Blog #4: Use Data Mining

Use Data Mining to Attract Customers in a Spiraling Economy

Scanlon, Bill. (July 15, 2008). Hospitality Technology Magazine. Retrieved on Thursday, July 17, 2008.


As the economy continued to struggle for the past years, the hotel industry was lucky enough to barely be effected and actually did well due to the imbalance between supply and demand. Unfortunately, it is looking as though the hotel industry may have some struggling years ahead of them. The numbers are showing that supply and demand are coming back into balance and new hotels are continuing to add to this supply thus leading to RevPAR declining. Due to this turn in the economy, it is going to be absolutely vital that the hotel’s management and sales teams are truly focused on providing the customer beyond excellent relationships, and these exemplary relationships need to be with more than just a few clients. In fact, the numbers are showing that it is going to be important to find new customers and in order to do so it is imperative that the hotel’s various teams capitalize on all of the tools that are in their reach to widen their sales efforts. One of the most important parts of customer relationship management is relying on software such as Fidelio, Oracle, and Delphi. It is important to not only use this data provided in the daily operations but to also put this data to work in your sales efforts. In these systems, a productive sales team should look for frequency, company names, new contacts, and especially the customer profile to give themselves competitive advantage in building relationships with previous and future guests. This form of “data mining” allows sales teams to control their share, understand positioning, and target specific customers to maximize revenues. In addition, the web has become a very powerful sales aid. Sites such as www.salesgenie.com and www.coexpress.com provide links to companies by industry, shows companies’ financials, search tips, news and much more. Customer Intelligence and data is right at the sales’ teams fingertips they just need to utilize it and effectively deliver their proposals and sales efforts.

I was actually very surprised to read that the hotel industry is facing difficult years ahead. In previous months, we have been told that the hotel industry will not be effected much due to the economy because we are so reliant on business although leisure travel is somewhat on the decline, we have benefited from international travel due to the dollar being so weak. I know that there are several hotels this year and for several years to come being built around cities all over, several of new brands and concepts so I am sure that these numbers are not helping considering the number of rooms continue to increase while apparently the demand for hotels is on the decline. I know that software systems such as Fidelio, Opera, and Oracle are essential to the daily operation of a hotel and I was surprised that more sales teams are not effectively using these systems. At Hotel du Pont, I know that at the front desk with a simple click I am able to instantly access a previous guest’s profile to see there billing information, previous stays, as well as right down to their smallest preferences. Why a sales team would choose to use just the phone over accessing this software and personalizing their sales effort is beyond me. I had never heard of the two websites that were explained in the article and I went to them and found them very useful if I were to be in sales.