How to use data to power strategic decision-making in a hotel

As technology advances and customer expectations rise, hoteliers are increasingly turning towards data-driven solutions to help them stay ahead of the competition. By leveraging guest data, hotels can gain valuable insights into their customer's needs and preferences that can be used to improve the overall guest experience.

Recent studies have shown that almost three-quarters (73%) of travellers believe that personalization is an important factor in choosing a hotel for their next trip. This demonstrates just how essential it is for hotels to utilize guest data if they want to remain competitive in today's market.

By embracing guest data, you are giving yourself and your hotel managers the tools they need to make successful decisions and ensure guests have the best experience possible. In this article, we'll discuss five ways hoteliers can use guest data to boost their business and results.

To enhance Guest Service and Experience

Your guest data is the best asset to help you personalise the experience for your guests and stay ahead of the competition. For example, you can use customer data to create profiles that include preferences like favourite restaurants, preferred music and amenities, and even room temperature settings. By using this information, you can tailor your hotel’s services to meet the individual needs of each guest. This not only enhances the guest experience but also helps drive customer loyalty and repeat visits.

Enhancing guest service and experience is essential for hoteliers to remain competitive in today's market. With the rise of technology, customer expectations are constantly on the rise and hotels need to find new ways to keep their guests satisfied.

By leveraging guest data, you can gain valuable insights into their customer's needs and preferences that can be used to improve the overall guest experience.

‍Looking to grow your guest loyalty? Don’t miss this article: How to design the right guest loyalty program - 8 Ideas to use

For higher Operational Efficiency and Resource Allocation

Save time and allocate resources where they are really needed can be a pain if you don’t have a correct overview. Here again, guest data can be your best friend. By analysing key metrics such as occupancy rates, average length of stay, customer satisfaction levels and your most requested services, you are able to identify the areas that are in need of more attention and personnel or resources, in order to maximize efficiency.

For example, let’s say after analysing your data you identify peak times for occupancy and this correlates with the times were bad reviews were given due to slow service. Now with a better overview and data to support it, you can distribute your staff in a better way to meet the needs of their guests during those periods.

Making sure that your hotel is running at its maximum efficiency is essential for staying competitive in today's market. Again, this not only ensures that the hotel is running at its peak performance but also helps drive customer loyalty and repeat visits.

To optimize Marketing Strategies

Marketing desperately needs the insights extracted from guest data in order to create campaigns and messages that resonate with the buyers, their needs and preferences. But not only that, it will also be useful to target specific audiences and tailor content accordingly.

In other words, by using your guest data and extracting insights, you will be able to reach the right people with the right message, making your marketing campaigns more effective than ever, with a lower cost per result. And this applies either in organic media, paid ads, email marketing or messaging campaigns.

For example, hotels could compare customer reviews from different sources in order to identify common complaints or compliments about certain aspects of their services. This information could then be used to refine targeted advertising content and make sure it is tailored specifically for each audience segment.

Additionally, hotels could also use guest data analytics tools like TripAdvisor Insights to track key metrics such as customer satisfaction levels in order to optimise their marketing strategy further.

If you are looking to increase the efficiency of your marketing department, take a look at these 5 triggers to automate marketing communications

Proactive Guest Service and Issue Resolution

As a hotelier, you should strive to provide your guests with the best service possible. One way to do this is by utilizing proactive guest service and issue resolution techniques. By proactively monitoring customer feedback and reviews, you can quickly identify any potential issues that may arise and address them before they become major problems.

Additionally, you can also use customer data analytics tools like TripAdvisor Insights to identify keywords that are commonly used in customer reviews so you can get a better sense of what customers are saying about your hotel and provide better service.

This proactive approach will help ensure that your guests have the best experience possible and will lead to increased customer loyalty and repeat visits.

To provide Actionable Insights for Strategic Decision-Making

Pay attention to your metrics in order to make the right strategic decisions. In your guest data, you are able to identify key metrics such as occupancy rates, average length of stay, customer feedback and more.

This information can then be used to make informed decisions regarding the general strategy of the business. Identifying which areas are performing well and which areas are underperforming will be key to restructuring the course of your business and even modifying your approach.

If upselling has proved to be the source that brings the most revenue, you can consider increasing the investment in it. The same goes for the type of travellers you receive, their nationalities or locations can give you input on whether your paid marketing strategy is working or if something needs to be aligned.

Are you looking to learn more about how to use guest data? Don’t miss this article: How a Customer Data Platform for Hotels can enable business performance

Overall, using guest data to drive successful outcomes has become a staple of modern hospitality. By leveraging the insights from your guests, you can unlock powerful opportunities for growth and increased profitability.

With the right data-driven insights at your fingertips, you have all the power you need to make informed decisions that will take your hotel operations to the next level.