Recently our Head of Education was speaking to a hotelier about the best way to set up and use his new SnapShot Analytics dashboard. Their conversation started by the hotelier admitting, “OK this is great! But once I see the data, I’m not sure what to do with it.” He’s not alone! Many hoteliers are looking for better ways to understand what’s happening and what will most likely happen at their hotels.
If you’ve ever felt a bit lost staring at reams of big data, don’t worry you aren’t alone. As a hotel data analytics company, we’re certainly familiar with this challenge many hoteliers face. In fact, most of us in the hospitality industry just aren’t used to seeing such a huge quantity of aggregated data. There is so much raw information, it’s hard to know where to start.
The best thing to do is take a deep breath, have a long sip of your coffee, and, for the moment, turn off the analytical part of your brain and flex your inner creativity!
A creative approach to data?
The overall goal of any analytics is to give you the most accurate understanding of what is, or might, be occurring that affects your hotel. The specific reports you’re most familiar with range widely from department to department, but at the end of the day the end objective is all the same: improve revenue. By taking a step back and considering data from a creative, holistic, standpoint you can utilize data to find new ideas and new ways of understanding your business.
When we approach an issue from a new perspective we allow ourselves not only to be inspired but to help foster a culture of inquiry, not advocacy. This means that your team will be more likely to consider new solutions and it will enable ideas to grow.
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