Business intelligence, in the hospitality business, can become actionable analytics and insights which in turn support ownership groups and management teams when it comes to making the right choices in processes that increase revenue and grow sales. Oftentimes, management companies and franchises in hospitality use BI to improve ADR while identifying areas where special can bridge the gap where sellout efficiency might be lacking and where they can attract potential customers. When it comes to trying to take the leap and level up as a company, BI can certainly help. Here are some tips to get you started.
BI Can Help Your Properties Market Effectively
With help from Business Intelligence you can understand customer travel and spending trends and patterns. When you have detailed insight into historic trends, future actions can be anticipated with more accuracy allowing for better forecasting and budgeting. Knowing these habits can also help hotels manage to keep higher occupancy rates even in low booking periods. By understanding these trends and habits, or ebbs and flows of the business you can adapt and offer the right deals at the right time and keep Occupancy high and the guest experience on point.
Forecasting: Events and Group Revenue Trends
Many hotels rely heavily on events and group visits. For resorts, this is especially true during low season when their seasonal clientele has a dip in bookings. Business intelligence is extra helpful in this scenario because it can help properties to forecast allocations and bookings. A cost analysis can often be used to help you price effectively, maximizing revenue on a per-capita level and in detail right down to the cost of vendor shampoo. This is also helpful when you plan booking rates around property, local, and regional events. The ability to understand the potential ROI based on what events you might have can really help management companies maximize revenue. Business Intelligence can of course help you analyze past separate POS and PMS systems that are often siloed within their own platform apparatus – giving you a cohesive look at all facets of your business.
Room Rates and Occupancy
How can business intelligence tool help with optimization of occupancy and room rates? Remember, a robust BI tool can help when it comes to pricing strategy. Especially when you consider cross referencing your portfolio with what may work at Property A versus what is not working at Property B. By having a tool that can help compare cost and spend, pricing become clearer. With hospitality specific business intelligence, you can easily access the data you need simply by checking the upcoming trends, viewing the historical data and then adding numerous other verticals and filters according to your needs. Profit margins are more identifiable which that type of insight and revenue management becomes much easier when this information is available in a central location, at the click of a button, and not across multiple programs and spreadsheets. Not to mention the labor savings by having this data automatically compiled!
Adapt, Maneuver, and Act on Hospitality Trends
The problem with trends is that they are inherently backwards facing. The profit you want to realize is most likely arrived at by effectively planning today, for tomorrow. So how do we get ahead of the game, and not arrive at actionable moments too late to make a difference? This is why hospitality professionals look to M3 of help with Hotel Business Intelligence, as it allows them to identify changes as they happen and adapt before it is too late. By comparing historical data on a daily basis, hoteliers can easily see changes and make adjustments to avoid loss of revenue due to unforeseen trends. Full portfolios become visible, trends are easily identified, and with the right BI partner with mobile integrations, this information can be available on the go.
Conclusion
With help from a modern business intelligence platform hotelier can track and then optimize every facet of their portfolio and properties. A business intelligence tool integrate all data sources and it will also combine historical and new data in order to help make the right decisions for your company. Business intelligence tools in the hospitality business are gamechangers that set the professionals apart from other companies that don’t have access to the right tools to maximize ROI in a competitive and revenue driven industry such as hospitality.
