The Challenge of Automating Customer Data for Loyalty

The hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and with the advent of new technologies, hotels are faced with the challenge of automating customer data in order to improve guest loyalty. This was the topic of a recent roundtable discussion at the FITUR conference, moderated by Lola Buendía, Marketing Director at BEONx, and featuring representatives from top hospitality leaders in the industry.

Carmen Bernabéu of UMUSIC Hotels discussed the UMUSIC experiential hotel, which offers a more holistic experience that includes accommodation, gastronomy, and entertainment. UMUSIC is working on creating dynamic prices for theatre seats that include the cost of lodging. This is in addition to offering a unique combination of a theatre and a hotel. The hotel is also looking into ways to collect and use information about its guests to make their stay more personal.

Reyes Mañeru of Hotelatelier presented their strategy for fostering customer loyalty through their loyalty programme called ‘tripster’. They promote the loyalty programme to expand the database of loyal customers, with positive results for room monetization. Loyal customers incur no acquisition costs and are more likely to return and purchase additional services. In addition, they have conducted pilot tests to make breakfast a mandatory meal, with positive results in terms of booking conversion and cost optimization.

David López of Ilunion Hotels discussed the company’s strategy of implementing dynamic pricing in all rooms, based on segmentation and regimes based on the time of year, to find ways for the client to leave more revenue in the hotel. They are also investigating how to build loyalty through restaurants and generate new lines of revenue through experiences. But it’s hard for them to figure out how to combine all of the income streams with their own costs so they can make accurate global forecasts for the business.

One common challenge faced by all the panellists is the complexity of bringing together data from all the services on a single platform. While they all have a lot of data, predictive models are limited when it comes to aligning different areas of the establishment and consolidating data. However, each hotel is finding ways to collect and use data in order to improve the guest experience and increase guest loyalty.

In conclusion, the challenge of automating customer data for loyalty in the hospitality industry is an ongoing process. Each hotel must find ways to collect and use data in order to personalise the guest experience and increase guest loyalty. By doing so, hotels can not only increase revenue but also provide a unique and memorable experience for their guests.