Data can be both incredibly helpful and overwhelming for those in the hotel industry. On one hand, property managers can use data management software to help organize everything, but what do you do once you have the data? What are all of the different kinds of data that you can collect? Most importantly, how can you use this data to make more profit?
This article will particularly look at the ways in which you can utilize your hotel data management system and increase your profit as well. If you do not currently have your own hotel data management system, then consider looking at ours and scheduling a consultation today! The following practices will give you an idea of all of the benefits that come with a system that can house and organize your hotel data.
Distribution Channels
With a PMS (property management system), you can control where you display your availability and update your room rate changes. With this, you can also determine which distribution channels guests prefer to use as well as which channels are not giving your hotel the spotlight it needs.
For example, you may find out that guests have been discovering and booking your hotel on certain online travel agencies (OTA) or third-party booking engines rather than the hotel’s central reservation system (CRS). With this in mind, you can work on a marketing strategy to improve that traffic even more, now that you know where potential customers are looking. Use these third-party options to your advantage, as they open up even more opportunities for guests to learn about your hotel.
This can also help with price optimization; knowing what guests are looking for and presenting the right information at the right time (and the right price) will help increase profitability.
Predictive Analytics
Guests have tendencies and preferences, so why not make the most of that? Whether it is seasonal patterns, used services, purchase decisions, or booking behaviors, you can use this information to your advantage. If your PMS has an artificial intelligence (ours does!) or something that can help you analyze the data you’ve collected, it is entirely possible to predict future trends and patterns and get ahead of it to maximize your profits. Guests will be happy to know that you have noted their choices and habits and will be more likely to come back.
Plus, if you know what other guests like, this can help you improve your first impressions with other guests. At this point, data can only help you enhance your guests experience, both long-time customers and new, alike. You can maintain and increase your guest loyalty if you better understand your guests and know what will appeal to them.
Email Campaigns
This marketing strategy goes hand-in-hand with predictive analytics; with the hotel guest data you’ve gathered, you can bring customized promotional opportunities to customers through emails. You can personalize email journeys for loyalty programs and even have specific emails for regional areas.
The data you can collect from email campaigns is helpful too–learn how many unique clicks your emails have gotten, the number of subscribers you have, as well as how successful your CTAs (call to action) have been. As the data comes in, you can adjust accordingly.
With email campaigns as a way to better make use of your hotel data management, you can also use this resource to up-sell your rooms. Guests who know that you will nurture their business relationship with you will be more likely to be a return customer as well as refer your business to their friends.
Products & Services
Along with guest data, hotels also collect data on their products and services, which impacts what hotels procure for their business. The number of items and products that hotels amass and purchase each year can have a significant impact on revenue and profitability. When hotels take note of the data that they receive on food & beverage, linens, furniture, and equipment, they can use this management of data to better understand what is actually helping their revenue and what is not.
Hotel data management helps with efficiency, and knowing what is positively affecting your revenue and what is negatively impacting it is well worth your time. You can streamline your inventory control by tracking what has been purchased, its effect, and whether it needs to get purchased again. Looking at this type of data can also ultimately help with your budget analysis, helping you determine what your hotel (and your guests) really need.
How We Can Help
Our PMS, believe it or not, can actually handle all of these aspects mentioned above. You can pick and choose what would work best for you and your property, but our hotel data management system is capable of helping you determine what is best for your business. You can take a look at our PMS & other features on our website!
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