The hospitality industry has grown at a rapid speed in the previous decade as more and more people travel via air making it one of the most profitable businesses on planet Earth. There are millions of hotel rooms across the globe serving hundreds of millions of guests every year. Over the years, hotels have developed unique ways to gain customers loyalty for their services and these days most of the hotels rely heavily on data analytics to better understand the customer requirements and make their stay comfortable.
Contents
- 1 Data helps generate the most relevant messaging to the target customer segments
- 2 Data helps identify the most profitable customers and then offer them special privileges and rewards
- 3 Data helps target omnichannel strategy by offering personalized recommendations through the right channels at the right times
- 4 Data helps personalize hotel experience by offering room types, amenities and locations that best suit guests’ needs as understood from previous interactions and bookings
- 5 Hotels should use big data for targeted marketing, increase revenue, improve guest experience and reduce costs
- 6 Bottom Line
Data helps generate the most relevant messaging to the target customer segments
As you can see, the booking says “Discounted room rate”, while the follow up email, which is a part of Hotel’s win-back campaign, says “Your next getaway”. Both messages are relevant to customers’ past preferences and needs, they are personalized and address the customers directly.
In general, travelers don’t like being marketed to. What they do want is personalized experiences that meet their unique needs and preferences. Data helps hotels gain customers’ loyalty by enabling them to generate most relevant messaging to target customer segments.
Data helps identify the most profitable customers and then offer them special privileges and rewards
Here are five ways hotels can use data to gain loyalty among current and potential guests:
- Identify guest personas
- Understand their preferences and expectations
- Categorize guest personas based on their buying behaviors
- Build loyalty through tailored offers and promotions
- Define KPIs to measure the success of your efforts
Data helps target omnichannel strategy by offering personalized recommendations through the right channels at the right times
Data-driven insights allow brands to create personalized recommendations for the guest, tailored to their preferences, location, and behavior. By knowing when and where guests are most receptive, hotels can increase engagement rates by sending targeted messages through the right channels at the right time. One example of this is sending a targeted email about a new property in New York City if you know a customer has indicated they are interested in traveling to New York City. Another example is offering potential guests insightful recommendations about local tourist attractions near your hotel through offline channels (posters, brochures), digital channels (Facebook, Twitter) or mobile devices (apps) depending on each guest’s preferred media platform.
Data helps personalize hotel experience by offering room types, amenities and locations that best suit guests’ needs as understood from previous interactions and bookings
Just like we see personalized ads on social media or a website based on our previous activity and interests, hotels can use data collection to provide guests with the most personalized experience possible. With so many choices available to them, travelers are now looking for unique experiences that match their preferences and needs. This helps in increasing customer loyalty as they keep returning to hotels that offer value-added benefits and one of the best ways to do this is through personalization.
Data analytics helps you understand the customers by collecting all relevant information about them including what they are looking for, what type of food would they prefer, where do they like to go during their stay at the hotel etc. Once you have collected sufficient information about your customers, it becomes easy for you to give them exactly what they want and when. The more you know about your customer’s preferences, the better quality service can be offered – from which room type should be offered based on individual taste to which location best suits their needs as understood from previous bookings. Personalizing a guest’s stay results in happy customers who are likely to return back again because of the personalized experience provided by your hotel and also recommend others about it too!
Hotels should use big data for targeted marketing, increase revenue, improve guest experience and reduce costs
- Data helps identify the most profitable customers
- Data helps target omnichannel strategy
- Data helps personalize hotel experience
- Data helps generate the most relevant messaging to the target customer segments
- Data helps personalize hotel experience by offering room types, amenities and locations that best suit guests’ needs. Therefore, it is important for hotels to know how to manage the data so that they can extract valuable insights from data and use them for marketing, increase revenue and improve guest satisfaction.
Bottom Line
Big data analytics opens a window for you to see what is happening in the market, who is doing what and when, where do your customers come from etc. It helps you offer the best products and services to the target clientele and hence gain more loyalty of your guests. Big data analytics really helps hotels improve their overall performance by maintaining customer relationship and increasing customer base. Using this information can help you take better decisions by providing in depth analysis on how to strategize properly based on ups and downs.
