IN-DEPTH: The industry is still at an early point in the development and accessibility of data sources, and understanding how to turn that quickly into actionable business intelligence, according to Tom Coulthurst, Sabre Hospitality Solutions’ Director of Product Marketing

By Ritesh Gupta

The maturity level of data management varies tremendously from one company to another in the travel sector.

When it comes to setting out RoI objectives for data management, with the whole process encompassing data modeling, warehousing, administration and mining, a section of the industry believes that the challenge is often that one does not know what the value of MIS or data management is as long as the data has not been mined and surprising insights are generated that can lead to better decisions and increased profitability.

Sabre believes that the industry is still at an early point in the development and accessibility of data sources, and understanding how to turn that quickly into actionable business intelligence.

“In today’s world those businesses who are unable to mine data and turn it into business intelligence are going to find themselves out maneuvered at almost every turn,” acknowledges Tom Coulthurst, Director of Product Marketing, Sabre Hospitality Solutions, who is scheduled to speak at the forthcoming Product Development Strategies For The Travel Industry Conference in London (November 3-4) this year.

Coulthurst spoke to EyeforTravel’s Ritesh Gupta about the maturity level of data management, making the most of external data and lot more.

The exciting thing is that travel suppliers have a rich amount of data about their customers. Harnessing this data to develop knowledge and insight about a customer’s value and needs means that travel suppliers have a unique opportunity to deliver truly differentiated experiences. Overall, how do you assess the maturity level of data management in the travel sector?

Justin Sparks, who leads our data analysis team, reminds me regularly that while hoteliers’ data and access to data continues to improve, we are still at an early point in the development and accessibility of data sources, and understanding how to turn that quickly into actionable business intelligence. We tend to see that it is very difficult for some chains that cannot leverage a loyalty system to have a single image or view of a customer and all the data points that they may have about that guest in various systems. This also becomes very apparent as a guest starts to spend or interact with the hotel company outside of their hotel reservation.

What according to you are the critical factors when it comes to making the most of external data to accurately predict demand?

The first thing you want to do is make sure you understand what the external data is and make sure you believe what it is saying. This is best done by reconciling against other data sources both internal and external.

Once you believe this external data then you should take time to understand it’s historical relationship to your data. Sparks also has our team ask the following questions when looking at data: Is it a leading indicator or trailing statistic? If it is a leading indicator then how far into the future does it predict and what is the margin of error (standard deviation) as one goes further out in the future?

What should one be wary of?

Don’t assume that others data is accurate always cross reference against something you trust. Understand who is providing you the data, because each of our windows to the world are different in size and the makeup of the view.

How do you assess the reliance of the travel industry on external sources when it comes to assessing the impact of various external sources? For instance, the hotel industry now regularly gauges the impact of air travel, business travel and customer satisfaction trends to understand how can all of this impact their projects

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Looking at those external sources have value and they do impact how decision maker view whether to move forward on a project. Still these reports are more of a general directional indicators for many hoteliers. As we get better at finding and combining more data into meaningful and actionable insights, then hoteliers will be able to more readily consume these external data sources with their own internal sources.

How do you assess the significance and depth of the trend reports available today when it comes to assessing sentiments and economic factors for new products/ amending any strategy?

Most of today’s trend reports should be used as support to what you are seeing in your business and hearing from customers when deciding on new products or reviewing your strategy.

The industry has witnessed the emergence of web-based services that make it easy to acquire, organise, manage, and analyse large volumes of complex, interrelated data. How do you assess the maturity level of data-as-a-service in the travel sector?

Understanding web-based data is improving very quickly as it is being pushed along by most industries and hoteliers are able to take advancements from other industries advancements in applying it to the hotel industry. We should see continued significant advancements for some time as amount of data increases and our understanding and ability to put all of that data together improves.

Over the years, it has been highlighted that data mining is a risky investment and there is lot of jargon and statistical analysis is associated, and even getting management to approve this concept is also challenging. How do you think scenario has changed over the years and how do you assess the acceptance level?

In today’s world those businesses who are unable to mine data and turn it into business intelligence are going to find themselves out maneuvered at almost every turn. I think many management teams are coming to terms with this, which is why data is becoming more available. Additionally we have seen great improvements in capturing massive amounts of data and put it together to create a new powerful tool for hoteliers.

How do you assess the competency level of media and search sites in shaping up the launch of new products?

These media and search sites are a great example of industries creating new solutions that offer great promise. It is up to the hotel industry to take advantage of these new products and incorporate them into our ways of doing business. These new products have created real opportunity to create or enhance our personal relationships with our customers, and over time it will become the normal course of business.