Nearly 75% of Americans said they were planning a domestic trip for their summer break, and 2022 travel was expected to run about 16% ahead of the year before, according to a Allianz Partners review. That rebound means one thing for hotels and the wider hospitality world: a bigger pool of guests walking through the door, and a real shot at both new revenue and squeezing more value out of the people who already love the place.

Here's a number worth sitting with. Roughly 20% of a business's customers tend to drive 80% of its profits. So as demand climbs back, it makes sense for hotel leadership to fixate on that top 20% if they want steady, repeat revenue. And honestly, the cleanest way to do that is a rewards program built around what those guests actually want, not a generic points scheme nobody remembers signing up for.

Let data-driven marketing tell you what's really going on

Hotels have no shortage of ways to collect data, and most of it comes through digital marketing tools. Think email campaigns, interactive kiosks, and, maybe the big one, a properly streamlined point-of-sale (POS) platform.

An omnichannel POS captures the kind of guest data you need to build targeted campaigns, and it smooths out the stay while it's at it.

Tie that POS tightly into a property management system and guests can buy things and simply charge them to the room. Behind the scenes that's a win too: service staff and financial reconciliation are already talking to each other, so nobody's chasing paper. The guest gets an easier checkout. And the property walks away with genuinely useful signals about what lands with which kind of visitor.

All of that can be pulled into a report that hands marketing teams very specific detail about guest interests, which lets them build campaigns that speak to proven preferences rather than guesswork. The one-on-one touch points that grow out of this stuff work. They're strikingly good at nudging guests back through the door, and they tend to pull in a bit of extra spend while they're at it.

Use real-time data to push revenue higher

POS systems are taking in information constantly. Analyse those buying trends and other habits and you can shape a loyalty program that actually fits each person's demonstrated tastes rather than some average guest who doesn't exist.

These programs let operators dangle rewards and incentives grounded in data they've already gathered, aiming offers at the guests most likely to bite. Operators can also lean on that data to zero in on their best guests, figure out what those people actually want, then coax them back with tailored offers. It's an approach that held up remarkably well through the COVID-19 pandemic, to be fair.

Pair the data with loyalty programs that feel personal

Loyalty programs built on real personalization tend to leave the rest behind, because they signal to valuable guests that someone's paying attention. So the more proactive you are about collecting and using data, the better those programs perform.

The classic move is a points-based program that rewards repeat guests with exclusive offers or the odd upgrade. That still works. But a newer trend has been catching on: instant gratification rewards, where the brand hands out perks a guest can redeem right now. Because the reward is available during the current stay, guests are tempted to spend in the moment to grab a discount on something like a dinner reservation or a spa treatment. No waiting around for points to add up months later.

Integrated, real-time data lets operators read what guests genuinely want and keep serving up rewards and perks that catch the eye of the people they're targeting.

The consumer mood backs this up. In recent polling, 75% of consumers said they preferred companies that offer rewards, and more than half said such programs keep them loyal to a brand.

Put money into the right technology, carefully, and brands can keep growing, reading guest behaviour and sharpening their campaigns as they go. Hospitality is still finding its feet again, and a data-driven, rewards-led approach is one of the surer bets going into that recovery.

Source : https://bit.ly/3ISAGXF