Kelly McGuire of the SAS Institute says Kimpton ’ s new loyalty program is a good example of how guest spending can be tracked across the property , allowing them to earn loyalty credits across the hotel enterprise . She expects more hotels to adopt this approach .
“ If you have one database of hotel stays , a separate database of crs bookings and yet another database of website accounts , your cross-channel recognition and marketing efforts cannot succeed .” – Mark Haley , THe PrisM ParTnersHiP loyalty-program number with the reservation . He says this is where size matters , and larger companies are outpacing smaller competitors .
Technology : CRM
Value based on spend
The importance of ancillary-spend tracking is growing in the hotel industry as room rate alone is no longer the only factor in yield management .
While it used to be common to close out the lowest rate to reduce the risk of high yield displacement , today more companies are looking at the total spend by account — wholesale or corporate — to determine the overall value for the property .
Tracking on-property spend for hotel guests is simple through the property management system , but tracking spend by guests not staying in the hotel becomes trickier , albeit critical .
“ One hotel group now has systems in place to capture total guest spend from all departments across the transient , corporate and group segments ,” says Robert Cole , founder of Menomonee Falls , Wisconsin-based consulting firm RockCheetah , “ They truly want to understand the total value of individual guests , corporate accounts , groups and intermediaries .”
The corporate accounts get full credit for out-of-channel bookings , even through opaque channels . The sales team gets credit for that account ’ s spend as well .
Resort casinos are tracking on-property spending by encouraging guests to
present their loyalty cards at every outlet to earn points toward status and rewards . This allows them to track spend across the casino .
Hotels are starting to adopt this philosophy as well , says Kelly McGuire , executive director of the Hospitality and Travel Global Practice at SAS Institute in North Carolina . She adds that Kimpton ’ s new loyalty program is a good example of this , where guests earn credit through all activities across the enterprise . She foresees more of these programs to encourage guests to identify themselves so their on-property spend can be tracked .
Kelly McGuire of the SAS Institute says Kimpton ’ s new loyalty program is a good example of how guest spending can be tracked across the property , allowing them to earn loyalty credits across the hotel enterprise . She expects more hotels to adopt this approach .
managing omni-channel loyalty
Hotel companies are looking at real-time synchronization between all enterprise systems — internal and external — as they attempt to recognize loyal guests .
Omni-channel loyalty is not only about recognizing guests , but also being relevant to them in real time . Here , CRM is all about optimizing the experience as per the intent and the chosen channel .
Mark Haley , co-founder and managing partner of travel consultancy The Prism Partnership , Boston , says major brands have implemented proactive match protocols , computer-telephony integrations and online tag-management tools to identify reservations , assign loyaltyprogram numbers and ensure upgrades and other recognitions that are due .
For example , Haley says a client made a reservation for him at a hotel at which he had never stayed . The CRS automatically applied a proactive match algorithm to identify him as a loyaltyprogram member and associated his
“ If you have one database of hotel stays , a separate database of crs bookings and yet another database of website accounts , your cross-channel recognition and marketing efforts cannot succeed .” – Mark Haley , THe PrisM ParTnersHiP loyalty-program number with the reservation . He says this is where size matters , and larger companies are outpacing smaller competitors .
The key is to have all touchpoints draw from a common repository of profiles . “ If you have one database of hotel stays , a separate database of CRS bookings and yet another database of website accounts , your cross-channel recognition and marketing efforts cannot succeed ,” Haley adds .
If hoteliers can consolidate those databases with de-duplication and dataquality processes in place , then that becomes the platform for every consumer touchpoint . This common store enables consistent guest-recognition and reward practices through any channel .
50 HOTELS December 2014 www . hotelsmag . com