From Gut Feeling to Success: The Future of Hotel Distribution in the Digital Age is Based on Data-Driven Marketing and Sales Strategies

Hoteliers and marketing executives in the hotel industry are faced with a multitude of challenges, including budgeting, marketing decisions, selecting appropriate distribution channels, and proper pricing. However, these decisions are often made without sufficient data and factual basis, relying solely on gut feelings. This leads to uncertainty in decision-making and hampers optimization of occupancy and revenue. Additionally, justifying the lack of success becomes difficult.

One solution is to optimize Marketing & Sales with data-driven measures. By leveraging existing guest and reservation data from the Property Management System (PMS), hotels can analyze guest behavior and booking trends, extracting insights. This enables informed decisions and targeted enhancements to marketing and sales strategies.

Targeted Optimization of Occupancy and Revenue

High occupancy and optimal pricing are crucial for a hotel's success, significantly influencing revenue. Targeted occupancy optimization requires focused online marketing and an efficient sales strategy. Through digital hotel marketing efforts, strategic room marketing across various distribution channels, and appropriate pricing, occupancy rates can be increased. Revenue management should adjust prices according to demand and competition, ensuring an optimal price-performance ratio.

Furthermore, revenue can be increased by promoting additional sales. This can be achieved by offering cross-selling options, such as additional spa treatments or upgrades to higher room categories. Various sales strategies are described in the following article by RateBoard. Through targeted guest communication before, during, and after their stay, guests can be encouraged to take advantage of these supplementary services, thereby increasing revenue.

Transparency and Measurability as Key Components

Analyzing and understanding the effectiveness of specific marketing actions is essential to measure success. Questions like "How many new guests were acquired?" or "How many bookings were generated?" or "What reservation revenue was achieved?" need to be answered. Innovative tracking and data analysis tools enable the assessment of hotel marketing profitability through metrics like Return on Investment (ROI). This allows targeted use of the marketing budget, avoiding unnecessary spending on unprofitable actions. Measurability and transparency enable evaluation of the effectiveness of different marketing activities, investing only in those that truly pay off.

Similarly, pricing plays a crucial role in a hotel's success alongside marketing. However, it becomes problematic when hoteliers continue to make pricing decisions based solely on gut feelings, without considering recommendations or data. This can have significant consequences and strongly impact the hotel's performance. Setting prices too low can lead to early full occupancy, missing potential revenue since adjusting prices for already booked contingents becomes impossible. Conversely, excessively low prices can diminish the perceived value of the hotel in guests' eyes, as they often associate quality and service with price. On the other hand, setting prices too high may lead to under-occupancy, as guests perceive an inadequate price-performance ratio. Low occupancy, in turn, results in revenue losses.

Software-Based Solutions for Hotel Distribution Optimization

Specially designed software solutions for the hotel industry support making data-driven decisions and optimizing hotel marketing and sales strategies. Transparency and measurability of these solutions enhance performance and ensure long-term success.

One method to optimize pricing based on facts and data is to employ software solutions in the field of revenue management. Such a system is offered by RateBoard, utilizing a variety of data to generate optimal room prices and forecasts for each arrival day. This ensures reliable pricing based on well-founded data, supporting revenue increase and occupancy optimization.

Revenue management is increasingly gaining traction in the hotel industry, allowing flexible responses to customer needs and predictive pricing based on extensive analysis and data. This enables price decisions based on factors such as past bookings, current demands, weather forecasts, and tourism indicators. Effective revenue management avoids costs related to unused capacities and maximizes profits for hotels, particularly in holiday hotels.

ADDITIVE's Hotel Online-Marketing System offers tailored data-driven measures specifically suited for hotel industry needs. Leveraging innovative hotel marketing software like ADDITIVE+ MARKETING AUTOMATION, guest and reservation data from the PMS can be used to realize effective guest communication and targeted marketing actions. The system guarantees complete measurability and transparency, allowing hoteliers to accurately assess the profitability of their hotel marketing. With focused data analysis, well-informed decisions can be made, effectively utilizing the marketing budget. This transforms marketing from an opaque puzzle into an investment in effective actions.

In the following video, Matthias Ganter, hotelier and investor of Moselschlösschen Spa & Resort, shares his experience with ADDITIVE's Online Hotel Marketing System: Testimonial - ADDITIVE Online Hotel Marketing System at Moselschlösschen Spa & Resort

Conclusion

The hotel industry faces significant challenges related to budgeting, marketing, distribution channels, and pricing. While gut feelings may occasionally lead to fortunate outcomes, they do not provide sustainable certainty for a hotel's long-term development. To ensure long-term success, it is essential to make data-driven decisions.

A solution to these challenges involves implementing data-driven measures and software solutions in the marketing and sales domain. By utilizing existing guest and reservation data from the PMS, hotels can analyze guest behavior and bookings, enabling well-informed decisions. Measurability and transparency in marketing allow hoteliers to evaluate the success of specific actions and use the marketing budget effectively to optimize hotel occupancy. Pricing should also be based on facts and data to achieve the best results in terms of occupancy and revenue.

It is time to bid farewell to gut decisions and embark on the path of data-driven hotel distribution. By leveraging data, numbers, and facts, hotels can secure their decisions, ensure long-term success, and optimize their performance. The use of modern software solutions, such as those provided by RateBoard and ADDITIVE, assists hoteliers in enhancing their performance. By embracing tailored solutions for the hotel industry, they can unleash their full potential and focus on areas like occupancy and pricing. This enables continuous optimization and maximizes profitability.