Whilst methods vary in different fields of business, the emphasis on collecting accurate and honest data remains the same with the goal to capture quality data allowing analysis, leading to the formulation of convincing and credible answers to questions being posed.
WHY IS DATA COLLECTION IMPORTANT IN THE ACCOMMODATION INDUSTRY?
Collecting data such as client email addresses, postcodes and country they live is vitally important for several reasons.
It allows you to store and analyse this information about your existing and potential customers, saving time and money by building a database of customers for future marketing and retargeting efforts.
You may look at your inventory and see low occupancy at certain stages of the year; an up to date email database is a cheap, time and cost-effective way to send out an email direct marketing campaign with a direct special, targeted to the low inventory periods.
You may look at a social media marketing campaign – with an up to date database you can determine where your clients are coming from by state, suburb and postcode or even country. This allows you to create a more target specific campaign. Facebook campaigns allow you to target people travelling from countries, living in countries or within Australia it allows you to target specific regions or cities and a certain distance surrounding that specific area. Again, this makes it a cheap, time and cost-effective way to market your property.
Distribution of your product is one of the most important aspect of being a successful accommodation provider. This can be done through a range of channels including, but not limited to, online agents, inbound agents and direct to consumer through your website.
You may look to increase distribution of your property domestically and/or internationally. By having an up to date database, you can create “hotspots” – countries or states/cities/suburbs domestically that you know you receive high number of booking from. This aids in distribution as you can target these “hotspot” areas first and increase business from here and then grow the surrounding areas.
One thing we recommend is having a GDPR compliant database. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union and addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU.
HOW CAN YOU COLLECT THE DATA?
- At the time of booking or at check-in or check-out
- In your PMS or channel manager elect data such as email, suburb, postcode, country
- Post stay communication or survey form after stay
Are you missing a piece of the puzzle? Contact Koncept Konnect for more information and to find out how we can help you with your Post Stay communications, Email Direct Marketing, database management and social media marketing.