How to use guest data to enhance services and hotel bookings ?

Data is the new oil. It has the power to take businesses to the next level irrespective of the industry. And when it comes to the hospitality industry, well known players in the domain are already taking charge and making use of hotel guest data to not only improve guest services but also enhance their efficiency across several other operations.

Everytime a guest makes a booking, s/he expects a customised and personalised service from the hotel. And, in order to deliver on the expectations and provide better guest services in hotel, guest data is the passe-partout.

In this article, we are going to take a look at some important pointers that would help you build guest profiles and would let you know how to improve guest services in a hotel..

Email Addresses Of Guests

Email addresses can be cited as one of the most important aspects of utilising data to enhance the guest experience. Email addresses helps in building and maintaining a healthy host-guest relationship.

In this mobile-driven era, most consumers are not reluctant to provide their email addresses at the time of online booking as they expect to receive a confirmation from the hotel management via email. So, having a booking portal on your website lets you accumulate the email addresses of customers. And not to forget that this process works smoothly when the online booking engine is integrated with the hotel PMS. Additionally, the hotel guest data and direct online booking gets recorded automatically in the PMS.

But at times, guests tend to leave the email address field blank. However, you should not consider this as a dead end; rather,ask your front desk agents to make a polite request for their email addresses at the time of stay or check out, by offering the receipt to be sent on email and not a printed one. When there is a valid reason for asking the email address, the chances of customer denying it is less.

Special/Distinct Requests

Special requests can range from anything and everything related to room preferences or even allergies. And when you have a pool of guest data, these special requests can be fulfilled as the hotels can analyse the data and gets an idea on how to customise the experience of guests and offer perfect guest services in hotel.

With PMS like Hotelogix, hoteliers are able to offer their guests a chance to make their unique and special requests when they make their bookings. These distinct requests also include extras in-room like flowers or wine or chocolates and even activities. That is not all, guests also have the privilege to make requests to give them a pet-friendly room and even request for some special diet. Such kind of data gets recorded automatically on the hotel’s reservation folio which can further be saved in the profiles of guests to prepare well ahead in times of future bookings from the same guests.

Moreover, in order to make it even more unique and personalised, hotels can also record special dates like anniversaries and birthdays of their guests and surprise them with a cake or a gift.

Social Media Profiles Of Guests

Social media platforms like Instagram,Facebook, Twitter etc. could act as a great source to know about the likings and preferences of guests. However, that doesn’t mean that you stalk them; rather, use the platforms to gather information that would help you curate a stay to match the needs and likings of the guests.

For example, when a guest tags your property in their social media posts of a special dish or an activity that excited them the most, you can keep that in mind and offer them something similar when they book your hotel next time. If the post is related to their love for coffee then you can offer them a coffee hamper, if it is related to a spa experience then you can offer them a discount for availing a spa at your property.

Loyalty Programs

When a hotel offers loyalty programs they need the guests to provide some specific details to enrol them into the program. These information from the guests can further help the hotel management to learn the guest behaviour such as travel habits, spending habits,special demands and preferences etc. Based on these data, they can craft reward programs, special offers and improve future bookings to their guests.

No doubt, hotel guest data is crucial for customising special and unique guest experiences, but it won’t prove to be very helpful if the hotel isn’t aware about the easy way to access it in their favour. Therefore, it is imperative to use the right data management platform for sorting, analysing and acting upon it. This is where platforms like Hotelogix comes into scenario. It not only helps you understand how to improve customer service in the hotel industry but also makes sure that your hotel is not losing out on revenues.