Don’t fail your New Year's resolution

“I fell off the wagon.”

Every year, someone makes a New Year's resolution they're destined to fail. Before the end of January, they’ll say, “I fell off the wagon.” Don’t let this be you!

We know your hotel has goals for 2025 — from budget to revenue to the guest experience — these are goals you're aiming for and don’t want to miss.

But what about your technology goals? 86% of hoteliers increased their tech investment as part of their 2024 budget, and that trend is only expected to increase in 2025.?

So, chances are, your hotel is leaning into tech adoption as a New Year’s resolution.

Choosing the right technology for your tech stack can be intimidating, but it’s worth it. With the right hospitality software, enhancing guest experiences, optimizing hotel operations, exceeding revenue goals, and running a more data-driven business becomes simple.?

Technology that supplies your hotel with more data leads to better guest insights, confident decision-making, and fewer opportunities to fail.?

And with your data all in one place, success is all but guaranteed.

[Guide] Ring in high-value bookings this holiday season and increase direct revenue with the voice channel

Discover how you can turn your voice channel into a revenue powerhouse and hone your outbound strategy to recover revenue from abandoned bookings.

Access the guide

Numbers that matter

Over 50% of customers are willing to provide data in exchange for AI personalization

• Personalization puts the control back into your hotel’s hands — creating a valuable feedback loop that makes the guest experience less of a guessing game and more of a sure thing. Guests know exactly what they're getting, and you know exactly what they want. And if you're using first-party data to feed your database, then you'll have a steady supply of personalization opportunities.

Hotels boast the second-strongest Thanksgiving week on record, with occupancy at 54.8%

• Hotels can give themselves a pat on the back. Thanksgiving 2024 was quite lucrative. While it's difficult to pinpoint one reason occupancy exceeded projections, one thing is for sure — you need to run to your data. Start early and start figuring out what promotions resonated with guests, when guests secured their bookings ahead of check-in, and what types of travelers you saw the most at your hotel. 2024 data shows that group travel was high during Thanksgiving week, and if that was true for your hotel, start preparing now to accommodate next year's travel surge. Trends change, preferences change, but consulting your data is certainly the right move for continued success.

48% of executives place data protection/trust as their top cyber investment priority for 2025

• Raise your hand if your hotel has had a data breach, data security scare, or maybe just a data mishap. Put your hands down because you’re not alone. Next year, executives across industries are taking data security seriously and adopting technology that won’t have them watching their backs for the next data attack. Remember those guests who are willing to give up their data for the sake of personalization? Well, their data is on the line.

Trends that matter

Trend #1: The name is ancillary. Ancillary revenue.

Have you met ancillary revenue? Maybe you know ancillary well, or maybe you’re still getting to know ancillary revenue. For 2025, you should get more acquainted. Hoteliers that relied solely on room revenue for 2024 would carve a clearer path to profitability in 2025 by expanding their revenue opportunities to include ancillary. Have a lot of leisure guests? Upsell them at the spa with special promos on your email channel. Corporate travelers reigning the golf course? Be sure to have your reservation agents mention tee times when one of those businesspeople calls to book. The more you know about your guests, the easier it will be to tap into ancillary revenue.?

Trend #2: VIP only

Some guests are looking for a little more exclusivity — private lounges, secret arrivals, or an elevated “VIP-only” vibe to your nightclubs and rooftop bars. Guests like these are coming to a hotel like yours in 2025, and chances are, you already have some in your database. That’s why an intimate understanding of individual guest profiles will put you ahead of the competition as you build your segments and target your marketing messaging to attract these guests.

Trend #3: Everything is better live

Live tourism is on track to take center stage in 2025. The idea is that big-name concerts, location-specific movie premiers, phenomenons of nature (hello solar eclipse), or even the Olympics are bringing out the traveler in every person. These travelers have a sense or urgency to see these events live and will journey hundreds or thousands of miles to do it. So what can you do? Mark your calendars for every Taylor Swift concert, meteor shower, or major sports game because these guests are coming. You need to be ready with the right messaging that will have them booking directly with you to make their experience even more memorable.

Perspectives that matter

BLOG: Data talks. Learn how to listen.

• Data does talk, and it tells a story about each and every one of your guests. Your job is to listen to your data, harness your data, and nurture those guest stories. That’s how you strengthen guest communication and establish your power among competitors and OTAs — generating a loyal customer base you are close to.

CUSTOMER STORY: How Portola Hotel & Spa successfully scaled on-property guest engagement

• “Text me if you need me.” Imagine being able to say that to your guests. Anytime your guests are in need — a request for more towels, asking about restaraunt hours, etc. — your hotel could be just a text away. No more guests journeying down to the front desk for a simple request. For Portola Hotel & Spa, they made sure they were just a text away. With Revinate Ivy, their hotel increased guest satisfaction with a text response rate of 45% — reducing the time employees spent manually replying to guest questions.?

PODCAST: Stop losing loyal guests and take control of the guest journey

• Losing guests to OTAs can be like a faucet that’s hard to turn off. In this week’s episode of the Hotel Moment podcast, Marc Winchell, Corporate CRM at Pacific Hospitality Group, joins Karen Stephens, Revinate CMO, and explains how to turn that faucet off with a compelling call to action for hoteliers to focus on generating direct business and building a lasting loyalty program. Marc disavows points-based loyalty programs, and he details how hoteliers should instead use personalization as a tool to deepen guest relationships and provide tailored communication that OTAs can’t compete with.

?WEBINAR: Reach your guests: Email deliverability best practices for hoteliers

• How can guests ring in the holiday season if they don’t receive your email? Watch this webinar to ensure your special promos and discounts land in your guests inbox and increase your chances of securing direct bookings.

Explore the Revinate CDP

Explore our Customer Data Platform (CDP), which uses advanced AI-driven machine learning to gather all the characteristics and clues about your guests in one place.

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