The hospitality business is present process a transformational shift, pushed by knowledge integration and progressive know-how options that improve effectivity whereas enhancing the visitor experiences. Throughout a latest panel dialogue at HITEC 2024 in Charlotte, hospitality consultants shared insights into how they’re leveraging real-time knowledge to distinguish visitor experiences and drive loyalty.
The panelists recognized knowledge integrations as a prime problem going through the hospitality business right this moment. By fixing the complexity of siloed knowledge from varied sources, every group has been in a position to create a complete view of their friends, enabling personalised advertising and improved visitor experiences.
“For too lengthy, siloed knowledge has prevented us from personalised advertising, actually taking a look at a P&L the right method, and delivering on visitor service and visitor personalization,” mentioned Shaun Wooden, VP of Enterprise Structure and Know-how at Sonesta Worldwide. Wooden went on to explain how Sonesta has overcome this problem by consolidating knowledge from a number of PMSs into an actionable format in a centralized EDW.
Under are areas the panelists recognized as crucial to the evolution of lodge know-how.
CDPs and Open APIs
Wooden mentioned Sonesta’s latest implementation of a Buyer Knowledge Platform (CDP) hosted within the cloud. With normalized PMS knowledge collected by way of the Hapi Integration Platform feeding Sonesta’s CDP, the corporate is ready to accumulate and retailer visitor knowledge throughout their portfolio of greater than 1,200 accommodations utilizing many various PMS programs. Open APIs facilitate seamless knowledge alternate between totally different programs, guaranteeing knowledge is accessible and actionable.
“We created a CDP, which is hosted within the cloud. Principally, all of our members and all of our non-members are saved on this one database in order that the entire firm can get a 360-degree view of our friends,” Wooden mentioned.
Personalised Visitor Experiences
Dan Swanson, former Director of Income Technique at Nemacolin Resort, emphasised the significance of utilizing knowledge to personalize visitor experiences. By analyzing visitor knowledge delivered to Salesforce CRM by Hapi Visitor, accommodations can anticipate visitor wants and preferences, providing tailor-made companies that improve satisfaction and drive loyalty.
“We created a pre-arrival reservations staff that has taken the entire knowledge of what the visitor has accomplished earlier than, all of their visitor service scores, after which reaching out to create a personalized expertise for them that basically anticipates their wants,” he mentioned.
Differentiated Visitor Experiences
Kimberly Choate, Director of Visitor Integration & Area Providers at IHG, shared how integrating visitor knowledge into IHG’s loyalty ecosystem has streamlined operations. IHG has applied monitoring programs on the property stage and dashboards that present real-time visibility into system statuses, enabling proactive concern decision and operational efficiencies, she mentioned.
One notable success is IHG’s progressive new function that gives One Rewards loyalty members with F&B vouchers primarily based on the visitor’s loyalty tier stage achievement. Permitting friends to redeem these vouchers for F&B purchases on-property by the IHG One Rewards cell app required the Hapi Integrations Platform, which centralized on-property and cloud knowledge to offer the framework for this system.
“With our meals and beverage reward voucher, we wished to make {that a} utterly seamless expertise that they’ll choose once they attain their milestones,” Choate mentioned. “Make the most of your cell app or your internet system when you verify into the lodge, have dinner within the restaurant or a drink within the lounge, after which if need to make the most of one in all your $20 reward vouchers, you may go to your cell app, click on on ‘Use My Reward,’ and it’ll routinely be utilized to your folio.” Hapi Integration Platform is essential to orchestrating all of those shifting elements to ship a seamless expertise.
Overcoming Technological Challenges
The panelists mentioned varied challenges, comparable to managing a number of Property Administration Techniques and guaranteeing knowledge safety. Options like CRM programs, which give a unified view of visitor knowledge, and microservice architectures, which facilitate safe knowledge alternate, have been highlighted as efficient methods to beat these challenges.
Wooden highlighted the complexity of coping with a number of PMSs. “We do not have one PMS, we do not have two, we do not have three, we’ve 16 totally different. And you’ll think about how a lot enjoyable that’s. So we shortly realized that we did not need to depend on PMSs to carry the entire buyer knowledge,” he mentioned.
Enhancing Loyalty Applications
Loyalty packages are essential for retaining friends and driving repeat enterprise, the panelists agreed. They shared insights into how knowledge integration helps establish visitor preferences and behaviors, enabling accommodations to supply personalised rewards and promotions that encourage loyalty.
“Considered one of our primary targets proper now’s to get as many new members as we will. After which after all the members we do have, we would like them to remain loyal and e book with us,” Wooden mentioned. “We’re seeing that once we take a look at the reserving conduct, our members are 4 instances extra prone to e book once more in comparison with a non-member.”
Future Traits in Know-how
Synthetic Intelligence and Machine Studying are poised to play vital roles in the way forward for lodge operations. The panelists mentioned how AI can help in predictive analytics, improve visitor interactions by chatbots, and enhance operational processes by automation.
“We’re simply delving into AI,” IHG’s Choate mentioned. “Among the preliminary work we have been doing is figuring out and ensuring that the basic knowledge is correct, as a result of AI instruments are going to select up various things.”
Under are a few of the key future traits recognized by panelists:
- Make the most of a CDP. CDPs retailer visitor knowledge in a centralized location, offering a 360-degree view of visitor behaviors and preferences.
- Leverage Open APIs. Open APIs facilitate seamless knowledge alternate between totally different programs, guaranteeing knowledge is accessible and actionable.
- Guarantee Knowledge Safety. Implementing sturdy knowledge safety measures is essential to guard visitor data and preserve belief.
- Embrace AI and ML. Synthetic Intelligence and Machine Studying can improve predictive analytics, enhance visitor interactions, and automate operational processes.
- Knowledge Integration is Important. Integrating knowledge from varied sources helps create a complete view of your knowledge, enabling personalised advertising and improved operational effectivity.
Conclusion: Hospitality’s Knowledge-Pushed Future
Leaders throughout hospitality are counting on real-time knowledge to make knowledgeable choices greater than ever earlier than, and by integrating programs to centralize data, accommodations can improve visitor experiences, enhance operational effectivity, and drive income development.
About HAPI
Hapi is the hospitality business’s main platform for quick and cost-effective connectivity between know-how programs, permitting lodge corporations entry to crucial visitor and transactional knowledge. Hapi exposes occasion streams and transactional APIs from lodge programs at scale; shops normalized lodge system knowledge in a safe and scalable vogue in AWS; and seamlessly integrates lodge knowledge into Salesforce CRM, permitting lodge corporations to ship enhanced, personalised visitor journeys. Hapi serves 7,000 accommodations globally, together with IHG Inns & Resorts, Sonesta Inns, Accor, Hyatt Inns, Rosewood Inns, Margaritaville and SH Inns and Resorts. Go to Hapi at www.hapicloud.io.
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