Case Study

How can hotels benefit from a deeper CRM integration with their existing PMS?

Exploring the data revolution with Rezcontrol PMS and For-Sight CRM.

In this case study, we look at the collaboration between The Speech House Hotel in the Forest of Dean, Rezcontrol and For-Sight, on a campaign designed to drill deeper into the hotel’s email marketing offering, starting with generic trackable offers via email outreach. The second phase is to segment recipients by guest type to enable more personalised offerings which can later be followed up, based on individual knowledge of each audience’s own drivers.

Background

The Speech House Hotel is a former 17th century hunting Lodge near Coleford, in Gloucestershire’s Forest of Dean. With 35 bedrooms, the hotel attracts a broad mix of clientele from hiking and cycling enthusiasts, to families, to couples in search of a tranquil retreat. It also hosts weddings, functions and conferences – so it needs to be able to fully understand each segment’s priorities, spending habits and booking trends, and to target them accordingly.

The Speech House has been with Rezcontrol since the cloud-based PMS was launched four years ago

Marketing Manager at Rezcontrol, Jenni O’Connor said: “At Rezcontrol, our goal is always to enable our customers to be their best, operate more efficiently and drive more revenue. This may come from within – from the functionalities and features which make Rezcontrol the user-friendly yet comprehensive PMS it is – or may be enhanced by a specialist integration to help a hotel take its operations to the next level.”

Director Naomi Hands said: “We wanted to track our marketing outreach more closely so we could relate the results back to guest conversions. Our marketing used to consist of pre-and post-stay emails via Rezcontrol’s own guest engagement suite, promoting upsells and incentivising return visits, and we would indeed see high levels of take up. However, it wasn’t enough to fully understand the behaviours of each segment, so we could target them more specifically from a more informed position.”

The Speech House therefore knew they needed, and would benefit from, a hospitality-focussed CRM integration, in order to understand the value of each guest profile, take advantage of repeat customers’ spending patterns, and target upsells and extras across their very different markets.

The Proposition

“We needed to know we were sending the right messaging, at the right time, to the right people – that we were being specific, targeted, segmented, and able to see the detailed results to inform new campaigns”

In order to start the process of more targeted mailing and data analysis, the first task was to clean the 26,000-contact database which had been built from adding data of every guest over the previous few years. Duplicates had to be removed and the entire list guaranteed GDPR-compliant. 

Once this was done, only around 10% of the total original list remained, so the second task was to adapt their check-in process. By enabling this online or via an iPad at reception, opt-in permissions could be gathered far more easily.

“We find the combination of technology and human contact at check-in very helpful,” said Naomi. “We haven’t lost the human touch, but can easily gather the permissions we need without being intrusive.”

The campaign

When The Speech House Hotel signed up with For-Sight, For-Sight carried out the background integration work alongside Rezcontrol and input the hotel’s data – the hotel only had to complete some questionnaires in order to set up the campaign.

The Speech House therefore updated its email capture forms to create much more detailed segmentation, and set up the new email newsletter to tag users with areas of interest depending on what content they interact with. The audience data, permissions and booking sources were set to feed into the automation, which can be used to build profiles following each campaign response, booking, enquiry or promotion offering. The results help build out of each segment as the results are fed in.

“We started the campaign with a generic newsletter containing links to our spring break offer, taster evenings, new menus and Tuesday pie nights” said Naomi, “so when recipients enquire, we can grow our segments accordingly.”

“We can then of course follow up taking full advantage of email automation, making offers designed to appeal to specific segments. As we can tie responses to a particular offer within a campaign, we anticipate being able to use this data to create ever more targeted and effective promotions.”

The results: 10% extra revenue generated

“The first email, which was sent in April 2024 to an audience of 9,700 contacts, got the ball rolling and the results have been very positive,” said Maud Bruyère, Marketing Manager at For-Sight.

This first generic campaign, using the tagline  “No mistake – our deals are real!” and using an on-brand designed and responsive email template, contributed a 10% rise in revenue from the start.

The campaign led to the following results, which are well above the average for the industry:

• 53% open rate (average 32.8%)
• 16% click-to-open rate (average 6.6%)

(Averages source: Dotdigital, Global Benchmark Report 2023).

“Looking at the revenue generated over the two weeks following the send, we observed that contacts who opened the campaign made a gross contribution of over 10% of the revenue generated during that period,” said Maud. 

By leveraging For-Sight’s data analytics, The Speech House transforms a generic marketing campaign into a precision tool for creating ultra-personalised offers. By analysing guest behaviour and spending habits, they can segment their audience and tailor promotions that resonate on a personal level. This strategic approach not only enhances the guest experience but also optimises outreach efforts, leading to increased conversions and fostering loyal, returning customers.

“We very much plan to use the results of this initial campaign going forward,” said Naomi. “As we build the guest history up, we’ll be able to see which segments are interested in what – explorer packages, room and dining deals, family offers, dining and taster events and so forth.”

“We can also see what each guest has spent at a glance, so we know what they will be likely to spend, and where they will spend it if they return – and can build offers into future outreach based on this knowledge. We use Newbridge POS, so it is very useful to have the dining revenue figures feeding in too.”

“For-Sight will be able to compile the overview from the results,” said Naomi, “which is where the whole becomes greater than the sum of the parts, enabling a multidimensional approach to pushing our marketing out and seeing where it is working. This then feeds into the detail we need to optimise our outreach strategy, based on the results.”

The future

“Our goal is to generate more conversions, and turn them into loyal returning customers.”

Through For-Sight’s work with The Speech House, the hotel has already gained a deeper understanding of their guests. They can leverage detailed insight with 100+ data points to describe consumer segments and close the gap in traffic-to-conversion rate with intent-based retargeting.

“We integrated with For-Sight at the start of the year,” said Naomi. “Having seen the results from this first, generic campaign, I would love to see, over the next year, to what extent both our current audience and historical customer base come back and how much they spend, and to create promotions based on our segmented results which can be shown to be effective.”

“We’re not using For-Sight CRM to attract new customers – that is a different outreach programme – but for retargeting our existing customers, and nurturing newly acquired leads down the marketing funnel to convert them in the future. Our goal is to generate more conversions, and turn them into loyal returning customers.”

About Rezcontrol

Rezcontrol is a complete, cutting-edge, cloud-based hotel management software solution designed to put hoteliers in control. With a 30-year track record in property management software, they understand what hoteliers need to run their operations smoothly and profitably, and how to provide it.

Rezcontrol prides itself on its intuitive simplicity, depth of functionality, transparent pricing and outstanding UK-based customer service.

• Manage bookings, rates, tasks and events – all in one place
• RezPay – intelligent, integrated payment solution
• Spend time with your guests rather than on admin
• Secure and future-proofed with regular automatic updates
• Point of sale, restaurant reservations and all your integrations – sorted

Their UK-based customer and technical support is available 365 days a year, and their service is legendary.

Visit the Rezcontrol website here.