CRM and the hospitality sector: It's all about value
Major hotel chains have been wooing travelers for years with CRM tools focused mainly on "loyalty" or rewards programs. The CRM programs help hotels and resorts determine which customers patronize the same hospitality brand on a regular basis. Those frequent customers accumulate points that can be exchanged for a reward - most often discounts on extended stays or future bookings.
However, there is a growing awareness that such programs may not be as valuable to either to the hotel, or to the customer, as once thought.
The fault, it appears, is not that CRM reward programs have failed, but that such programs have not been fully developed. The solution involves enhancing the use of CRM tools, especially the capability to capture and manage the immense amount of available data to learn much more about customer behavior - and then fashion marketing programs appropriately.
