CRM Technology in the H & T Industry

The downturn in the economy has required hospitality entities to make every effort to maintain and attract a respective clientele. Electronic Customer Relationship Management software allows for a hospitality entity to track its consumer’s behavior. The results from the tracked behavior are used by the hospitality business to individually tailor its services to the desires and habits of its patrons. The collected data is then refined for businesses to create loyalty programs which provide awards/incentives targeted at repeat visitors. (Studies have shown that over sixty percent of a facilities visitors will select a location based upon the promise that future gifts will be offered upon a next trip). CRM databases use data mining technology to extract a tourist’s purchase behavior, reason for stay, market segment, etc. to personalize consumer interaction and increase customer satisfaction, components necessary for remaining at a competitive advantage in the industry.

m-Travel.com- CRM Article

The New Hospitality & Tourism Sales Agent

Hospitality and tourism sales teams were previously in the habit of gaining a majority of business through cold calls. The most common tool for the manager of today is the internet, which currently offers websites that hospitality and sales teams may utilize to capture new and maintain existing markets. GoogleMaps.com allows for the salesman to find a listing of local businesses in his or her area. GoogleSearch.com allows the representative to find a specific business within a desired area. A keyword search through a search engine such as yahoo! or lycos will allow the executive to find a target market segment. Salesmen can also take advantage of online RFP websites, in which opportunities for business are displayed. A final tool available for the hospitality and tourism sales agent is the availability of online learning websites, such as Hotelearning.com where a sales agent can hone his or her skills by learning of the ever changing trends in information technology.

HotelOnline- Hotel Sales Article

Hotelearning.com

Eco-Friendly Lodging Website

The costs of maintaining a smoke permitted lodging facility are both social and financial. Socially, the economy is shifting to a more eco-friendly society, which is not conducive to the carcinogens produced by smoking in a lodging facility. Financially, lodging cleaning costs are exacerbated when smoking is permitted due to deep cleaning costs and additional maintenance such as the repainting of walls.

Hoteliers looking to stay in line with the calls from society for a more eco-friendly environment and an interest in cutting costs will find themselves at an advantage by eliminating smoking rooms. FreshStay® currently offers a website listing 100% smoke free lodging facilities. The website has become the leading on-line directory of smoke free facilities through an integrated booking process. The integrated booking process offers users interested in booking a non-smoking lodging facility a database of non-smoking facilities by state and/or country with direct links from the selected property to a booking site.

Hoteliers offering a smoke free facility will find that partnering with FreshStay® will offer the opportunity to promote themselves to the growing market of non-smokers, hypo allergic clients, and those interested in a clean environment.

Hotel News Resource- FreshStay® Article

FreshStay®

iPhone Application for Hotels

Cell phone and PDA users constantly rely on these devices to keep appointments and schedules. Choice Hotels has partnered with Apple and the highly sought after iPhone to offer a new iPhone application. The new application allows the current market of eleven million iPhone users to seamlessly search for Choice Hotels in their respective area, create point-to-point driving directions to the desired hotel, learn of the desired hotels features and nearby attractions, and create/update/cancel hotel reservations.

The new application provides Choice Hotels a competitive advantage for capturing the technologically savvy clientele. The iPhone in turn will generate a wider consumer base as hotel guests realize the new feature available on the iPhone, however not offered in its competitive cell phone market. The alliance of Choice Hotels and Apple is sure to stem similar alliances with competing hotel chains and cell phone and pda providers as society continues to rely on information technology. The future will only show more advances and alliances in the information technology and hospitality and tourism segments.

Hotel News Resource: iPhone Hotel Application Article

Apple Inc. iPhone Appstore

Choice Hotels Intl., Inc.