Spread the love

Post Views: 89

Australia – the world’s premier tourism destination – is open for business. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, an average of 1,650,000 people arrived in Australia from international cities in July and August 2023, within touching distance of pre-pandemic levels. Domestic tourism is surging, too.

That is welcome news for the hospitality industry. However, competition is high, and economic pressures present challenges. Venues have attempted numerous tactics to increase sales and profits, from rising prices to reducing staff and limiting opening hours. While these tactics can create temporary revenue spikes, your guest data is a more sustainable and lucrative method to increase revenue.

There are dollars in your data.

Data is more than numbers; actionable insights paint a picture of your guests’ habits and preferences. Whether collected from your reservation software or order and pay system, hospitality venues have access to guest data that can be used to optimise your operations, improve the guest experience and increase sales and profitability.

Through it, you can make more money from the same seats, with data-driven software, like SevenRooms, that allows you to reduce the time seats sit empty. It automatically makes recommendations on table availability and party sizes, dining durations, when to institute policies to reduce cancellations or no-shows, and which booking channels are most profitable.

Think about dining durations. If your venue has a two-hour turn for reservations, but the average booking is done in a little over an hour, reducing your time slots creates more availability and sales opportunities. Or if four-tops have a higher spend-per-head than two-tops, you could re-configure your tables to make more four tables in your dining room.

Data-driven software also lets you see how much demand was missed across booking channels by summarising data on recent reservation attempts. This helps you better manage these channels and your books to offer more reservations across your most profitable channels.

It enhanced guest experiences.

Even as international and domestic travel increases, consumers are still conservative in spending. The experience, therefore, becomes even more critical. SevenRooms research found that 68% of Australians say they’re more focused on the quality than the quantity of their dining experiences due to the cost of living. A further 43% would be willing to share their data for personalised experiences.

Approved data allows you not only to understand how to optimise your venue and processes but also to understand your guests. For example, it tells you their order history, frequency of their visits, spending patterns, preferences and more. It can go as deep as their allergies, birthdays, whether they ordered room service on previous visits, whether they’re a positive reviewer and which types of wine they frequently drink.

You can send automated marketing campaigns, loyalty programs, and special offers with this information. When it’s personalised to them based on their unique habits and preferences, it improves their experience and, therefore, your ability to retain their loyalty.

Data is the foundation of intelligent venues today. It allows you to improve your operations and increase revenue. Enhancing the value you offer can drive more long-term, incremental sales and profit increases. Through it, operators can turn their F&B establishments into revenue-generating machines.