In a competitive market hotels should learn to use the data within their hotel management software.
The data stored in your hotel management system called Guest Profile is a like a hidden treasure. It has all the answers that your business needs to achieve positive growth.
To start putting that data to good use the first step would be to maintain a profile of your guests.
What is a guest profile?
Guest profile is a database of guests and their preferences, what they like and dislike, past reservations, cancellations, room preferences, past complaints and services availed.
Any interaction or transaction that the guest has with the hotel should be captured and attached to the guest profile on an ongoing basis.
For example,
Let us consider a guest called John checks into a hotel. At the check in desk his personal details along with email and phone numbers are captured in the hotel management software.
Now any transaction that he does with the hotel touch points, like raising a complaint or a room service request or going to the spa are attached to the guest for billing purposes.
This information of a guest along with his personal information and the complaints that he raised and the services that he availed is referred to as the guest’s profile.
Setting up guests’ profiles
Do not go with a bang to purchase expensive applications to maintain guests’ profile. Instead start with what you have. In most cases your hotel management software should serve the purpose.
If you have legacy hotel management software then look around for something affordable and not too complex or expensive.
Capture data accurately
You can have the best applications that you can afford and yet if the data entered into the application is wrong, incomplete or inconsistent then it defeats the purpose of maintaining guests’ profiles.
The front office executives are like the gatekeepers of data entry. If they do not follow the process and enter the data into the system correctly then the data will be of poor quality which will corrupt the data in the guests’ profiles.
Worst case there will be multiple guest profiles for the same guest.
So it is very important that the front office executives are trained to use the hotel management software properly and to enter the data into it without any mistakes, typos and not providing all the details.
The hotel staff can feel that maintaining guests’ profiles is an additional administrative task. This mindset needs to be changed with proper training and long term goals.
Conclusion
All the front office staff has to do is not to type wrong information or make mistakes while entering guests’ information into the hotel management system.
The quality of overall information is directly proportional to the quality of the data which is directly proportional to accuracy of derived analytics.
By harnessing the power of guest data, hotels can unlock a wealth of opportunities to enhance the guest experience, build loyalty, and drive operational excellence.
From personalized service delivery to targeted marketing initiatives, the insights gleaned from guest profiles empower hotels to stay ahead of the curve and exceed guest expectations at every touchpoint.