Personalization of the customer experience - from digital marketing and website experience, revenue management and pricing, CRM and loyalty marketing, and on-property guest experience - has become a buzzword at industry conferences, webinars and in the hospitality media. Lately, two schools of thought have emerged in hospitality. Some industry experts, discouraged by privacy acts such as GDPR and CCPA and the complexity of the technology and efforts needed, predict that personalization is dead or dying. Others, encouraged by the advances in next-gen technologies like AI and ML and the increased sophistication of the online travel consumers, firmly believe that personalization is here to stay and the only way to successfully engage, acquire and retain the digitally savvy customers.

So... is personalization dead or alive in hotel digital marketing, website experience, revenue management, CRM and on-property guest experience?

Mark Fancourt
Mark Fancourt
Co-Founder at TRAVHOTECH

We have come to understand, that the guest is willing to provide a degree of personal information if they believe it will improve the overall customer experience. This can be process-related, information or experiences specific to their taste or simply making their life easier. 

Best practice necessitates that as an industry we request permission, demonstrate responsibility with the information, keep the information secure, deliver a superior experience with the data, and commit to full removal of information on request - ensuring follow-through.

As an industry, we've traditionally held a volume of information concerning guest behavior when staying in hotels. The challenge has been to surface and consolidate the information across the business in a relevant manner, specific to an individual customer. The technology is almost here. 

The emerging opportunity for the industry is to show value to the guest - an improved experience and an establishment of trust based on good governance. The incentive exists for the industry to make personalization a success. Critical to the model will be information security worthy of the confidence of the guest.

I believe we will continue to work in an environment where large volumes of information will be on hand to improve product and service.

For me, it's alive.

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