Whistler Marketing Services

Hundreds (if not thousands) of management books have outlined the value of the repeat customer. There is not a single marketeer or business manager who does not know that the cost of creating a new customers is more than keeping an existing customer. The hotel business offers a unique opportunity to get to know the customer better than any other business.

As a hotelier we know: when a guest books, how they book, how they pay, preferences, and then when they stay we are able to gleam even more information from them. However, this data is virtually unused by hotel companies. Sure there are a few canned chain wide rewards systems such as Hilton Rewards, Starwood Points, Delta Privilege, or Four Seasons 'famed' database. I suggest not a single one of these systems mines the data available to the hotel in a way that provides a guest the sense of being special or truly impacting future buying decisions.

By nature human beings want to be loyal. Why don't we make it easy for the guest to be loyal and create systems that are truly customized to meet their unique needs. If we were to create processes in our hotels that provided our return guests confidence that they were the preferred guests in the hotel, hotels could develop that elusive loyalty they want to create.

Watch this space for a series of articles discussing innovative management process that will be required in hotels to welcome back more guests than they ever imagined.