Today’s best and most advanced PMS systems operate more broadly and deeply than ever before, storing data from a large number of guest touchpoints. When that data is compiled, it forms rich guest profiles that help your hotel customize services across your hotel and accommodate guests’ specific needs and preferences. We have written previously about how valuable those profiles are at the front desk. In this post, we will expand on that idea to highlight how guest profiles help improve operations across your hotel. In order to compete in a crowded market, you need to know your guests better than your competition—and the role of robust customer profiles in achieving this goal cannot be understated.

• Deliver Customized Marketing Messages: Rich guest profiles reveal when, where, why and how an individual travels. That in-depth understanding can be used to generate marketing messages that directly speak to each guest’s wants and needs. Say, for instance, your guest has made use of your spa and gym on all their previous visits during an annual business conference. In advance of the conference each year, you can target that guest with personalized messages that offer free spa services with the purchase of a deluxe hotel suite. This way, the guest will feel individually appreciated by your hotel, and you will be able to build greater guest loyalty. Your PMS can also help you find the ideal time and channel to deliver those messages for maximum impact.
• Customize Promotions and Upsell Offers: If a rich guest profile indicates that a guest has previously requested an upgrade upon check in, why not offer them additional services before they’re face-to-face with your front desk staff? Knowing which perks and add-ons your guest is interested in can help you upsell services to make sure they are spending as much on site as possible—and satisfied with what they’re getting in return. Tracking guests’ purchase history can help you know if it’s more effective to offer your guest fine dining options or room service, on-site entertainment or excursions through third-party partners. It’s no longer enough to use customized marketing to get your guests to book—you also want to use guest data to tailor offerings throughout the entire trip.
• Enhance Your Loyalty Program: Loyalty programs are a great way to drive repeat bookings, but many of them are cumbersome and clunky to use. Integrating loyalty programs with rich guest profiles is a way to seamlessly award benefits across touchpoints—say, at the front desk or in your restaurant—and collect more guest data while you’re at it. Guests are less resistant to being tracked when they are also being rewarded—especially when you’re offering them exactly what they want.
• Track Guest Reviews Across Social Channels: The best guest profiles include not only data from a PMS, but also data from social media and review sites. A strong PMS can help you track guest reviews across platforms, and will integrate with post-stay reputation management platforms such as Guestfolio and Revinate. Using these interfaces can help your hotel act on customer input and secure guest loyalty. Integrating these reviews with guests’ profiles can help you to track ongoing sentiments towards your property.

In the highly competitive hospitality industry, the data you have on guests is one of your most important valuable assets. Of course, adequately tracking, storing and analyzing data about all your guests is a huge undertaking, but the right technology can make it easy for you. If you haven’t already, it’s time to implement data management tools that can handle the heavy lifting of creating and managing robust guest profiles.

Find out how RoomKeyPMS can help your hotel develop rich guests profiles to ensure customer satisfaction, time and time again.