Member Article

Customer engagement key to reversing hotel revenue decline

Delivering relevant customer engagement is key to reversing a significant concern for the UK hotel industry, which last year saw domestic room prices fall by 1%* whilst rival destinations such as Doha and Orlando rose by up to 35%*.

“On the face of it, this is a worrying trend for the UK hotel industry,” said Gareth James, CEO of Intilery, the UK’s leading customer engagement technology specialist.

“Declining visitor spend is a real concern when competitor regions are enjoying the opposite.”

The key to solving this problem lies in offering travellers a seamless customer journey and delivering effective, personalised communication. According to the latest research** by Intilery, travel sites which delivered personalised multi-channel customer engagement in 2015 actually achieved an average of 27% increase in revenue yoy (year-on-year).

“Travellers are more demanding nowadays and use multiple devices to search and book,” said Gareth. “By building a seamless omni-channel journey for customers, it saves time and makes booking even easier.”

Intilery uses a powerful tracking tool to monitor and influence customer behaviour on and offline through websites, apps and other traditional channels.

The recent statistics also reveal that people searching for hotel rooms online in 2015, began their search by looking for availability costing an average of 40% less than 2014. This highlights the pressure for suppliers to present the best product for the customer in the ways customers want to interact with brands.

However, with effective relevant and timely communications across multiple devices such as mobiles, tablets and web, consumers were willing to increase their spend.

“We found consumers are on average using up to four devices to search and book (mobile, tablet, home and office computers) and are always looking for good deals. But they are more likely to spend more money if they are approached in a personalised way with relevant products from a brand they trust,” said Gareth.

He concludes: “When we help clients establish and implement the best customer engagement techniques, consumer spending increases.

“Physically the UK hotel industry is growing strongly. Whether it continues to compete financially with growth in international destinations in 2016 depends on whether it is able to engage in a smart way with consumers.”

To learn more about Intilery visit www.Intilery.com.

*Hotel Price Index 2015

**Intilery research carried out in December 2015

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mike Stephenson .