As we know…
The conventional distribution system compels hotels to give away 15-30 percent of revenues to Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). But when customers coming through distribution channels are targeted to use direct booking channels, the result for hotels is higher revenues, lower customer acquisition costs, and more loyal customers and advocates.
The challenge for the hotel chain was...
Increasing customer bookings through its direct channels. It was difficult to ascertain why customers booked through distribution channels, which customers to target and what would motivate them to book through the hotel’s channels. The company also had to ensure that rooms were available to meet the demands of increased bookings through direct channels.
Stepping in as a co-creation partner…
WNS leveraged TravRev, the revenue enhancement pillar of WNS TRAVOGUE (WNS’ suite of services and solutions for the travel and hospitality industry), to build a sophisticated analytics model. This model enabled us to target customer segments with the highest propensity to book directly and predict future demands from this group. It used past transaction data of loyal members from disparate sources and factored in more than 200 variables across wallet share, loyalty tenure and demographic profile.
The model enabled the hotel to target specific customers with personalized and lucratively bundled promotional offers. This was in addition to existing long-term communication plans to further engage with them. The propensity model predicted which customers could be targeted and enabled the hotel chain to re-distribute its room inventory to cater to the potential demands of direct bookings. It also helped the hotel design offers to motivate customers to extend their stay to generate incremental revenue.
The model, when tested post the campaign, confirmed a high level of accuracy. This was validated by:
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The distribution channel bookings generating lesser revenue than direct bookings
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Customers who had registered for distribution channels’ promotional offers were more responsive to the hotel’s direct channel promotional offers
The analytical model enabled the client to…
Drive a positive shift in consumer behavior while powering a host of important business outcomes, including:
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~USD 5 Million incremental revenue with an 11 percent lift in direct channel bookings and 28 percent revenue growth
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USD 773,000 savings in reduced distribution commissions
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94,000 direct channel bookings (through a single campaign) generated from 16 percent of registered members
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Identification of 2-3 percent improvement opportunity in the quality of revenue by ensuring an optimal class mix in ticket pricing
About WNS TRAVOGUE:
WNS is a leading Business Process Management partner to more than 400+ global businesses, including 100+ Travel & Hospitality companies. Our clients in the travel and hospitality industry trust WNS TRAVOGUE for designing and executing their data and digital led business transformation journeys.
Built on more than two decades of experience working with clients from Airlines, Hospitality, OTA and TMC segments, the WNS TRAVOGUE suite of offerings brings together the best of industry expertise, data-to-insights prowess and digital innovation.
Across the value chain, we enable our clients to deliver delightful customer experiences with TravXP, drive operational excellence with TravOps, accelerate revenue growth with TravRev, devise accounting and risk management strategies for financial control with TravControl, achieve inclusive and sustainable growth with TravGreen and outperform the competition with growth-led strategies powered by TravConsult.
To know more about WNS TRAVOGUE, read here.