How smarter insights drive guest experience and profit growth

Article by IDeaS

It’s no secret data is a critical ingredient for effective decision making across the caravan holiday park sector. Accurate data allows park operators to analyse booking patterns, effectively forecast demand and adjust their pricing strategies to improve revenue outcomes. Additionally, by tracking on-site behaviour, parks can identify areas where guests may experience issues and adjust to improve the overall stay experience.

Data can also be used to optimise operations and improve efficiency. Analysing data for site occupancy and staffing levels enables park operators to adjust their staffing schedules. This ensures they always have the right number of staff on hand, maximising the guest experience while keeping labour costs at efficient and profit-oriented levels.

So, how can you identify which data is relevant for different situations and how can automation help surface insights to support better decisions? This guide will help.

Booking data

Booking data is crucial for future planning, this data allows you to project expected park demand. It is also an essential input for pricing strategies, marketing campaigns and revenue optimisation. Additionally, booking data aids in forecasting future income and expenditures, facilitating accurate budgeting. With a clear view of expected revenue and expenses, you can make informed decisions about capital investments, renovations and other financial commitments.

Long-term forecasting is vital for strategic planning for any holiday park, playing a critical role for owners and investors. This data helps caravan holiday park groups make decisions about new locations, expansions or market contractions.

To create accurate forecasts, you must rely on various data sources, including a property’s booking history, inventory history, future reservations, future inventory and other pertinent data. Additionally, you should incorporate macro-level intelligence such as economic, search and market demand data to help determine how they impact market trends and travel intentions.

Customer data

Customer data comprises of information collected from guests through various touchpoints like booking channels, on-site interactions, feedback forms and social media.

By analysing this data, you can identify patterns in customer behaviour, guest preferences and satisfaction levels, all of which can enable you to personalise or improve services to help enhance guest stays. For instance, if there are frequent complaints about poor bathroom facilities, this feedback can be quantified and used to justify investing in upgraded shower blocks to improve guest satisfaction and increase the likeliness of repeat business.

Operational data

Operational data encompasses information on daily hotel operations, such as room availability, occupancy rates and staff allocations.

By analysing this data, you can make smarter decisions regarding staffing schedules, ensuring an appropriate number of staff are available to meet guest needs.

Overstaffing leads to unnecessary expenses, while understaffing can result in guest dissatisfaction due to long wait times. By effectively integrating operational and forecast data, hotels can enhance the guest experience while keeping labour costs efficient and sustainable.

How revenue management technology helps

The sheer volume of data points available to analyse and action can be overwhelming for park managers. The multitude of decisions required for optimal revenue performance is too complex for any individual to handle without the assistance of automated solutions.

Advanced revenue management systems (RMS) leverage applied mathematical AI and predictive algorithms to calculate optimal pricing and inventory control strategies for holiday parks. These systems enable you to move beyond traditional revenue management processes by fully harnessing data and forecasting capabilities and breaking down data silos. This allows you to explore, predict and optimise total revenue performance.

For more information on how your caravan holiday park can better utilise data to support its business growth, visit: www.ideas.com

This content was provided by IDeaS as part of its partnership with Caravan Industry Association of Australia. It does not reflect the views or opinions of Caravan Industry Association of Australia. References to products, services and claims made in this article should not be viewed as endorsements from Caravan Industry Association of Australia.