The hospitality industry gets more and more competitive by the day. Every year the players in the industry keeps increasing; OTA’s, AirBnB’s, TripVillas, Hostels, newer hotels and so on.Hotels need to ensure that they always have their ‘A’ game on and the best thing is that most of them already have the tools to do so. The Data collected by hotels is a power house of information; they can provide the path in which hotels can increase their revenue. Many a times small and mid-sized hotels get intimated by using the data collated by the hotel, they are so caught up with the day to day operations that the data analysis gets neglected. With a cloud-based property management system, collecting data becomes even easier.
Below we have outlined 5 ways in which hotels can use data to increase their revenue, after going through the methods I am sure most hotels shall no more neglect this powerful tool.
1. Improve digital communication with the guests
Hotels need to evaluate the data that they gain while communicating with their guests; the profile of the guest, their preferences, average hotel expenditure for a recurring guest and so on.
Taking it a step further, they should collect data on how and from where the guest is communicating with the hotel to understand how prompt a guest can respond to the hotels communication.
Hotels can use data to see which guests are eligible for the hotel’s loyalty program and get them to sign up for the same so as to capture the guest’s brand loyalty.
Data can also encourage hotels to offer the best incentives for a guest to book their hotel; a business traveler may have different needs as compared to a leisure traveler. Identify your customer first and then provide the right incentive for them to book at your hotel.
2. Underselling won’t always win you customers
Many hotels think that if they offer the lowest price, then guests would prefer to choose their property. That’s not always right and secondly it’s not a very profitable strategy for the hotel itself.
Many guests may prefer a value-add in lieu of a price discount, give them more value for their money. Use the data to analyze the profile of the guests and then identify what would be the best incentive for them.
Also hotels need to be smart and identify the guests who are willing to pay more as compared to those on a budget. A high network individual should be driven to book the suite instead of the basic standard room. This can either be done with past experience with the said guest, or else hotels can invest in data intelligence tools that can help them to project the amount a guest is willing to pay.
3. Last Minute Booking App Intelligence
The hospitality industry is changing, initially many hotels looked down upon selling their rooms on the last minute booking app thinking it may cheapen the hotel’s brand, but compared to the alternative of having unsold rooms, this is definitely a viable option.
Last minute Booking Apps have immense data about potential guests as well as market intelligence about the hotel’s competition. Hotel’s can definitely increase their revenue by partnering with last minute booking apps and ensuring that even at the last minute, their unsold rooms has a huge market reach.
4. Understand the patterns in guests activities
How are the guests booking the rooms?
Are they using points, debit cards or credit cards to book their rooms?
Are they business or leisure travelers?
Is there large traffic coming from a particular country?
The above questions can help hotels’ to identify their marketing plans, is there a particular country that they should be targeting more? Is there a particular card company they can partner with? Are there seasonal packages that a hotel should offer?
Hotels need to analyze patterns similar to those mentioned above and see how they can use the information to the hotel’s advantage. A robust reporting tool can help properties better understand their data.
5. Provide extra points or miles on the guest’s loyalty cards.
Hotels should do away with the policy that extra points or miles are only awarded to guests who are paying the full rack rates.
Hotels need to leverage the information that they can gain by getting the guests airline or credit card loyalty program details. This can help a hotel gauge on what the customer’s spending capacity can be.
Hotels can also follow up with platinum card guests by directly marketing to them; they can offer special incentives to guests on the basis of their cards i.e. extra points on your next stay for xyz platinum card holder.
The above are some of the many ways in which hotels can use data to increase their revenue, and do understand that data collected from guests can be used to generate incremental revenue.
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