Your hotel guest is obviously the most important factor in the success of your business.
NB: This is an article from SiteMinder
While, in the long run, they may be represented as numbers on a page or in a bank account; your metrics will never reach the heights you want them to if you look at customers in this way.
It’s crucial to know and understand exactly who is staying at your hotel throughout the year. Every piece of information beyond a guest name that you can collect will help inform your knowledge of their motivations, preferences, and purpose. This allows you to segment – group your customers based on common characteristics. It’s vital that you build customer profiles at your hotel if you want to make the most of every booking you receive.
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This blog will take you through why it’s so important to develop a robust understanding of hotel guest segments and how you can take advantage of the data you gather.
Why it’s important to focus on hotel customer segments
Segmenting the guests that come to stay at your hotel will help both your business and your customers. On the business front, it lets you identify who the most common groups are that are booking with you and outlines which groups you might want to target more thoroughly. It will also inform your marketing strategies, making it easier to acquire those valuable guests that you’re chasing.
For guests it will mean a more personalised offering and service that responds directly to their preferences before and during their stay. When they feel like they’re being hosted by someone who knows them and will deliver what they need, the motivation to spend is higher. Oh, that’s another benefit to your business.
Here’s a list of the benefits of segmenting and profiling your hotel guests:
- Understanding customer needs means you can implement more attractive packages and up-sell offers
- Understanding customer needs means you can deliver better service
- Delivering better service increases positive reviews and encourages word of mouth marketing
- Knowing your customer enables you make better decisions and adapt quicker when required
- You’ll have more insights into which booking channels to prioritise, improve, or remove
- Forecasting, budgeting, and selling is made much easier
- Hotel performance is boosted with increases in occupancy and revenue expected once you are using strategies based on guest data
How to identify the profiles of hotel guests that stay at your property
There’s a number of questions you need to answer in order to build a knowledge base of your hotel customers and start profiling them in a way that will help your marketing and business decisions. Some of these answers will also help you see your own hotel more clearly.
