The use of Big Data is gaining more and more strength, especially in sectors such as tourism and hotels. Thanks to the management of data and its subsequent analysis, companies can take advantage of the benefits brought by these new technologies, bringing the benefits of Big Data to the sector.
The main impact is found in the improvement of the customer experience. If, as a company, we apply Big Data to the tourism sector, we can benefit when making decisions thanks to the collection of information and its subsequent analysis.
The customer’s digital footprint has become the main objective of all companies targeting the end customer. What does it consist of? All users leave a trail of data, such as the date and origin of the reservation, the number of times they have consulted the reservation without closing it, the date of the stay, the services they have requested during the stay… If we analyze the digital trail of customers, we can obtain the “typical customer”. This is essential, especially in the tourism and hotel sector, to be able to adapt supply to demand, thus improving the overall customer experience.
Recently, at the Hotel Updating event organized by Hosteltur, Jaime López, Business Development Manager at Keepler, mentioned:
“The benefit is both for customers and for the company itself. Thanks to the use of Big Data it is possible, among other things, to optimize staff, supplies and better control the purchase of products avoiding unnecessary expenses, making hotels and their environment more profitable, and, above all, more sustainable.”
Big Data also has a high impact on marketing or promotional campaigns, helping to manage resources and optimize the budget. If, for example, we detect that most bookings are made through social networks or a specific channel, the campaign will be strengthened and directed to these channels.
There are three very representative use cases from the tourism and hospitality sector that are supported by data:
- Digital footprint or customer 360.
- Processing of unstructured information (originating from call centers, various customer service channels, social networks and comments, document and billing management…).
- Demand forecasting.
In this regard, Jaime López emphasized that:
“At Keepler we work with use cases that become success cases. With these experience personalization tools we try to make customers more fans than customers. We help to take care of them throughout their life cycle thanks to the data and information we obtain from them by working on them properly. In this way, we can deliver what the user expects, may need or would like to receive, at the most appropriate time. Loyalty and loyalty plans are key factors in this process.”
Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence technologies bring added value to the hotel sector. Through Machine Learning algorithms, hotels can apply Big Data to accurately anticipate the levels of demand that their rooms will have. Key performance metrics such as current bookings or historical occupancy rates are analyzed. In addition, external factors such as weather, date, vacations… are also taken into account. This allows the hotel to optimize resources and manage itself efficiently. However, as Jaime López pointed out:
“We still need human resources. It is not a matter of replacing people with new technologies, but of integrating them, of supporting them to do their job better and offer a better service.”
One of the main challenges of applying data technology in the sector is the lack of both financial and human resources. It is very difficult to retain talent in the technology sector, and, moreover, it is something that is complicated due to remote work.
For any company, and more so in the tourism sector, which is especially rich in data, it is important not to be late to understand and take advantage of the benefits of data analytics.
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