Revolutionizing Hotel Sales Functions With Technology
The hotel industry is one of the biggest legs in travel and tourism, a major player in the global economy. As the hotel industry continues to grow, technology will play a key role in its evolution. Sales play a vital role yet not every hotel brand is taking advantage of the multitude of technology available for their business’ . While giants like Marriott and Hilton utilize customer relationship management (CRM) software, it isn’t used at capacity. More and more hotel chains need to take advantage of the technology curated for their sector. Forbes Council Member Akash Goel shares an article highlighting the many technology advancements available in the hotel and hospitality sector that brands need to take full advantage of immediately.
Lead Generation: “Lead management tools can merge leads from various sources, deduplicate them and maintain the most up-to-date information for the best top-of-the-funnel leads—all stored in a lead bank.”
Lead Enrichment And Qualification: “Multiple lead sources contribute to enriching a prospect with maximum data points. Using factors such as the industry, size and proximity of a business to a hotel, as well as the hotel’s product offerings, lead scoring can help sales professionals prioritize, qualify and focus on the most promising leads.”
Automated Outreach Campaigns: “With contact information for most businesses and employees readily available, reaching out via email can be an effective way to generate interest and qualify leads. Tools can help track open and reply rates to optimize the process and update lead scores.”
System Integration (CRM): “Connecting the customer relationship management (CRM) tool with the hotel’s central reservation system (CRS) can further simplify post-sales efforts. Dashboards can highlight contracts that are at risk of being lost, those that aren’t meeting expectations and those that have further scope for upselling. Automated communications and reminders also help strengthen the relationship.”
Technology has proven its positive impact in other industries, and the hotel industry is no exception. Travel and tourism isn’t going anywhere especially now that it seems the economy is slowing coming back to the pre-covid times. Embracing technology in hotel operations will significantly help with sales.
