Month: November 2017

Importance of Business Intelligence in Travel Industry

It is known that technology has affected businesses as well as individuals to a substantial level both in for benefits and annoyance. The travel industry is no exemption. There have been adequate discussions on whether technology has promoted the travel industry or has damaged it more.

The Internet, technology software and communications tools all have made the travel industry processes more accessible for every player. Technology has brought effectiveness, mechanization, data intelligence and more business prospects. It has inserted an assortment of new things to cater different customer requirements, swift development, innovation in services and products to be offered in the market. Traveller data and business openings for new entrants in the industry call them the disruptors.

New business concepts backed with travel technology

Airbnb is a typical case; the conception of staying in people’s homes during the travel is not a new idea and was done earlier. Technology has just enabled it by swift-moving and easily reachable global scenario. Technology and the internet have made data accessible to everybody easily. Having said that, what adds value to the traveller are applicable and planned insights from this data, assorted with the precise intelligence and insights from it. This is where the travel technology software comes into the picture.

Technology software playing a key role

Technology software tools have played an essential role of the driver of this transformation of coming up with the spot on traveller experience based on very explicit customer needs. Mobility, tracking, and monitoring of personal as well as social activities, especially predictive data analytics are what will influence the new business models and opportunities.

Needed technology actions by tour and travel companies to keep up with market competition:

• Structuring of data
• Real-time web data extractio
• Social media intelligence
• Price monitoring and comparison
• Pricing and competitive intelligence
• Data Intelligence and Analytics

 

• Structuring of data

This is not restricted to the gathering of data but also arranging it in a precise and structured manner to be further used for different business use cases. This will further augment the potential of managing non-structured data to take it into utilization.

• Real-time web data extraction

Swiftness and freshness of the information sketch out its real worth. Today the value of data lies in its real-time extraction from single or multiple sources. Customers want all information instantaneously and updated with real-time comparisons. Thus, explains the increasing use of software tools of DataCrops like online travel intelligence which assists in understanding the overall market dynamics and the competitive pricing strategies.

• Social media data extraction and intelligence

Social Media data extraction is significant as it assists in grabbing the expanding user-generated content that travel companies are interested in for product and service reviews, guest feedbacks, customer complaints, brand monitoring along with competitor and market trend analysis. It also comprises of extracting and analysis of tweets, likes, marketing updates, discussions, promotions, pictures, and images.

DataCrops Social Media Intelligence solutions are well capable of analyzing professional and social data along with actionable analytics packaged with social media data extraction.

• Price monitoring and comparison

The price monitoring software offers complete visibility into competitors’ pricing and product packages in the travel industry, enabling intelligence to make beneficial pricing decisions. The online travel industry is going forward with pricing intelligence software solutions that have the complete facility to extract pricing data from their single or multiple competitor web portals.

• Pricing and competitive intelligence

With DataCrops competitor price analysis software and competitor price monitoring tools, travel companies can improve their price competitiveness, advance their competitor pricing analysis strategies and implement their pricing tactics successfully.

• Data Intelligence and Analytics

With the understanding of consumer behavior through data intelligence and analytics, needed components like profitability and customer experience can be evaluated for travel and hospitality revenue management.

With all these advantages, users on both sides of this travel business cycle benefit. The booking engines and online travel portals are now more influenced by online research and price comparison. Tour operators can enhance their travel package offerings while completing their online reservations which they can enable with enhanced technologies, further capturing consumer insights as well as intelligence.

Key Takeaways

As per the travel companies, the expansion and progressions of technology have assisted them to augment communication, handiness, outputs, the swiftness of business, marketing and increase in overall revenue generation.

However, it has turned essential for traditional travel agencies to advance their business strategies in order to stay alive in the dynamically transformed travel marketplace. The modernized e-Commerce driven environment has made mandatory for these offline players to enhance their offerings with personalization and with efficiency to the current marketplace.

The traditional tour and packages operators will see additional evolution as technology is carrying on to advancements with every single day. As long as requirements for packaged tour and travel remain, there will be a space for travel companies as well as OTAs. DataCrops technology like Competitor Price Monitoring & Tracking Software for travel, flight, and hotel industry will go a long way in fulfilling this demand for the worldwide customers on both the business ends.

Related Articles:

How Hotel Pricing Intelligence Can Assist Hoteliers Yield More Profits?

Will Artificial Intelligence Substitute Human Intelligence In Pricing Analysis?

Pricing has always been an essential component of any business as it plays a vital role in the successful running of all industries globally. Hotel price intelligence and management which helps in deciding how the services of any business should be priced in this enormously competitive market set-up goes a long way in influencing the company’s profitability in the short as well as long run.

Ever-changing demand and accessibility of hotel rooms

Most of the times as the rates for the hotel rooms are rapidly changing as they rely on ever-changing demand and accessibility of rooms at any meticulous location and time, taking decisions on efficient pricing for rooms becomes challenging.

These dynamic pricing decisions have to be dealt with multifaceted factors like the average rise of online hotel booking, the materialization of multiple channels for online/offline booking and cutting edge competition in the travel and hospitality industry.

The swiftly changing demand patterns have made it almost impractical for the hotel players to closely track the hotel industry, competitive pricing, and market trends manually on a daily basis. Same implies to making alterations to their own business pricing arrangement and optimization. Doing that would lead to revenue managers entirely engrossed in the function of pricing, which miss-leads to performing other key roles.

What is the need for pricing intelligence in the hotel industry?

The hotel industry is an ideal example of the function of dynamic pricing intelligence in varied market scenarios to make sure that each room is booked at the precise price to the precise guest, eventually yielding numbers and profits for the hotel.

With the increase in complexities and the many restrictions that manual procedures lead to, pricing automation comes to the rescue to the hotel businesses at a time when it is required the most.

Data insights and intelligence play imperative roles in such a situation, giving power to the hotel businesses to make better pricing decisions and develop a strong revenue strategy for their sales planning.

The hotel price intelligence helps hoteliers with needed market insights and supports them with smart intelligence helping them act in real-time or near to real-time to make more profits.

How price monitoring software assist hoteliers

The price monitoring software enables hotel price Intelligence based on automated mechanisms which assist in crunching the pricing and revenue related data of competitors, the market as well as that hotel itself for strategic analyses and forecasting of demand based on different trends. Hoteliers gain an in-depth and improved understanding of the pricing strategy, and this enables them to set best and competitive prices to win more business in the market as compared to their competitors.

Having readymade information on demands and competitor price patterns assists in taking instant business decisions making the process easier for hoteliers.

How web data extraction supports hotel price intelligence

Hotel price intelligence not only comprises of essential insights on competitor prices but also on the amount of inventory available and marketing activities being run by OTAs and other hotels. The competitor information like discounts, offers, schemes or special packages helps hoteliers with a 360 degrees view of the overall hotel market, thereby creating improved business opportunities. This competitor information can be captured by web data extraction software tools.

The lack of such precious information inputs and insights could prove to be dangerous to the hotels that might charge more or less from their customers losing the revenue prospects easily available on the table.

However, it is imperative to understand the nature and requirements of your hotel and select the most excellent technology for better business results. DataCrops offers best results with its hotel pricing intelligence software solutions in the form of revenue benefits. The use of an appropriate hotel pricing intelligence solution would place you better in the market by allowing you to price your rooms for most favourable occupancy and profits.

DataCrops offers advanced hotel price intelligence solutions which enable competition price tracking, effective and optimized pricing tactics, swift decision-making and assess the real-time demand in the market with the right advice on increasing or lowering your room rates in a more accurate way.

These competitive insights and intelligence finally lead to improvements in overall revenue maximization enabling hoteliers to sell their hotel rooms at the best possible price in any kind of conditions or scenarios going on in the market.

Moving forward

While a mainstream of the big hotel players is by now have availed most of the benefits of using effective price intelligence software technologies, still, the small players are not ready to move forward with these modernized methods. They still want to follow the manual ways of digging data reports created using excel sheets conducting research on a small scale.

However, with technology advancements, it is crystal clear that the use of hotel price intelligence tools is not a long-term requisite, without the use of which the hotel could undergo a range of many revenue and technology setbacks.

The solution is to stay attentive to the altering industry pricing trends and advanced technology.

Is it possible that Artificial Intelligence can substitute human intelligence in pricing analysis? More significant is to understand here what it will restore than we will come to a clear “Yes” or “No” to this query.

We are sure you must have comprehended about the rising reach of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at least a few times in recent times, in digital or print. Artificial Intelligence has been introduced in every business. The time for machine learning has in fact arrived. Intelligent machines are taking over in every possible business. This is irrespective of the fact whether; they will restore or give power to pricing intelligence.

AI in Travel Industry

In the travel industry, AI is competent enough of finding the needed price gaps and overall demand patterns. In the current time of hard competition, all travel management companies; car rentals, airline, and cruises are looking ahead of past trends for the price, yield management, and business demand. Many Airlines are at present using AI for competitor price monitoring & tracking, targeting new customers, put up brand value and compel revenue.

Industry professionals are utilizing data analytics and interpretations using techniques like machine learning. Artificial Intelligence (AI) used with pricing intelligence is one of the hottest trends in the travel and hotel industry. Many industry players are innovating with their competitive pricing strategy using AI with big data.

Future of Artificial Intelligence

By 2020, AI and machine learning will be an even chief driver of transformation. However, lacking knowledge of disruptive forces in the industry environment is another critical barrier to correct forecasting related price, demand, and human resource requisite.

While some feel that, the society will witness “The Next Best Era”, as it will fundamentally improve how businesses work together with their customers when they are in turn assisted. However, what will follow as a result of this is getting their staff educated on what AI is all about and how it will improve their work experience.

Another cause to be concerned for most in the industry is – will it decrease jobs and workforce necessity? Yes, it will but, for the enhancement of the industry. Like in the earlier days also, with the introduction of innovative disruptive technology many previous tools, procedures, and tasks became redundant. Similarly, AI and AI-based tools will restore jobs just as digital cameras substituted films. While some jobs will fade away, other new jobs will also be shaped.

Artificial Intelligence tied with Analytics

This is a thrilling time to be operating and functioning in the travel and hospitality business with so many industry innovations around. In future, Pricing Intelligence jobs will be the most exceedingly transformed by AI and Big Data technologies.

Artificial Intelligence tied with Big Data analytics will consent the automation of many tasks. However, we should only influence the power of man-machine where the human association is not required. Furthermore, there are some judgments and perceptive that is only possible by a real human brain and not any machine intelligence.

Pricing Intelligence in Businesses

Technology had by now begun to contribute to a load of revenue management analysis and pricing analysis in most recurring activities. This is a change of the explosive boost in available data that we are experiencing from all over the place to boost pricing intelligence in different businesses. Earlier, product analysts had to work on just a few megabytes of data, and they considered it enough to make decisions. However, things have transformed a lot now; your competitors also have admittance to piles of data and competitive intelligence is the need of the hour in any business especially the E-commerce.

Trust in AI

To have trust in AI is the paramount thing to do now. As more data is an enabler to enhanced and more comprehensive decisions. Moreover, the methods for data analysis are diverse and more accurate. More data means more intelligence. However, the best part is your workload does not increase in the same fashion; it rather becomes much more straightforward and backed by essential data.

Therefore, it is to be anticipated that you leverage the power of AI and data analytics to make improved decisions and more revenue.

The requirement is to make a preference here; either you can utilize the same aged methods with the heaps of data that you have today you let your competitors take the show away. Or else, implement AI methods for data analysis and stay at the forefront of your competition.

While the amount of available data and the ability to access it with AI is growing, human capacities to process this massive size of data is limited.

Summary

To summarize, the scope of this alteration and level of substitution will exclusively depend on your requirements and compliance to AI. As of now, this behavior remains more adept if authorized by humans. AI standalone will not work in the current as well as in future scenarios. Hence, that is why we need to plan a perfect mix of human and artificial assistance in taking decisions and creating business strategies. Both have to work as a group to make any business work successfully.