How events make or break accommodation demand
Events drive people movement
When events ramp up, so does travel and bookings for hotel stays. What do we mean by events? Think everything from a sports game, to a festival to a school holiday and even unscheduled events like a flood or a pandemic. Events can have a major impact on the accommodation industry and it's a key insight to ensure you’re incorporating when planning.
Intelligent event data—meaning event data that is verified, scrubbed and enriched with the complete picture of the event—tells accommodation providers exactly when there will be sudden influx or drop in the amount of people within a given radius of their hotel locations. This gives them the ability to:
Adjust pricing in advance to maximize RevPAR
Hoteliers factor events into their forecasting to accurately anticipate demand in advance. This foresight powers their ability to optimize packages and pricing to unlock significant increases in RevPAR and yield.
Big conference coming into town? Make sure your hotels are priced accordingly and you are controlling your inventory more during expected peak times.
Right-size staffing ahead of busy (or slower) shifts
Labor forecasting errors aren't just expensive – they are frustrating. Accommodation companies incorporate event data into their planning to avoid losing guests due to slow service, avoid losing staff due to being overworked, and ultimately avoid losing money from over-rostering workers when they are not needed.
For example, a hotel located near a concert venue will see spikes in demand not just for major headliners, but also for smaller acts planning teams may now know about. With awareness of all events and how many attendees they’re bringing in, the business can avoid labor costs associated with over and under staffing.
See an increase in direct bookings
Intelligent event data enables accommodation providers to adjust pricing and marketing outreach with confidence in order to perfect the ratio of direct bookings to retail bookings.
With data-driven marketing and pricing, hoteliers are better positioned to compete against third-party booking sites vying for customer attention and loyalty. When it’s a straightforward and less expensive process, booking direct is a no-brainer for consumers looking for a place to stay.
Leading hoteliers and accommodation providers have incorporated event data into their forecasting and planning to have a more complete understanding of upcoming demand.
For example, OTA Insight, a platform that enables hotel managers to price and market smarter with real-time intelligence, leverages intelligent event data to create more accurate continuous forecasting.
Their goal is to empower the hotel industry to make better decisions around marketing, revenue, and distribution, so they are constantly evolving their offering to be as well rounded and insightful as possible. This is just one of many. Dive deeper into how leading accommodation providers are using event data to accurately predict demand.
