Consents in Hotel Groups

The Complexity of System Integration and Process Alignment

A lot of Hotel groups have grown via acquisitions. So it is expected that there is a need for system integration, process alignment, etc. These operations often take years to complete, sometimes they take considerable time just to get started.

The Intricacies of Consent Management in the Hotel Sector

One of the most interesting observations in this industry has been the management of consents. It is challenging because there is a long chain of communications that can fill the customer’s mailbox:

• From aggregators/comparison sites – they want to send communications as they try to find the best deal.
• From the Hotel – acknowledging the booking and managing the pre-arrival time.
• From the associated Loyalty Scheme – the hotel, partners, airlines, etc. all look for permission to communicate.

The Problem with Unaligned Terms and Conditions

When Terms and Conditions are not aligned, guests have to provide permission to be contacted to every hotel in the chain that they have stayed at. These may be captured on different systems, sometimes different countries and languages, making it difficult to create campaigns for travelers who book short stays in multiple countries.

The Potential Solution: Centralising Customer Consents

What if all consents were in one place? It does not change the ownership of the Customer, the right to communicate or the technology used to structure the contact. In fact it helps everyone:

• Whatever MarTech you are using, it will be easier to establish an eligible audience, avoid over-contact and ensure compliance.
• You can introduce multi-hotel or multi-country specials based on either prior stays or new destinations.
• Help your own loyalty scheme be more productive, more creative in its product development.