In the hospitality industry, the crux of enhancing operational efficiency and meeting ambitious financial targets often lies in the seemingly mundane task of data aggregation. Yet, the challenge of piecing together disparate pieces of data from various systems into a coherent, actionable strategy is anything but trivial.
NB: This is an article from LodgIQ, one of our Expert Partners
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Data fragmentation is a common headache. But a cohesive strategy can transform challenges into opportunities.
Loir Kiel, longtime Chief Commercial Officer at Kessler Collection, now at The Boca Raton, puts it like this, “The problem manifests itself in that if I’m giving the investors what they want relative to those targets, then I’m in a constant state of explanation as to why we didn’t get there or why we did get there. Either way, neither one ends up being a great place. You end up in a constant state of explanation, and if I’m always explaining, then that takes away from the time I get to spend doing the actual strategy and moving us forward.”
From sales and marketing to revenue management, leaders across the board face this daunting task daily. Each department traditionally operates with its own set of tools and metrics, often leading to a siloed approach that hampers a hotel’s overarching commercial strategy. This fragmentation stifles the flow of information and impedes the ability to make informed decisions that drive profitability.
“One of the challenges they find is that the data remains siloed… we didn’t necessarily have the best tech stack… it’s still a little bit siloed in a way that these systems don’t necessarily talk. My revenue management system differs from my channel management system, which differs from my CRM system. The way that I bring them together right now is in a monthly meeting. It can be exhausting, and the bigger challenge is data accuracy, too,” confesses Tay Mauro, Vice President of Commercial Strategy for Legacy Vacation Resorts.
“One of the biggest challenges is disparate systems. There is so much data; it’s everywhere, and we’re trying to bring it in and make it useful. We’re going to have to have software that kind of dashboards it all and helps you understand where the opportunities are quickly,” says Lovell Casiero, Chief Commercial Officer for PM Hotel Group.
“I can empathize and understand with everything being very manual regarding data pulls, says Jenna Fishal, Chief Commercial Officer at First Hospitality. “You have individuals in various departments that are fishing for their data for a specific data point and making a decision based upon that data point alone.”
These leading commercial strategists emphasize a pervasive issue: the industry’s struggle with transactional data that fails to align with strategic insights, leading to a constant state of data wrangling rather than forward movement. Unless there is a unified commercial strategy that brings the Revenue, Sales, and Marketing departments together, as well as their data, the problem will prevail.
