How Big Data and Analytics are Changing Hotels and the Hospitality Industry
Customer satisfaction and happiness is at the core of the hotel and hospitality industry. While these are important in any industry, it is paramount in this particular one. Customers in this industry are becoming increasingly discerning and have much higher expectations than ever before. You’re your own personal experience, I’m sure you agree. I know that I read through tons of reviews, look at photos uploaded by previous guests, rather than what the hotel management has uploaded, and then make my choice of hotel. Customers who are not satisfied are often pretty vocal about their experiences too – there are umpteen sites where they can vent their frustrations, apart from the particular hotel’s website: third party review sites like TripAdvisor, TripExpert, HotelChamp, hotel booking sites like booking.com, hotels.com, Agoda, and many more.
Globally, the hospitality industry handles millions of customers each day; different guests have different expectations. While some of them can be pretty farfetched and unrealistic (like a review I read of a customer who was miffed as the Wi-Fi signal was weak at a resort close to a wildlife sanctuary, far away from civilization!), a lot many of those expectations need to be met, not only to ensure that the customers go away happy, but that they return.
According to an article published by Bernard Marr in Forbes.com, one of the ways hotel and holiday operators have started employing to achieve this, is analytics solutions – in short, big data.