Today, travelers’ wants and needs are evolving at such a rapid pace that hoteliers often find themselves unable to do what they do best: anticipating guests’ needs and compelling them to return.

Thus, third parties like the OTAs, Google and Airbnb have created opportunities based on the industry’s inability to adapt.

Many in the industry are placing their bets on a saving grace known widely as “personalization.” While personalization might start to sound like a buzzword, it’s incredibly important to hotel marketing and revenue teams.

Hotels today have the ability to remove friction and use data to personalize the booking process and then ensure that same level of personalization translates on property and throughout the entire guest journey.

While it might seem too daunting of a task to tackle for your hotel, a panel of personalization experts speaking at HITEC in Houston last week recommended starting small and making incremental changes.

“Personalization is crawl, walk, run,” said Jenna Villalobos, Vice President of Revenue Management at Outrigger Hotels & Resorts. “There are simple things you can do to drive more relevant conversations.”

1. Start with culture

Start by explaining to your staff what guest personalization means to your hotel, and then begin creating opportunities to allow guests to tell you why they’re traveling, said Tim Sullivan, Chief Revenue Officer at Cendyn.

You don’t have to start by adding new software or technology. First, create a culture of testing and feedback and then you can move quickly to make adjustments and improve, the panelists agreed.

Software should aid as a resource.

“It’s not about replacing humans, it’s about putting the technology in place that will empower the staff,” Villalobos said. “There’s no one piece of technology that’s going to solve all your personalization issues. It’s really an operational change.”

2. Centralize the data

John McAuliffe, President at Achiga, said there are two components to organizing your guest and transaction data so that it can be accessed at the right time for personalization purposes.

One, your guest profile data — including previous stay data and “in the moment” data — needs stored in a CRM or some data warehouse, and must be accessible by the rest of the necessary systems. This means the right file structures, APIs and integrations are important. Today, that data often sits in multiple siloed systems and applications, McAuliffe said.

Next, you must be able to bring that data together and map out a customer journey that’s appropriate to each individual.

“Deliver relevant content that customer actually cares about,” he said.

3. Align departments around goals

Your revenue team might be analyzing all the data in the world, but it’s up to the marketing team to put it into action. Therefore, the teams must be closely aligned and share metrics and goals for success.

“Personalization works best when it’s a blended duty of marketing, revenue management and operations,” Villalobos said.

She said each touchpoint with the guest is an opportunity, and that pre-arrival upgrades are her favorite way to increase revenue.

4. Connect with guests in new ways

Once you’ve begun collecting data, you can start engaging with guests through new digital channels.

Let them know where the amenities are located before they arrive on property, McAuliffe suggested.

“You could send a text that says, ‘Welcome, we see that you’ve landed, here are three ways to get to the hotel,’” he said.

5. Make relevant offers

Relevant offers boil down to filtering and limiting the amount of content you show a guest, removing that leg work from their end.

“In the booking engine, if you stayed with us 15 times, we should know that,” Sullivan said.

Villalobos said personalization should be a key driver of revenue optimization. It starts with simple things like loyalty pricing, then moves into more complicated segmenting for tailored rates and personalized dynamic pricing.

“Golf, spa, dinner on the beach — all of those are opportunities to make more money, but you need to be lockstep with marketing,” she said. “Work with marketing to segment the database and find offers that go to each of those segments.”

Jason Q. Freed, Managing Editor at Duetto
Jason joined Duetto as Managing Editor in June 2015 after reporting, writing and editing hotel industry news for a decade at both print and online publications. He’s passionate about content marketing and hotel technology, which leads to unique perspectives on hotel distribution and revenue management best practices.

www.duettocloud.com