How To Use Data To Improve Hotel Operations & How a Cloud Hotel PMS Helps In This

In today’s digital era, Data is power. It enables you to gain competitive advantage in the market. Today, almost all industries grow by using data. Hotel industry is struggling hard to be in pace in this data driven business environment to manage hotel operations. When a Hotelier doesn’t know how to collect, analyze and put data into action to improve hotel operation, it becomes tough to survive, let alone strive.

Hoteliers face difficulty in using data effectively. Significant amount of data comes in from both online and offline sources. With such a vast amount of data coming in from all sources, it becomes quite a task to digest it, gain insights and put the same into action. This is where big data analytics for hotels comes into picture. It makes use of data to its fullest potential and prescribes areas of hotel operations it impacts the most.

Here are 4 ways hoteliers are using data to improve hotel operations-

1. Smart forecasting

Developments in time-trend analysis has made it possible for hoteliers to predict the impact of a certain event on their room occupancy. Forecasting future demand plays a big role in deciding room prices, allocation of manpower and budget, etc. It can also enable a hotelier to identify needs and come up with the right strategy as per the projection. For example, a popular music concert around your area will certainly land more than usual number of guests at your doorstep. With the right forecasting tool, you will be able to work on your room pricing using your property management system. Additionally, forecasting in advance will also give you insights on why to reduce your pricing to boost occupancy on days with low demand. If you are wondering how to improve productivity in your hotel, you must use data to forecast demand in advance.

2. Yield Management can be fine-tuned as per your convenience

Yield management allows you to sell just the right room at the right time to the right guest at the right price. It is certainly complex as it involves multiple aspects of your business to improve or maximize your profitability. Properties have been offering guest specific rates for years, for all the right reasons. Guests are opening up about their likes and dislikes loudly on review sites and on social media. Not just this, hoteliers have vast data from loyalty programs and CRMs via their property management systems which enables them to set the right price for an ideal guest.

3. It is easier to satisfy your guest

The ideal guest today is very vocal about both his likes and dislikes and his expectations from a hotel. Things get shared and noticed in the digital world. This can be a great motivator to understand a guest’s needs and complaints. Although, there are no replacement for the good old feedback forms, it has become a little trickier now. It gives a broader outlook into understanding the behavioural aspect of your guest and offer actionable insights for future planning. In short, guest data helps hoteliers to analyze and understand guest sentiment in order to serve them better.

4. Marketing effectiveness increases in multiple ways

By looking at each guest’s information from a data analytics point of view, you will not just be able to personalize your marketing or promotional offers, but also can persuade the desirable action. Does a guest eat a certain pudding every time at your property? Does a guest always avail the spa services? Use guest data, take note of each and every detail and offer customized services to your guests if you want to win over their loyalty and to improve hotel operations.

How does a smart PMS help you in this?

A smart cloud-based PMS like Hotelogix provides more than 100 reports on various aspects of your operations like night audit reports, reservation reports, forecast reports, POS sale reports and guest list reports etc. Additionally, a cloud PMS can be easily and seamlessly integrated with a smart Business Intelligence tool that can help you collect business critical data/information from the PMS, your website and from other sources at one place, in a single dashboard. It allows you to track your hotel KPIs, analyze them and create reports to take data driven decisions in order to improve hotel operations and to boost revenues.

This article was originally published in Hotel Executive