Now that the GDPR compliance laws have been implemented, getting your hotel GDPR compliant has become a mandate. And as you are faced with this daunting task of managing your customers data to ensure that their data is protected, there are a few points that can help your business.
All this extra work that you have to put into ensuring that your hotel is GDPR compliant has its benefits. Yes, apart from the fact that you will be avoiding lawsuits when customers from the European Union staying at your hotel complain about the misuse of their persona data . Let me run you through a few points that will make the GDPR look like a blessing in disguise.
1. It will make you organised: This new burden of segregating your guest information and ensuring its security will enable you to keep records of your guests’ data. You can segregate your guests profile on several parameters such as the country they are visiting from, local guests, repeat guests and of course guests from the European Union. Having an organised customer database and a record of their purchases will give you a massive advantage in the long run.
2. Setting you up for the future: Now that you have your data in order, think of all the data you will collect over the span of a financial year. We are in an age where data is king and a lot of the predictions you make for the next year will be based on the data you will collect. Let’s take a few examples of the data that will help you plan for the future:
– You will be able to categorise your guests based on the country they are from and thereby analyze the highest spenders out of the lot. Personalise your services to suit those guests the most and you’ve got a winning strategy right there.
– A record of guests that are frequent visitors to your hotel will help you retain them. Build their trust by studying their preferences, like their favourite rooms and drinks etc. Nothing shouts ‘hospitality’ more than a personalised experience. Want to take it a step further? Make your repeat customers an offer they can’t resist and keep them coming back, every time they visit the city.
3. A head start: The GDPR compliance will give you an edge over your competition. How you ask? Picture this, you will be filtered out as a GDPR compliant Hotel when your guests from the European Union search for a hotel. Delaying this process will ensure you miss out on the travellers visiting from the European Union.
4. The start of an ecosystem: Now that you’ve already gotten yourself organised and have measures in place to take care of security concerns, you can consider a large chunk of your worries handled. This might be a good time to look at the prospect of automating your operations with handpicked integrations like a reputation manager, channel manager, financial accounting system and a smart cloud-based PMS that supports such an ecosystem. Having a comprehensive yet user-friendly cloud PMS in place to take care of these peripheral activities will simplify your work sevenfold.
