DIVIDED NO MORE

LOYALTY PROGRAMS AND SOCIAL MEDIA DATA GET CLOSER .

By Nathan Greenhalgh , associate editor

Closely guarded hotel loyalty programs are largely isolated from social media , but that is beginning to change .

The slow evolution is understandable given that hotel companies are still crafting definitive social media strategies , and loyalty program databases are typically custom-built systems hardwired into central reservations and not easily amenable to adding third-party software .

“ One of the big questions is how to physically integrate the CRM databases ,” says Robert Cole , hotel technology consultant and founder of RockCheetah , Menomonee Falls , Wisconsin . “ If they can hardwire

68 HOTELS July / August 2012 www . hotelsmag . com