Author: GAIN

Hotel loyalty has become a widely discussed topic in today’s competitive hospitality industry. However, the concept of loyalty is not one-size-fits-all, especially when it comes to hotels of different types and sizes. So let’s shed light on the intricacies of hotel loyalty and provide insights into developing customized loyalty programs. By understanding the hotel’s goals, current and past guest behavior, and data gathering from existing data sets, hotels can create effective strategies to cultivate guest loyalty and enhance overall guest experiences.

Defining Hotel Loyalty

Hotel loyalty, as a concept, lacks a universal definition. Depending on its unique characteristics, target market, and brand identity, each hotel needs to establish its own understanding of loyalty. Moving beyond simply imitating larger hotel brands and instead consider the diverse customer base that independent resorts, small regionalized chains, global chains, luxury properties, and two-to-three-star properties cater to. By recognizing the distinctiveness of each situation, hotels can develop loyalty strategies that align with their specific objectives.  At the heart of it, guests are loyal to places where they have great personalized experiences and where they feel valued.

Setting Clear Goals for the Hotel

When contemplating loyalty programs, hotels must first identify their goals. While the common objective is to encourage guests to return repeatedly, the definition of “loyalty” may differ for each property. Some hotels aim for frequent visits throughout the year, while others focus on capturing ancillary revenue or maximizing occupancy during shoulder seasons. By defining clear goals, hotels can tailor their loyalty programs to meet their unique needs and better serve their guests.

Utilizing Data for Informed Decision-Making

Data plays a vital role in designing effective loyalty programs. Hotels can leverage existing customer relationship management (CRM) systems or gather data from property management systems (PMS) and reservations to gain insights into guest behavior. Analyzing this data using business intelligence tools enables hotels to understand guest preferences, identify trends, and evaluate the performance of existing loyalty programs. Even without a formal loyalty program, hotels often possess valuable data that can be utilized to create personalized guest experiences and drive loyalty.

The Importance of a Formal Loyalty Program

Implementing a formal loyalty program offers numerous benefits. It allows hotels to obtain permission to engage with guests more personally, especially in an era of increased privacy regulations. Additionally, targeting guests based on location or previous interactions can lead to more effective marketing campaigns. Understanding where guests reside and adapting marketing efforts accordingly ensures targeted messaging and a higher likelihood of engagement.

Tailoring Loyalty Programs to Multiple Properties

For hotel chains with multiple properties, it is essential to establish loyalty programs that encompass the entire brand rather than focusing solely on individual hotels. By promoting loyalty across the brand, hotels can encourage guests to stay at different properties within the group. Promotions and incentives can be designed to reward guests for multiple stays at different properties within the collection, fostering a sense of loyalty to the brand. Integrating third-party airline programs can also be a strategic move for smaller or regionalized hotels, providing added value and attracting guests who participate in such programs.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving landscape of hotel loyalty, hotels must recognize the uniqueness of their offerings and guests. Customizing loyalty strategies based on goals, guest behavior, and data insights enables hotels to cultivate lasting relationships with guests and drive revenue. By effectively implementing well-designed loyalty programs and leveraging data, hotels can stay ahead in a competitive market and deliver exceptional experiences that inspire guest loyalty.
By Shayne Paddock

In the fast-paced hospitality technology world, small to mid-sized vendors often face challenges in scaling their sales operations. 

Many organizations face growing pains as they evolve, adapt to market changes, and expand their customer base. These challenges could include high churn rates, the need to reinvent legacy customer bases, and the skill set mismatch between salespeople and various business segments.

Failing to address the challenges head-on can lead to stagnant growth or decline. Companies may lose customers, miss potential revenue, and fail to capitalize on market opportunities. Without a proactive approach to sales optimization, organizations risk being left behind while competitors seize growth opportunities.

Whether they are a family-owned or publicly operated a startup or mid-sized range, these hospitality tech vendors already have a certain level of sales processes in place. However, at certain points in the organization’s lifecycle, it’s common that they require a strategic reset to further their growth and overcome existing challenges.

An objective-based audit, or Sales 360, of sales teams and infrastructure provides a comprehensive solution for vendors seeking to optimize their sales operations. It acts as a sales playbook, enabling vendors to evolve and scale their business development efforts effectively.

A Sales 360 revolves around an objective-based audit of an organization’s sales operations. It encompasses a comprehensive sales team review, competencies, proposal processes, value propositions, sales solutions or CRM usage, and pipeline management. Additionally, the audit examines the alignment between sales and support departments, such as marketing, and any partnership or distribution models in place.

The audit’s success ultimately depends on two things. First, selecting the right person to lead the engagement. This person should possess a deep understanding of sales and business development, capable of guiding the sales team and aligning departments. Their expertise and experience are vital in maximizing the benefits derived from the Sales 360 results.

The second factor for success is having a C-level sponsor, such as the CEO or co-founder. Their involvement ensures a high level of commitment to addressing the challenges and implementing the necessary changes. Depending on the company’s size and structure, the CEO or co-founder may possess the requisite sales background to drive the transformation effectively.

Other involved parties include the human resources department for contractual matters, the partnership or corporate strategy team, and subordinates who contribute to the audit process.

Several success stories highlight the effectiveness of a Sales 360. For example, a large company recovering from bankruptcy significantly reduced churn rates after instilling confidence in its sales organization and future business development strategies. In another instance, a startup successfully achieved its goal of acquiring 12 to 15 new clients per month after completing the audit. However, it is important to note that results also depend on follow-up actions, including hiring the right talent and aligning departments.

Whether it involves offsetting high churn rates, reinventing legacy customer bases, or managing diverse market segments, an effective audit or Sales 360 provides guidance and actionable insights. It helps companies overcome their challenges and prepares them for sustained growth.

Conclusion

The Sales 360 empowers small to mid-sized hospitality tech vendors to unlock their growth potential. The solution enables organizations to address challenges, optimize their sales operations, and drive sustainable growth by conducting a comprehensive sales audit and providing actionable insights. Companies can achieve remarkable results and seize expansion opportunities with a C-level sponsor, the right leadership, and the dedication to follow through.

The hotel industry is a highly competitive space with rapidly changing guest expectations, increased pressure on operational efficiency, and the need to manage and analyze large amounts of data. Inefficient operational processes, manual workloads, rising labor costs, and difficulties in managing big data are significant challenges the hotel industry faces. However, these challenges can be addressed with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

The AI market, currently valued at nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars, is projected to experience a staggering twentyfold growth by 2030, reaching an estimated two trillion U.S. dollars. For hoteliers, understanding and embracing this exponential growth in AI technologies is crucial not only to stay competitive in the ever-evolving hospitality landscape but also to capitalize on opportunities for increased efficiency, enhanced guest experiences, and long-term profitability.

Operational Inefficiency

The hotel industry is labor-intensive, and inefficient operational processes can lead to increased costs, decreased efficiency, and a lower quality of service. Manual workloads, like repetitive data entry, are time-consuming and error-prone. These inefficiencies can result in longer wait times for guests, lower staff productivity, and increased costs.

Increased Guest Expectations

Today’s guests have high expectations for personalized experiences that cater to their preferences. They expect personalized services, recommendations, and interactions that create a unique and memorable experience. Meeting these expectations requires hotels to understand guest preferences and provide personalized services throughout the guest journey.

Difficulty Managing and Analyzing Big Data

Hotels collect vast data, from booking information to guest preferences and feedback. Analyzing this data can be a time-consuming and complex task, requiring a dedicated team of data analysts and the right tools to make sense of the data.

Rising Labor Costs

Labor costs are one of the most significant expenses for hotels. With wages rising, hotels are looking for ways to reduce costs without sacrificing the quality of service.

In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, hoteliers are bombarded with countless AI projects and solutions, making it increasingly difficult to cut through the noise and identify truly valuable tools. Recognizing this challenge, we have meticulously curated a suite of AI tools that strip away the hype and focus on delivering tangible value to hoteliers, ensuring improved efficiency and enhanced guest experiences. These tools will predominantly deliver the following benefits to hoteliers:

Streamlined Operations

AI can help streamline hotel operations by automating repetitive tasks, such as data entry, and optimizing workflows. With AI-powered automation, hotels can reduce the time and cost associated with manual tasks, improve accuracy, and free up staff to focus on higher value-add activities.

Improved Decision-making Processes and Data-driven Insights

AI-powered analytics can give hotels valuable insights into guest preferences, trends, and behavior. This data can help hotels make informed pricing, marketing, and operations decisions. AI-powered analytics can also help hotels detect issues before they become problems and identify opportunities to improve the guest experience.

Delivering Personalized Services

AI can help hotels deliver personalized services, recommendations, and interactions throughout the guest journey. AI can provide personalized dining, entertainment, and activities recommendations by analyzing guest preferences and behavior. Personalized services can help hotels stand out from competitors and increase guest satisfaction and retention/loyalty.

Labor Optimization

AI can help hotels optimize labor by identifying areas where staff are underutilized or overworked. By automating repetitive tasks, AI can free up staff to focus on higher value-add activities, improving productivity and efficiency.

In conclusion, GAIN recognizes hoteliers’ challenges in today’s highly competitive landscape. We aim to provide a curated suite of AI-driven tools that address these challenges and bring disruptive and productive innovations to the industry. By introducing disruptive AI solutions, we challenge conventional methods and processes, breaking through traditional barriers and driving the hotel industry forward.

By Vincent Somsen

Rockville, Md. — Growth Advisors International Network (GAIN) and Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) announce that GAIN will join the team to support a key MCEDC initiative, the Hospitality Tech Accelerator: Innovating the Future.  

The inaugural cohort will be held in the Spring of 2023 and will focus on some of the hospitality industry’s top sustainability challenges, such as energy, water, and waste reduction and management. Experts in the travel, foodservice, and hospitality industries from GAIN will join sustainability-focused leaders from Bethesda Green’s Innovation Lab network to provide hands-on mentorship and industry guidance to participating founders.

Selected companies, to be announced shortly, will participate in a series of workshops and pitch practice sessions coordinated by Bethesda Green and participate in an end-of-program pitch event in front of industry leaders. Workshops will address some of the challenges of deploying sustainable solutions within the hospitality industry, and help participants better measure their impact to align with industry expectations.

“We look forward to joining forces with GAIN’s global network of hospitality experts to identify, launch, and develop innovation in the hospitality industry,” said Bill Tompkins, President and CEO of MCEDC. “The team at GAIN brings extensive experience deploying technological solutions in the industry, including cleantech and climate tech solutions, and their contributions will help propel participating startups to the next level.”

Michael Cohen, Managing Partner at GAIN, said, “Growth Advisors International Network is honored to have been selected to work closely with the leadership teams at MCEDC and Bethesda Green, providing coaching and mentorship via our experienced group of travel and hospitality tech industry advisors, to the initial and future cohorts of innovative startups at the MCEDC Hospitality Technology Accelerator. Through this strategic partnership we look forward to supporting the regional initiatives of the Maryland County Economic Development Corporation and the hospitality industry overall.”

Montgomery County, Maryland, is a top hospitality hub which includes the headquarters of Marriott International, the world’s largest hotel and global hospitality company, and Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest lodging franchisors. B.F. Saul, Sodexo and Host Hotels & Resorts are among the many hospitality companies that call Montgomery County home.

About MCEDC
The Montgomery County Economic Development Corporation (MCEDC) is the official public-private economic development organization representing Montgomery County, Maryland. Created in 2016, MCEDC is led by a Board of Directors of business executives. Its mission is to help businesses start, grow and relocate in Montgomery County by helping them gain access to top talent, business and market intelligence and prime locations. For more information, visit our website. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

About Bethesda Green
Bethesda Green, a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2008, works to address environmental challenges locally by creating a sustainable, green community, built collaboratively through citizen engagement, environmental education, government partnership and innovative business development. Through the Be Green Living and Be Green Business programs, Bethesda Green partners with local public and private entities to address environmental challenges through projects that enhance the quality of life for local residents such as access to composting, recycling, and expanding raingardens and sustainable methods of transportation, and supports leaders who are building for-profit business models around innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle environmental and social challenges.

About GAIN
Growth Advisors International Network (GAIN) is a global collective of seasoned C-level commercial, tech, operations, and marketing executives, delivering an advisory platform focused on tactical and actionable solutions to drive growth, industry impact and intelligent commercial expansion for the travel, foodservice and hospitality industry. From technology and product development reviews, commercial strategy and brand positioning to sales leadership and international go-to market advisory, GAIN provides advisory services and expertise to tech vendors, investor funds and hospitality entities, and help startups and scaleups in attaining commercial momentum and the capital for their seed to series rounds and exits.