The money is already there. It is simply not being collected.
In the hospitality industry's relentless pursuit of measurable performance, one number has remained stubbornly invisible: the revenue that departs with every guest who was never asked to stay a little more generously. At a gathering of hoteliers in Marbella, a simple question — does anyone know how much your front desk is losing? — was met with silence, revealing not a failure of ambition but a failure of attention. The moment a guest stands at the check-in counter, present and receptive, remains one of the least examined junctures in the entire commercial life of a hotel.
- Hotels track distribution, occupancy, and marketing with precision, yet the revenue lost at the front desk each day goes entirely unmeasured — a blind spot hiding in plain sight.
- Front desk staff are left to rely on instinct or silence, with no real-time data to guide them on who to approach, what to offer, or when to simply step aside — and fear of friction makes inaction the default.
- A mid-sized hotel operating at typical occupancy can lose more than €15,000 monthly in uncaptured upselling revenue — incremental profit that requires no additional acquisition cost, simply the decision to ask.
- In luxury markets like Marbella, each missed interaction carries three times the financial weight, making the gap between potential and practice even more consequential.
- The proposed remedy is not automation but empowerment — technology that gives front desk staff the context to act with confidence, including the equally valuable knowledge of when not to sell at all.
- Until hotels integrate the check-in moment into their broader revenue strategy and begin measuring what actually happens at the desk, the money will continue to leave quietly, and no one will notice it is gone.
At the Smart Travel News Roadshow in Marbella, Petya Yaneva, chief operating officer of DeepUpsell, asked a room full of hoteliers a pointed question: does anyone here actually know how much revenue their property loses each day by failing to upsell at the front desk? Not a single hand went up.
The silence, Yaneva argued, is not incidental. The hospitality industry has grown sophisticated at measuring distribution channels, marketing performance, and occupancy rates — yet it has almost entirely overlooked one of the most commercially fertile moments in the guest journey. When a guest stands at the check-in counter, they are already present, already committed, and more receptive to additional offers than at almost any other point. And yet most front desks still operate on instinct, or more often, on nothing at all.
The barriers are not financial reluctance on the guest's side, nor a shortage of products to sell. The problem is simpler: staff have no real-time information about which guests are likely to accept an upgrade, which services match which profiles, or when it is better to skip the pitch entirely and move quickly. Fear of creating friction compounds the problem, and so opportunities disappear before they are even attempted.
The solution Yaneva envisions is not automation but informed human judgment — technology that tells staff who to approach, what to offer, and crucially, who to leave alone. Knowing when not to sell, she emphasized, is as strategically valuable as knowing when to sell.
The financial stakes are concrete. A mid-sized hotel of 180 to 200 rooms at 75 to 80 percent occupancy can lose more than €15,000 per month in uncaptured upselling revenue — nearly pure profit, since no additional acquisition cost is involved. In luxury markets like Marbella, where guest spending power is significantly higher, each missed interaction carries roughly three times that weight.
Yaneva's broader argument is that revenue management does not end at the booking confirmation or even at arrival. It runs through every guest interaction, and the front desk — still disconnected from the data systems and analytical frameworks that govern the rest of the business — remains the industry's most overlooked revenue lever. Until hotels begin measuring what happens at the desk and equipping their staff to act on that information, the money will keep walking out the door, quietly and uncounted.
The hotel industry has become obsessed with measuring almost everything: average daily rate, occupancy percentages, online conversion rates. Yet there is one number that remains almost entirely invisible to most properties—how much money walks out the door each day because no one bothered to ask for it.
Petya Yaneva, chief operating officer of DeepUpsell, posed this question to a room full of hoteliers at the Smart Travel News Roadshow in Marbella: Does anyone here actually know how much revenue your hotel is leaving on the table by failing to capture upselling opportunities at the front desk? The silence was complete. Not a single hand went up.
This blind spot is not accidental, Yaneva argued. The hospitality industry has become remarkably sophisticated at tracking distribution channels, marketing performance, and revenue management systems. But it has almost entirely neglected one of the most critical moments in the guest journey—the moment when a customer is already physically present in the building, wallet in hand, and most receptive to additional offers. The front desk, in most hotels, still operates on instinct and reaction rather than data and strategy. Staff members make decisions based on gut feeling, or more often, they don't make decisions at all. The result is a systematic hemorrhaging of revenue that no one is measuring.
The barriers are not what you might expect. It is not that guests lack the ability to pay. It is not that the hotel lacks the products or services to sell. The problem is simpler and more damaging: front desk employees have no real-time information about which guests are most likely to accept an upgrade, which services would appeal to which profiles, or even when it is better to skip the pitch entirely and simply speed the guest through check-in. Fear plays a role too—the worry that an aggressive upsell might damage the guest experience, that a misjudgment could create friction. So opportunities vanish before they are even attempted.
This is where technology enters, not as a replacement for human judgment but as a support system. The goal is to arm front desk staff with context and insight so they can make smarter decisions in real time. The technology should tell them who is likely to say yes, what might appeal to that particular guest, and crucially, who should be left alone. That last point matters more than it might seem. Knowing when not to sell is as valuable as knowing when to sell. It frees up time at the desk, reduces friction, and allows staff to handle problems and complications more quickly for other guests.
To illustrate the financial impact, Yaneva offered a concrete example: a mid-sized hotel with 180 to 200 rooms, operating at a typical occupancy rate of 75 to 80 percent. In that scenario, the monthly revenue lost to uncaptured upselling opportunities can exceed 15,000 euros. This is nearly pure profit, since these are incremental sales with no additional acquisition costs. The money is already there. It is simply not being collected.
The stakes are even higher in luxury markets like Marbella, where each missed opportunity carries three times the financial weight. Guests in these segments have higher spending power and larger average bills. A failed upsell in a five-star property is not the same as a failed upsell in a mid-market hotel.
Yaneva's core argument points to a deeper transformation that the industry has not yet embraced. Revenue management does not end when the guest completes their online booking. It does not end when they arrive at the property. It continues through every interaction, and especially at the critical moment of check-in. Yet most hotels have not integrated this phase into their overall revenue strategy. The front desk remains disconnected from the data systems, the analytics, and the decision-making frameworks that govern the rest of the business. Until that changes, until hotels begin measuring what is actually happening at the desk and equipping their staff with the tools to act on that information, the money will keep walking out the door—and no one will even know it is gone.
Citações Notáveis
You are losing money, but not because of costs—you are losing it because you are letting go of additional revenue opportunities that you are not even measuring.— Petya Yaneva, COO of DeepUpsell
You have everything under control... except what happens in front of your reception desk.— Petya Yaneva, COO of DeepUpsell
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
So the core insight here is that hotels are blind to their own losses. They measure everything except the one thing that matters most.
Exactly. They know their ADR to the decimal point, but they have no idea what happens in that three-minute window when a guest is standing at the desk with their credit card out.
But why? If the money is sitting there, why hasn't the industry solved this already?
Because it is invisible. There is no invoice for lost revenue. No guest complains that they were not offered an upgrade they did not know existed. The loss is silent, so it feels like it is not real.
And the staff—are they the problem, or are they just working without the right information?
They are working blind. A front desk agent cannot read minds. They do not know which guest has the budget for a suite upgrade, which one would pay for late checkout, which one should be left alone because they are already frustrated. Without that data, they either guess or they do nothing.
So technology is the answer.
Technology is the tool. The real answer is treating the front desk like a revenue center instead of a cost center. Once you measure it, once you give staff the context they need, the behavior changes. The money appears.
And in a place like Marbella, where guests have real money—
The stakes are three times higher. A missed opportunity at a luxury property is not a few euros. It is hundreds.