Hospitality is awash with data. From pricing analysis to targeted marketing, from occupancy rates to guest engagement, every hotelier knows that metrics are important – but how do you sort the interesting from the invaluable?
What to Do with the Hotel Data?
The sheer amount of data can be daunting, because it typically requires several platforms to access and interpret it. But here’s the good news: it’s getting easier.
Of course, it’s technology that’s transforming the data experience. Thanks to the cloud and the increasing ability of predictive AI (more on which later), data can be accessed and understood more easily, often at the click of a couple of buttons. With the right tools, you can automate the collection and analysis of the metrics you need to make the right decisions quickly.
Why It’s Important to Track the Right Data
Data on its own has no inherent value to your business. Its value comes when you put it into context, analyze it, and make decisions based on your findings.
For instance, maybe you discover that your RevPAR is €150. Okay, now what? Is that better than what you’d planned for? How does it compare to the rest of the industry, and, more pertinently, to competitors in your area? Is RevPAR even an accurate reflection of your revenue?
You get the point. If you’re with a modern hospitality cloud like Mews, you can collect and analyze key data – and then put it to good use. Tools like interactive dashboards across daily operations, finance, customers, and reservations let you compare your current performance against historical data and targets you’ve set, making it fast and simple to track your property’s KPIs.
Key Data Points for Hoteliers
So, what is the ‘right data’? In short, anything that will help you streamline and enhance three key areas in your business: operations, revenue, and marketing.
That means arming your staff with up-to-date information about every guest for each stay. It means squeezing every drop of revenue from your property. And ultimately, it means diving into a wealth of data to provide a more seamless, personalized guest experience.
Your business will have its priorities, but in general, every hotel, hostel, or apartment should monitor at least the following:
- Operations
- Check-in and check-out time
- Housekeeping turnaround time
- Headcount costs
- Time spent running reports (and any other manual tasks)
- Revenue
- RevPAM (revenue per available square meter)
- RevPAR (although RevPAM is a truer representation of revenue, RevPAR is particularly useful for comparing with industry benchmarks etc.)
- Occupancy
- Booking channel origin
- Proportion of automated payments
- Marketing
- Proportion of return guests
- Lifetime value of guests
- Email open rates and click-through rates
- Customer satisfaction
The Future of Hospitality Data
Predicting the state of an industry a decade from now is a challenging endeavor, to say the least. The landscape can shift swiftly due to technological advancements, changing expectations, and global events. However, one constant is the ever-increasing abundance and significance of data. Numerous emerging trends and practices are already breaking into the hospitality mainstream.
The concept of data science frequently finds its way into business discussions, even though its precise definition can vary from one conversation to another. At its core, it involves extracting meaningful insights through data analysis, which is why predictive algorithms will continue to gain prominence and importance.
They’re already used in areas like revenue management. Still, as more guest data is gathered, these algorithms can confidently make recommendations and offers based on personal preference, customizing the guest journey more than ever. The most forward-thinking hospitality brands are already embracing these techniques.
New metrics will develop and replace old standards. As the hospitality industry becomes increasingly tech-savvy, it will draw inspiration from other sectors like fintech, resulting in more sophisticated metrics for assessing effective utilization and the lifetime value of resources. This evolution will enable hoteliers to maximize their property’s potential.
Data insights will come from a wider variety of sources. A significant data gap exists within the hotel environment, particularly in understanding the on-site dynamics. While it is possible to measure the number of check-ins per hour, quantifying the length of the physical queue at the reception is challenging. Camera and video processing can help to better understand workloads and other on-premises pain points. These tools already exist, but it’s a question of adoption.
Perhaps the most important change will be how you receive data insights. It doesn’t make sense for every hotel brand to hire their team of data scientists, especially for smaller groups and independent properties. The next logical step is receiving in-platform insights via your hospitality cloud. After all, a property management system has access to huge quantities of data across multiple properties, so it’s uniquely placed to analyze it (using those mentioned algorithms) and generate automated insights about how and where to improve.
Summing Up
Metrics matter. The battle between instinct and data continues to turn in favor of data, with the next generation of hoteliers and hotel tech already taking the reins and embracing new metrics and a new mindset.
Now is the time for hoteliers to embrace a data-first mindset. As with paradigm shifts across all industries, there’s a sweet spot for adoption. The early adopters are already making waves, and the transformation of how we think about hospitality data is well underway. Leave it too late, and you risk being left behind. Get on board now, and the possibilities for what your data can do for you are almost endless.
Free Summer Data Snap Report: Compare Your Property vs. The Industry Average
Find out how hospitality performed in the summer of 2023 compared to the previous year and see how your property compares.
Click here to download the report “Summer Data Snap: Compare Your Property vs. The Industry Average“.
