Introduction
When an app is working properly, it can feel like magic. Smooth check-in. Your digital key opens the door. Room service arrives quickly. You never contact the front desk.
The reality is that the better the experience you provide to a guest, the more trust you’ve built up.
Hotel apps touch personal data (PII), identity, payments, access to rooms, devices, and communication. The hospitality environment is different than most: shared devices, busy staff, property during transition (change of ownership), and many users for short periods are all normal occurrences in hospitality.
This blog is a guide for building secure and private hotel apps. It’s written for hotel founders and operators who want to do what’s right but don’t want to build another bank application. It covers: data minimization, PII management, permissioning, secure messaging/safeguarding (protecting your app from being hacked), and incident response – customized specifically for hospitality. Proven benchmarks (e.g., OWASP’s MASVS standard for mobile app security) will be referenced throughout.
There exist two key limitations to the world of Hospitality:
1. Your clientele consists of “temporary users” only. They will install your application (or use it once), actively engage with your application from between one day to five days before disappearing again.
The operational environment (reality) wins over theory (design).
2. Staff use their tablets on the go, network coverage is inconsistent, integrations are mission-critical; the support team’s workload means that there are very few opportunities to build an ideal process (theory).
However, there’s also some good news: If you streamline your designs with respect to these limitations, you can create a secure and user-friendly system at the same time. Security doesn’t need to feel like friction – when it’s part of the flow of your design!
1. The easiest way to ensure data security is through data minimization.
If you take away only one piece of information from this article, it should be:
The safest data is data that you don’t collect.
Data minimization is also one of the tenets of the GDPR’s privacy standards as established by Article 5 of the GDPR (data must be adequate, relevant, and limited to what is necessary). Regulators appreciate this because they can quickly determine whether you are collecting too much (i.e., “just in case”) data.
Steps to make sure you are minimizing data collection in your guest-facing hotel apps (i.e., digital concierge, messaging, ordering service, upselling):
- For each field of data you collect, ask yourself these questions:
- Is this really necessary for me to deliver this feature?
- Can we have the user tell us after they check out, rather than collecting that data upfront for a feature?
- If you decide that it is not necessary, can you find ways to create that information without storing it?
- How long do we need to retain this data – hours, days, months?
- Can we anonymize or aggregate the data before removing the guest from the app?
The following are a few examples of data that are commonly collected in hotel apps:
- Date of birth in full (generally, you can verify a customer is of legal age without verifyingthe date).
- Home address (generally not needed for a guest to have a good experience).
- Images of a guest’s passport/driver’s license (only collect if required).
- Tracking a guest’s location (typically, this can be done by using “property context” to know where a guest is located within the property).
- Asking to access the guest’s contact list (this is generally considered unnecessary).
- Establish Retention Rules in Advance (not afterward)
The hotel industry has frequent turnover. This is a prime location to use Privacy by Design:
- Guest Session Data – retain only for the period of stay, plus a short additional time for support reasons.
- Message Content – retain for a specific time (such as 30-90 days) based upon business operations and/or disputes.
- Analytics – aggregate early; hold raw events for a brief time period.
- Crash Logs – black out any PII information, rotate often.
Strong Privacy Position = Default Short Memory.
The UK ICO Guide to Minimisation Decisions is a good, general, English-language primer for making minimisation decisions.
2. PII Handling - Treat Guest Identity as a "Hot Potato."
In developing hotel applications, there are numerous opportunities where PII will be present unexpectedly:
- Reservation Information (name, email, phone)
- Room Number (yes, this can be considered sensitive in context)
- Messaging History (messages to/from hotel may contain requests for medical attention, daily schedules, valuable possessions)
- Payment/Folios
- Device and Session Identifiers
Golden PII Rules for Treating PII in Guest Apps include:
Rule A: Do Not Put PII into Your Logs
- Logs are copied, shipped, indexed, and shared; therefore, once PII is in your log,g it can easily spread.
Rule B: Encrypt Your Data Both In-Transit and At-Rest.
TLS (Transport Layer Security) and database encryption (encryption of data within the databaseareis “table stakes.”Your real gains are:
- Access Control – Limiting Access to PII within your Environment
Rule C: Employ Tokenized Identifiers Instead of Raw Identifiers.
Rather than accessing reservations directly from “reservation IDs” or “PMS IDs,” guests should only be allowed access through app-level identifiers that have been mapped safely on the server side.
Rule D: Masking Data By Default In User Interface.
Example: Show “J. Smith” until the user requires their full name; hide room number unless necessary.
Some practical examples of “do this and not t.hat”
- Push Notification
✅ “Your request has been completed.”
❌ “Your request for additional towels has been completed for room 1208.” Lock screens should be treated as a common access for everyone.
- Email Magic Links / Verification
✅ Short-lived single-use or tied to your device, if applicable
❌ Lived for an extended period of time; one used link can be forwarded or reused
- Reservation Lookup
✅ Please validate the request with a second factor, such as an email (one-time password), or last name and confirmation code.
❌ Please provide your last name and select your reservation from a list.
3. Get Permission By Earning It, Not Assuming It
Good guest trust is an extremely sensitive matter. If a hotel app tries to get too much permission too soon, guests will simply delete the app.
Apps that have too many permissions also open up the venue to unnecessary risk. The principle of data minimization should also apply to the permissions sought on the device.
Here’s the permission model that works for the hospitality industry
Ask for permission later, ask clearly, and ask only one time.
- If you want to notify a guest, then ask for permission to notify them when the guest is managing device updates.
- If you want to use Bluetooth, then ask for permission to use Bluetooth when they are setting up the digital key flow.
- If you want the guest to take a photo of their ID, then ask for permission to use the camera to take the photo of the ID.
You should also convey to the guest the reason why you are asking for this permission:
- Bluetooth will be used to provide access to the guest room.
- Notifications will be used to notify the guest about any pending actions they may have requested.
- You will have permissions for guests and staff separately.
Most hospitable apps have:
- Guest app;
- Staff app;
- Admin portal;
- Kiosk/tablet mode.
A typical mistake is to try to combine the two apps into one for convenience (This is how permission boundaries get crossed).
- Keep the guest identity separate from the staff identity.
- Utilize role-based access control (RBAC) for staff;
- Carefully consider property-scoped permissions when providing integration services for a PMS, channel manager, or booking engine across multiple properties.
Because those systems frequently provide access to all users unless you specifically limit access.
4. Secure Messaging: A High Risk Feature in Hotel Apps That is Not Well Known
Messaging seems to be harmless (e.g., “Can I have some extra towels?”).
However, guest messaging can include:
- travel itineraries (e.g, “We are leaving by 7 a.m.”)
- medical information
- child information
- guest-related security issues
- complaints and evidence of disputes
We should view messaging as a sensitive communication system.
Messaging Security Basics (Built for Hotel Realities)
1. Always use authenticated sessions.
- No public chat links.
- No shareable inbox URLs.
2. Safeguard message previews.
- As discussed previously, ensure that push notifications are generic.
3. Limit staff access to messages.
- Staff should only have access to
- messages that are for them
- messages that are relevant to their job
- message history that conforms to message retention requirements.
4. Create tamper-proof audit trails.
- In the event of a serious incident, when you are investigating, you want to know.
– who accessed the message,
– who changed the status,
– who reassigned the message,
– and when the above activities took place. - Audit trails are also a feature that ensures a better quality of life (less chaotic operations) and thus should be considered in your scalable hotel app architecture.
5. Make sure you treat “secure attachments” with extreme caution (e.g., if allowed to upload a photo of a maintenance problem).
- Scan the uploaded files.
- Limit file types uploaded.
- Store uploaded files securely.
- Issue time-limited access links.
- Do not post storage URLs to the uploaded files.
A quick reminder of what “end-to-end encryption” is:
Hotel messaging does not have to use full end-to-end encryption (E2EE). Most of the time, the actual goal is:
- Protecting accidental leaks
- Preventing unauthorized internal access
- Limiting Retention
- Allowing for auditability
If you do utilize E2EE, think through the operation of how hotels need to resolve disputes, handle eescalationson and maintain continuity between shifts.
5. Incident Response: Simple Plans are Better than No Plans
You must face the fact that every day has different risks. So the hospitality industry’s best responders prepare as if nothing could go wrong; then, they contain that failure in a small area and respond appropriately.
One of the more researched resources used to create the response part of an incident is NIST’s Guide for Incident Handling.
The most fundamental things that every hospitality company should have in place to respond to any incident include:
1. Clearly Defined Responsibilities
- Who is responsible for making the decision
- Who will communicate the decision?
- Who can disable system functions?
- Who will contact any 3rd party vendor you integrate into your solution (PMS, Payment Processor, Messaging)?
2. “Stop the Bleeding” Checklist
- Revoke & Rotate Tokens
- Force Logout on impacted segments
- Temporarily Disable Specific Integration
- Pause Sending Attachments in Messages
- Turn Off Sensitive Notifications
3. “Guest Communication Templates” for alerts & notices
Basic elements to include in your alerts/notices to guests:
- What happened?
- What data was involved with the incident (if known)?
- What are you currently doing in response?
- What do guests need to do (if anything) to protect their identity?
- Where to go for assistance or support?
4. Vendor Escalation Paths
In the hospitality technology stack, code is typically developed and maintained by several third-party vendors. When creating an incident response plan for your hospitality business, you must account for your integration with:
- PMS vendor
- Payment provider
- Messaging provider
- Cloud provider (escalation path)
5. Learning from an Event
Successful organizations view events as product feedback.
Consider the following questions:
- What went wrong?
- What detection methods would’ve prevented the event?
- What could be automated?
- What could’ve been excluded from automation?
Key detection signals that could be useful to hotel apps:
- Unusual patterns of logins for staff/admin accounts
- A sudden increase in failed attempts to authenticate using OTP.
- An unnatural level of accessing messages.
- An unexpected number of exports is being generated.
- Suspiciously high rate of token refresh requests.
- Changes to the integration credentials.
Even simple alert systems can help detect problems before they happen.
6. A plan to ensure your hotel app is secure by design
When designing a digital concierge, room service ordering, or multi-property guest experience app make sure you create a practical security-by-design blueprint that preserves the UX of your guests.
Security-by-design Principles:
- Limit the data collected
- Limit access to data
- Limit the amount of time the data is retained
- Make all sensitive actions are explicit in the UX
- Keep records of all user activity (audit logging)
- Design your environment with the assumption that devices and/or networks are compromised
Establish an anchor with respect to security (i.e., not based on a personal opinion)
For mobile applications, use OWASP MASVS as your baseline – it’s especially useful when you need a shared language between product management, engineering, and quality assurance.
This emphasis on security-by-design principles will provide you with:
- Less exposure
- Greater robustness with regard to testing
- Greater clarity on what is a priority
Errors Associated with Hotel Application Development
- Data Collected for Personalization Later
Having a lot of data is beneficial; however, when you have too much data, your company becomes responsible for all user information. - Not Separating Guest and Staff Systems
Using current technology to execute daily operations and separate systems with an efficient board. - Including Room Numbers for Notifications
Having only one piece of equipment that sends and receives notifications is not ideal because it decreases security in the hotel. - Long-Lived Access Tokens
An old, lost access token is very difficult to get back. - Not Planning for Offboarding After Checkout
Both guest data and session states need to terminate intentionally upon checkout.
How Appricotsoft approaches security & privacy in hospitality apps
At Appricotsoft, we prefer to develop software we can stand behind – simple, functional and reliable. This isn’t a marketing phrase; it is part of how we determine the things we are going to ship (release) and what we will remove.
When we help teams develop hotel apps, security and privacy are part of our early-phase planning (discovery and architecture) and not just part of a final “hardening sprint.” The AI in our Unison Framework (our AI-first delivery approach) allows us to execute faster in almost every case since security decisions involve genuine guest trust.
Let’s look at how this happens.
1) We map and minimize data.
Before building features, we map out:
- What data is collected?
- Where does it flow? (e.g. PMS)
- Where is it stored?
- Who has access to it?
Then we delete anything not necessary.
2) We define permissions & roles like product features.
RBAC (role based access) and property scoping in hospitality is not just “back-end stuff.” They are safety nets for the operation. We design them with a real workflow in mind.
3) We treat messaging systems (e.g., notifications, service requests, etc.) as very sensitive systems.
- We provide previews
- We scope staff access
- We audit trail messages
- We establish and enforce retention rules
4) We build incident preparedness into launch check lists.
We align on:
- Who is responsible for what, as well as
- What is the escalation path for each vendor
- Key rotation and token revocation.
5) We are transparent about delivering (weekly demos, visible risks)
Hospitality products develop rapidly as real estate begins to use the product. Therefore, we will provide weekly demos to show what is shipped to confirm assumptions early and to help avoid costly rework.
If you are planning to roll out your product, we have also created a couple of additional references to help you with the rollout. You may like to read the following two references:
Conclusion
The security and privacy of hotel applications is not about creating a bunker. It is about creating trust between the guests and employees and your brand.
In order to create a great experience for guests, so they have an experience that is trustworthy and smooth, the following aspects should be taken into account:
- Data Minimisation
- Careful Handling of PII
- Permission/Discipline
- Using Secure Messaging
- Patterns
- Incident Response
If you want a reference baseline standard for your whole team to align on, OWASP MASVS is an excellent resource for laying out your mobile security requirements.
If you are looking to build a digital concierge, guest experience app, or multi-property platform and are in need of a partner that will help you deliver a product that takes a practical and human approach to security, Appricotsoft can assist you with that goal.