Still offering generic room categories and relying on automation? You're sinking into commoditization, losing profits—and your guest data is useless without personalized products!
For years, clustering accommodation into broad, generic room categories wasn’t a smart strategy—it was simply a necessity. Hotels had no other choice, and it was a model that only truly benefited large distribution players. The result? Hospitality is now in a downward spiral where automation and personalization clash, leaving hotels stuck. If you're still offering standard rooms, you're not just losing profits, you're sinking into commoditization, and your guest data is practically useless.
Why Your Guest Data is Useless Without Personalized Products
Many hoteliers rely heavily on guest data, believing it’s the key to driving loyalty and offering tailored experiences. But here’s the uncomfortable truth: without personalized and dynamic products that match the preferences of the guest, this data is useless. Let’s take a simple example to show why.
Imagine a regular guest—a husband who frequently books stays with his wife. Based on their history, your system knows they prefer a cozy, romantic corner room, perfect for a couple. Now, that same guest books again, but this time, he's traveling with his family: two adults and two kids. The context of his stay has completely changed. What they needed as a couple is now irrelevant for their upcoming stay. This family now requires a connecting room, more space, and amenities suited for children. Yet, if your system is locked into generic room categories and fails to dynamically match the right products, all the data you have on this guest’s past preferences is not just useless—it’s misleading. Your system might still suggest their preferred corner room, but that no longer fits their new travel profile. Needless to say, that most properly also their previous preferences - cozy, romantic corner room - were not available as category that you would have been able to assign automatically but instead a manually assignment is needed to find the matching room.
Guest Needs Change With Every Trip
Guest preferences aren’t static—they change depending on the context of each trip. Take the same guest from the previous example. One time, they may be traveling solo, preferring a quiet, compact room for a short one-night business trip. On another occasion, they might travel with a friend, where twin beds and a social space become priorities. Now imagine they’re traveling with their boss: a completely different dynamic where they might need more luxurious accommodations to impress. And the length of stay matters too—whether it’s a single night or a week-long stay, their needs will differ.
The truth is, a guest’s travel profile changes with every trip, and static room categories can never fully address this diversity. Without dynamic and granular data on your inventory, it’s impossible to match the right product to their ever-evolving needs, leaving guest data and personalization efforts ineffective.
The Automation Trap
Many operators have rushed to embrace automation, hoping it will solve their operational and limited resource problems, but they’re falling into a dangerous trap. Automation without personalization is a dead end. While it might streamline operations, it also strips away the unique experiences that guests crave. Generic room categories leave no room for true personalization or matching guest preferences, and without staff available to manage manual adjustments, the guest experience is increasingly sacrificed for efficiency. Hospitality becomes mechanical, losing the warmth and flexibility that once defined it.
The Last Stand
Once-proud hoteliers known for delivering exceptional, personalized service are now barely holding on, victims of labor shortages and outdated, clunky technology that belongs in the '80s. These systems clash with today’s technology capabilities and they weren’t built to handle today’s demands for personalized experiences. Without the resources to upgrade, many hotels are stuck, unable to adapt. As these operators struggle to maintain the high standards they once upheld, they risk losing their competitive edge entirely.
The Race to the Bottom
At the same time, large booking platforms are pushing the industry into commoditization. These platforms thrive on comparison and price competition, forcing hotels to race to the bottom just to remain visible. Guests are trained to compare based on cost alone, while operators bleed money on hefty commissions to these platforms. In this scenario, guest experience is reduced to an afterthought, and differentiation is virtually impossible. As these distribution giants gain more control, the ability to stand out dwindles further, trapping hotels in a cycle of sameness.
The Other Way: A Future With Dynamic Inventory
But it doesn’t have to be this way. By breaking away from the traditional model of generic room categories and embracing dynamic inventory, hotels can finally unlock the potential of AI.
This approach will revolutionize guest experiences, enabling true hyper-personalization and turning every aspect of a property into a monetizable asset. Each room, each feature, and each amenity can be tailored to meet the specific needs of different travel profiles. Personalized products will drive profits, and guest data will no longer be wasted but harnessed to create real value. What hoteliers that deliver exceptional services and meet customer wishes has set apart is now finally available in a scalable way and gives a competitive advantage against big booking platforms and accommodation providers that provide an anonymous automated booking process that does not care about personal preferences.
If you are one of the last stand hoteliers that does not want to give up on delivering exceptional experiences and fulfilling guest preferences, contact us and learn how to transform your business.
About GauVendi GauVendi is an AI-driven sales platform that addresses the entire guest journey. We capture detailed room product information, dynamically price it, and match it to guest preferences in an automated, seamless way. It's time to rethink how you sell and personalize every stay.
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