Customer loyalty and Italian identity: UNA Italian Hospitality’s growth strategy

The first eight months of the current financial year have proved positive for UNA Italian Hospitality, with its 60 properties, of which around 25 are affiliated establishments. The group recorded an 8.7 per cent increase in revenue compared with the same period in 2025.

This performance was driven primarily by changes in the geographical mix of demand: the number of guests from North America rose by +28.7 per cent, whilst those from Europe and the United Kingdom increased by +2.4 per cent. The leisure segment also performed well, with revenue from seaside destinations rising by +6.2 per cent in the summer of 2026.
“These results,” explained Giorgio Marchegiani, the group’s chief executive, “confirm the strength of our growth trajectory, but they also reflect a broader evolution of the market. Demand for Italia is increasingly international and diverse, spreading across cities, leisure destinations and newly explored regions, whilst travel is tending to move beyond traditional seasonal peaks. The growth in customer flows from North America, together with the performance of our seaside destinations, demonstrates how important it is to be able to identify diverse travel needs and support guests in a constantly evolving and increasingly sophisticated market, where travel is less and less a purely discretionary luxury and more and more a recurring component of well-being.”

The challenge for the hospitality sector is to build a lasting relationship with guests. It is from this vision that ‘untourist’ was born – UNA Italian Hospitality’s new loyalty programme, designed to make customer loyalty more flexible and better suited to the needs of today’s travellers. Registration is free and gives access to exclusive benefits from the very first stay, starting with a welcome bonus of 1,500 points. The programme is structured across four membership tiers – traveller, explorer, passionate and lover – which progressively accompany guests, offering increasingly exclusive benefits and opportunities. Accumulated points can be used to pay for future stays, room upgrades, bespoke services and experiences related to food & beverage, wellness, exploring the local area, as well as to purchase gift cards. The aim is to turn every guest into a brand ambassador, offering added value that goes beyond simple hospitality. At the same time, however, the programme helps to organise guest records and facilitates customer recognition.

“I want guests to feel at home in our hotels,” says the managing director. “A returning guest expects to be recognised and guided in exploring the local area. We’ll also show them what’s outside the hotel.” This is a process that has begun but is “still a long way to go”, and one that not only introduces incentives but establishes a way of working, an approach to the customer, ‘a real challenge for our staff’, warns the manager, who emphasises the importance of ‘retention’ not only in terms of guests but also in terms of staff, who are called upon to play a leading role in this strategy.

Around a year and a half after the rebranding, the group emphasises its core focus: “The essence of UNA is predominantly leisure ,” comments Marchegiani, “whilst also covering the business travel and events segment. The strongest results come from tourist flows and conference tourism.” July and August, too, despite inflation and the geopolitical crisis, saw positive results “with turnover figures up by 5–6 per cent, both for seaside and mountain destinations, driven in particular by the weather conditions”.
Whilst tourism in Italia continues to thrive, in general terms, buoyed in particular by foreign visitors, the same holds true for the hotel group owned by Unipol, whose primary market is Europe (including Italia), accounting for just over a third of guest numbers, followed in second place by the US market, which remains strategic with a 12–15 per cent share.