 4 guest requests across all properties (2026)
If you don’t have time to read the full article, here are the top things that hotel, holiday park, and hostel guests ask about, based on 10,000 real conversations:
- Early check-in and late check-out: 1,131 requests
- Bed preferences: 650 requests
- Food and breakfast add-ons: 478 requests
- Parking: 453 requests
The data is based on 10,000+ conversation summaries from 1,000+ European properties that took place between March 2025 and February 2026.
Most accommodation providers think they know exactly what their guests want, but we decided to put that to the test by analyzing more than 10,000 guest conversation summaries across 1,000+ real properties in Europe from March 2025 to February 2026.
The results show what guests actually want—and expect—in 2026, ranging from early check-in requests to whether parking or their preferred bed type is available. And one thing that stood out is that the picture is pretty different for each property type, with hotels receiving more add-on related requests and holiday parks having to deal with more reactive, last-minute queries.
In this article, we go through the top four things that guests asked about across 10,000 real conversations. If you want to dive deeper into the research, access the full 2026 Guest Trends and Preferences in European Hospitality report.
See more detail on the research methodology at the end of the article.
Top 4 things guests request based on 10,000 conversations
1. Early check-in and late checkout requests
Early check-in and late checkout requests together account for 11.3% requests across all properties.
Since guests are already asking these questions, it presents a natural opportunity to earn extra revenue by proactively offering early check-in or late checkout as an add-on. Or properties can decide to provide this option at no extra charge depending on availability.
Either way, a simple automated WhatsApp message sent 48 hours before arrival helps understand the guests’ expectations for check-in and checkout, and ensure the property is ready to accommodate their needs.
2. Bed preferences
On average we spend almost one third of our lives in bed, so it comes as no surprise that bed preferences, such as requesting twin beds instead of a double, is the highest-volume individual request in our data. It came up in 6.5% of guest conversations, across hotels, holiday parks, and hostels.
It is also one of the easiest types of requests to proactively address. For example, a simple pre-arrival message asking about the guest’s preferences and offering any additional options you have, such as a pillow menu, means your guests’ experience starts off on the right foot every time.
3. Breakfast add-ons
Food or breakfast was mentioned in 478—or nearly 5%—of conversations, mainly relating to breakfast options, availability, and reservations. As you might expect, these breakfast-related queries are much more common in hotels than holiday parks and hostels, with it appearing in 372 conversations.
This shows that there is generally a strong intent to buy breakfast among guests, so hotels who don’t proactively offer it are losing out on revenue. And the proof is in the pudding as our research showed that nearly one in three upsell-interested guests click to learn more about breakfast add-ons when managing their booking.
4. Parking availability
Parking-related queries appeared in 4.5% of guest conversations, with this topic being most relevant for hotels (7%), especially at city centre locations where parking is usually limited. The queries mainly relate to parking availability, costs, and whether advance booking is required—queries that often bring up the opportunity for an upsell.
A pre-arrival message that gives information about parking eliminates the last-minute panic among guests who arrive at the hotel by car only to find that a spot needed to be reserved in advance, or frustration for guests who didn’t realize that parking was only available at an additional cost.
The difference between guest requests at hotels and holiday parks
As you may have noticed, while these were the top four queries when we look at the 10,000 conversations as a whole, the topics do tend to vary quite a bit depending on the property type.
For hotels, the top queries align with the four things we discussed in this article: early check-ins and late checkouts, bed preference, food and breakfast, and parking. However invoice and billing-related queries are also quite common in conversations (5%), followed by restaurant and dining enquiries (3.5%).
These queries are mostly pretty straight-forward to answer, yet most hotel front desks will spend hours responding to them and updating the guest details on the PMS every week, unless they use an automated communication tool.
For holiday parks, the picture is quite different. While bed preference-related queries are frequently mentioned, the most common queries are about baby and child equipment (8.5%), closely followed by appliance and facility issues (7.9%). Towels and linen requests and activities/leisure queries round out the top 5.
Different to hotels, some of the top queries for holiday parks are more reactive and relevant post-arrival. For example, guests arrive at the accommodation unit to find that they need extra towels or decide they want to book an activity as it’s a sunny day.
Automated guest communications can add huge value here by anticipating guests' needs with proactive messages, as well as providing instant responses to any urgent requests or issues they have.
What this means in practice for your accommodation
Regardless of property type, the data points in one direction: hospitality guests expect a service that is personal, fast, and hassle-free. That’s why anticipating their needs and proactively sharing useful, personalized information with them beats a reactive approach every single time.
So how can you do this in practice? Here are some quick-wins to help improve guest experiences at your property and boost upsells:
- Automate timing flexibility: Early check-in and late checkout queries appear in 11.3% of all conversations, so proactively sending guests information about check-in and checkout times and automated upsell prompts makes perfect sense.
- Collect preferences before arrival: Bed preferences, parking requirements, breakfast add-ons, and extra equipment needs can be easily confirmed via proactive messages, removing hundreds of queries from the front desk queue and making guests feel listened to before they even arrive.
- Instantly respond to requests: Appliance issues, missing equipment, and last-minute requests generate a lot of messages and lead to frustrated guests if they’re not resolved quickly. Automated messaging tools help you respond instantly, at any time of the day.
- Use WhatsApp and SMS: Guests prefer to communicate on the channels they’re already using everyday. Properties that use these channels can reduce inbound questions by 75% and open a direct channel for perfectly timed upsells.
As Michiel De Vor, CEO and Co-Founder of Runnr.ai, puts it: "The takeaway for 2026 is clear: guest communication strategy is no longer just about responding to enquiries. It is about anticipating needs, removing friction, and creating revenue opportunities through the channels guests already prefer."
Ready to automate guest communications? Test Runnr.ai on WhatsApp now or book a demo—no strings attached. Ask questions you commonly hear from guests to see how our AI can help improve guest experience at your accommodation.
More information on how this data was collected and summarized
This blog is based on chapter three of the 2026 Guest Trends and Preferences in European Hospitality report. As part of this report, Runnr.ai analyzed over 10,000 guest conversations in eight different languages across 1,000 hotels, holiday parks, and hostels across Europe. All guest responses and property names were anonymized.
The conversations took place between March 2025 and February 2026 on WhatsApp, Email, SMS, OTA inboxes (e.g. Booking.com inbox), and webchat. Positive, neutral, and negative sentiment messages were included to ensure the results showed the full picture, and 1.23 million button clicks were recorded to help capture guest intent as well as what they actually said in messages.
