The term ‘big data’ was first coined in the 1990s.
Big data is used to describe the huge volume of structured and unstructured data that a business collects every day.
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It is growing at an incredible rate. According to Forbes, 90 percent of the world’s data was generated in the last two years.
When you think about it, the hospitality industry has various customer touchpoints. It captures a large amount of data every day. Hospitality businesses have more data at their fingertips than ever before.
With effective use of analysis, hospitality businesses can dramatically improve their business operations. It provides them with ample opportunities to generate more revenue and deliver an excellent customer experience.
Most important, they can target more effectively and drive personalization across various touch points.
Top Applications of Big Data in Hospitality
Let’s understand how big data can bring significant changes to a hotel near you. This article will discuss five important applications of big data across the hospitality sector.
1. Targeted Marketing
Big data is revolutionizing the way the marketers segment their customers and target them to drive loyalty and awareness.
Hotel guests are highly varied, ranging from regular business visitors to family guests, or couples on honeymoon, and more. It means that hotel businesses need to get a more detailed understanding of their guest’s preferences.
Big data in the hospitality industry allows them to micro-target their customers based on their behavior. It enables them to create specific promotions for specific segments to drive real engagement.
For instance, big data can help segment customers based on how frequently they visit the hotel or guests who like to enjoy the relaxation perks of the hotel.
Accordingly, you can create targeted promotions offering your frequent visitors discounts on their next stay. For customers who like to enjoy spas, you can offer them discounts on your spa center.
Undoubtedly, big data provides the ability to identify the best opportunities for your business. You can target key demographics, primarily through online advertising. It includes both location and time-specific marketing, allowing hoteliers to reach to their customers at the time most relevant to them, and at places where they most likely want to see it.
2. Offering Personalization
In today’s time, customers want personalization when dealing with companies.
The ultimate aim of personalization is to deliver the best-in-class customer experience.
Analysis of big data hospitality industry helps hoteliers to understand their customer’s preferences and study what they want. They can collect and combine the first-party set with other applications data to create a detailed view of consumer’s behavior.
Many companies track and analyze customer’s travel history, their interests, and online behavior to provide excellent customer service.
Using that information, hoteliers can personalize different touchpoints, including websites, booking processes, and more. It will drastically improve returns and provide real value to the company as well as customers.
Find out more:Top 10 Essential Marketing Tips for Hoteliers To Increase Hotel Bookings
In fact, it provides an opportunity for hotel chains to form strategic partnerships with restaurants and movie halls that their guests already visit. They can then offer their customers discounts and coupons to keep them happy. They feel valued.
Furthermore, collecting feedback data can itself serve as big data to improvise on your hotel’s service and personalize your customer experience.
3. Predictive Analytics
Big data in the hospitality industry has the ability to predict future trends.
For instance, hotels can identify when the next rush will be. This way, they can stay prepared with their inventory levels and ensure adequate staff. It ensures that customer experience is not hampered in any way.
Besides, resources are not wasted when seasonal activity is low. Thus, big data in the hospitality industry can be quite useful in creating revenue management strategy.
Big data can understand and analyze business performance and predict the possibility of the future. For instance, it enables the hospitality industry to measure new metrics that can help them to understand the customer satisfaction level.
Furthermore, by studying the consumer’s spending behavior, hoteliers can identify the effect of strategic investments.
Based on these analyses, hoteliers can make significant business decisions, like menu change, room renovation, and more.
4. Dynamic Price Automation
Big hotel chains are investing in the Revenue Optimization System (ROS) that suggests optimal prices based on its real-time analysis and demand forecast.
It takes into account both internal and external data, including weather and event reports, local and global economic factors, room reservation rate, cancellation and occupancy data, revenue per available room, average occupancy rate, gross operating profits, number of available rooms, and more.
By integrating all this data, prominent hoteliers can predict their customer behavior and understand how their competitors are performing. Based on these insights, they make informed decisions on pricing strategy proactively.
For instance, holiday seasons are the best time when families go out to spend some time together. During those times, you will see a rise in the room price because of the high demand.
Big data helps them predict these demands and enables them to maximize their profit.
5. Providing Comfortable Customer Experience
In the service industry, your success depends on how seamless your customer service is.
Hotel chains are introducing new technologies like facial recognition check-in. It will allow guests to check-in in just a matter of a few seconds, eliminating the need to stand in the queue at the desk.
The most important thing to note here is that these digital technologies rely on big data to function properly.
In fact, big hotel chains are also experimenting with guest service robots for routine tasks. Again, these robots are powered by artificial intelligence.
Hotels are installing virtual digital assistants such as Amazon Echo in some of its properties. These Amazon Echo are specifically designed for the hospitality industry, whereby guests will be able to access hotel information, local news, request hotel service, listen to music and audiobooks, control lights, and more.
Big data in the hospitality industry is trying to upgrade the service level and help provide an excellent service to their customers.
Conclusion
Big data in the hospitality industry is trying to increase efficiency in how companies conduct their business.
Using real-time information, businesses can sharpen their strategies.
Clearly, big data has a lot of benefits to offer. It is the next big thing in the industry.
Himanshu Singh is a Marketing Specialist at SoftwareSuggest, He is well versed in software platforms like eCommerce, project management, document management. He is also interested in domains like Machine Learning and Semiconductors. In his spare time, he enjoys Guitar, Badminton, and Photography.
