Guest post by Jonathan Shemer, CTO at UpStay.

The hospitality industry is pretty rocky at the moment due to the coronavirus pandemic. With the movement restrictions and lockdowns, fewer people are going to hotels than ever, which is a worrying fact for hoteliers.

However, tough times make perfect breeding grounds for innovation, and new data-driven software solutions promise to satisfy both guests and hospitality industry professionals.

In this article, we’ll be talking about guest satisfaction and how you can maximise the guest experience while maximising revenue at the same time. We will analyse the latest solutions that can help you to find a balance between these two important aspects.

Guest satisfaction in the hospitality industry

The world of hospitality is massive; restaurants, resorts and hotels are cornerstones of the hospitality industry, and it’s fair to say that the industry is crawling with competition. Giant corporations dominate the hospitality world, making it that much harder for smaller hotels to break out.

The success of every business in the hospitality industry ultimately boils down to proper cost-management and guest satisfaction.

If you can keep your guests happy and put your products and services to use, you’re likely running a successful business. The advantages of this are:

• Returning customers
• Better reviews
• Improved testimonials
• Augmented branding
• More feedback and data
• More revenue

Is a win-win situation possible?

Striking a perfect balance between great user experience and generating a new revenue stream might seem like an impossible task, but with innovative software solutions, nothing is impossible. These days, it’s all about data.

The best strategy for achieving a win-win situation is to compromise as much as possible. If you’re willing to compromise, you can keep your guests as satisfied as possible, all while getting the most out of your unused inventory. 

Another great strategy to achieve a win-win situation is to provide last-minute offers; offering your customers an unbelievable deal on an unused part of your inventory ensures that you’re putting your inventory to good use as frequently as possible. 

Collecting and analysing customer data will give you critical insight into what your customers are looking for, allowing you to make better, data-driven decisions.

Furthermore, many software solutions help you implement dynamic pricing, which is bound to help you spend your inventory, generate revenue and give your customers a better bang for their buck.

How to take advantage of real-time opportunities

There are many real-time opportunities to take advantage of and avoid bleeding your revenue stream. At any moment, hotels have unsold rooms, inventory and a range of services they could be earning money on.

Using powerful data-driven algorithms, hoteliers can directly match their unsold inventory with potential buyers by using technology that gives pre-arrival upselling a boost, unlocking new revenue streams and increasing their profitability. How do you do it? By matching the suitable supply based on the current demand and efficiently maximising your profits.

How dynamic pricing changes the game

Dynamic pricing allows you to keep your customers as happy as possible while getting rid of your unused inventory.

A dynamic pricing solution is the key that connects the two most fundamental aspects of any service industry – supply and demand.

Dynamic pricing solutions are the cornerstone of upselling, enabling you to get rid of the most inventory, such as unused rooms and perishables, at the best possible prices – efficiently allowing you to generate revenue while maintaining guest satisfaction.

Software solutions

Many software solutions incorporate all of these elements, but none are quite like UpStay. UpStay is the premier upselling and dynamic pricing solution that allows you to match your unsold supply to your guest’s demand.

UpStay works to make both parties as satisfied as possible while using data-driven solutions to provide great value. It even incorporates a bidding system, optimising the results through powerful algorithms and data science.

Furthermore, UpStay is entirely automated, which means that practically no costs are associated with operating this innovative tool. By incorporating UpStay into your hotel’s tool arsenal, you’re giving your guests the best you have to offer, all while generating as much revenue as possible in a slick, simple and streamlined way. 

In conclusion

Making your guests feel more comfortable doesn’t have to be an expense. By utilising data-driven software solutions such as UpStay, improving your guest experience can be very profitable. Not only will you get rid of your inventory and provide guests with a better experience, but you’ll also promote good reviews and testimonials, create brand loyalty and gain crucial insights into what your guests are looking for.

Jonathan Shemer is a data science and software engineering wizard. He began his career in the Israeli NSA equivalent elite technology unit 8200, where he led a research and development team in high-performance computing and machine learning. In his last role, Jonathan served as a senior engineer at Gartner Innovation, leading there a core NLP and ML project.

UpStay is designed to help sell pre-arrival room upgrades and additional ancillaries. Check out their site for more information.