I don’t even work in a hospital anymore. They call us a market.
Which is really odd for a Catholic nonprofit.
It’s pure invention on your part that the term “guest” implies no commercial relationship, no payment. There is certainly no such “common understanding”, as google ngram makes unambiguously clear from actual usage:
Google ngram comparison of “hotel guest” vs “hotel customer”
And how about these expressions?
guest performer
guest host
guest worker
These guests are receiving payment. How does that fit into the restricted definition that you have pulled out of your… brain?
Is there any amount of evidence that anyone could possibly present to you about the way the rest of the world uses the word that could convince you that you are wrong? If not, perhaps you should consider whether your mental model for the way language works is flawed.
Would you think that my mother in law is paying to stay here? If not, what word could I use to distinguish her from a customer? If not “guest” then what other word?
Has anyone ever assumed that your mother-in-law was paying you? Has she ever tried to pay you? Have you ever tried to pay her? Has a hotel guest ever skipped without paying and claimed in mitigation that they assumed that they were not required to pay, that it was Conrad Hilton’s treat?
The range of meaning of words is not held hostage to some implausible misunderstanding that you imagine might arise. There isn’t always a single word that can express exactly the narrowest range of meaning that you want to convey, and context is always part of communication.
“Reach Out” reminds me of the Bell Systems / AT&T commercial.
Of course, when I sing it I change the lyrics to, “Reeeach out, reach out and punch someone.”
I’ve got no dog in the fight over ‘guest’ but OTOH the phrase “hospitality industry” to describe the hotel biz makes me want to upchuck. ‘Hospitality’ has a connotation of doing something that’s not required of you, bringing people into your home out of friendship or generosity.
‘Hospitality’ as a commercial transaction is the Camazotz version of hospitality.
It looks like the expression first emerged in the Mad Men era, and took off in the 80’s and 90’s, passing “hotel business” in written prevalence in 1983.
That’s why we have these different words. When I say that my mother in law is a guest, you know without question that she has not been asked or required to pay. Why? Because that is what that word means. If I use that word, you wouldn’t have a question in your mind whether I charged her, because that is what the term “guest” means.
If we disagree on what a word means, how should we resolve our difference of opinion? What do you think determines what words mean?
Funny that you should mention that particular song. I was in the local Trader Joe’s on Saturday, and it was one of the songs they played over their sound system. I don’t think I’d heard that song since maybe the first year or three after it was originally on the charts, IOW, roughly half a century.
The songs the phrase makes me think of include the Four Tops’ “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” or the part of “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” where Neil Diamond says:
Now you got yourself two good hands
And when your brother is troubled
You gotta reach out your one hand for him
'Cause that’s what it’s there for
And when your heart is troubled
You gotta reach out your other hand
Reach it out to the man up there
'Cause that’s what he’s there for
Sounds about right.
Using @LSLGuy’s three categories, it strikes me as a mix of euphemistic BS and marketing-speak.
Me. 
The business has diversified quite a lot. In the '70s I think we were seeing some of those hostels that were more bare-bones service than actual hotels. And then we started to see BnBs, which really do not fit into the “hotel” category. “Hospitality” might even extend as far as KoA-type operations.
Yes there is.
Human Capital Management.
You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
“Guest” in the sense of someone entertained for pay, as at an inn, has been used in English for 700 years. Your battle is a little late now.
Without buy-in from all key stakeholders around the meaning of guest, these headwinds are going to occupy too much bandwidth. We’re going to need to have an open dialogue to drill down where the rubber really meets the road. Remember, there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Also, referring to employees as “assets”.
What’s a better word or term to use? I’m in HR and never viewed HCM to be particularly dehumanizing.