The past few years have been ripe with uncertainty, further proving the necessity of resilience across industries.

While the hospitality sector has faced significant disruption over the last two years, it also faces several new opportunities. Consumers are turning their focus to self-improvement. Wellness trends continue to grow in popularity.

As people begin to return to hotels for both business and leisure, hotel managers can leverage data and analytics to adapt to this changing landscape and maximize their ancillary revenue from the spa, wellness and sports facilities customers seek in the name of self-care.

SAS has tapped into the brain power of Black Coral Consulting, a specialty firm that provides innovative revenue optimization and commercial solutions to the hospitality sector, to help hotel managers adapt to and overcome the obstacles of a post-pandemic economy.

Organizations can lean on expert solutions and insights to grow their businesses in the face of change. I asked Judith Cartwright, founder and managing director of Black Coral Consulting, what she thought were the three most important things hospitality organizations need to keep in mind to become and remain successful:

1. Don’t underestimate the power of analytics

The devil is in the details. As the concept of personal growth and wellness continues to prevail across media, operators need to rely on accurate make strategic decisions to meet experience-seekers where they want to be. The power of quality analytics must be considered, and having a thorough, trusted knowledge of strengths, weaknesses and opportunities is critical to success.

Combined with commercial strategy and operational know-how, analytics can bring key performance indicators to organizations. Having that data in a way that’s visually engaging and easy to understand makes it easier to see where opportunity areas are and where organizations can drive topline revenue, increase profits and cultivate an environment of success.

2. Experience is everything

After several years of little travel, consumers are anxious for opportunities to get out of the house and entertain new activities, people and places. Collecting and evaluating the right data allows hotel properties to create the experience consumers seek.

Experience can be optimized using revenue, capacity, customer needs and more data. Consumers are looking for a story and organizations can use data to tell it. Understanding their behaviors, demographics and desires lets property managers utilize data to predict what they want and provide it to them efficiently. Intelligent tools and analytics make this process appear – and feel – seamless.

3. Be proactive, not reactive

Following a period of disruption like we have experienced, the future is unpredictable. As true as this is, being prepared with the right tools will help minimize future disruption, keeping organizations – and customers – happy. It would be best to find the right price for the right customer at the right time, whether it’s peak season, a wellness retreat or a personal day. Analytics makes it possible to optimize data, having the same effect on customer experience.

In all, organizations must remain agile and keep pace through innovation to adapt to change and maximize their ancillary revenues. Technology and know-how go hand-in-hand in these situations, and organizations need to be prepared to deploy both to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the industry and its customers.

Learn more about SAS Hospitality Data Analytics and how you can turn guest experiences into a competitive advantage.