CRM SpecialHotelClub.com has laid special emphasis on CRM and the company has created a unique value proposition place in the online travel world.

Published: 07 May 2008

CRM Special

HotelClub.com has laid special emphasis on CRM and the company has created a unique value proposition place in the online travel world.

Chloe Lim, Managing Director, Hotelclub / GVP, Orbitz Worldwide says CRM initiatives have given HotelClub.com the opportunity to engage with its customers and the company "is the only online travel provider to give customers instant rewards through our Membership Program."

The basis concept behind the HotelClub.com Membership program is a simple one - to reward customers in a tangible, transparent way.

"In 2002, we launched the HotelClub.com Membership program – HotelClub.com members can earn rewards instantly every time they make a booking! Customers can up to 4% of their total booking back in Member Dollars. Each HotelClub.com Member Dollar = 1 USD," said Lim.

"In addition, we wanted to create a platform which allowed us to continuously value add to our loyal customers as well as offer consumers a voice in commenting and reviewing hotels they have stayed. By providing consumers a mechanism to rate and review their hotel stay experience, consumers have the power to indicate their opinion publicly, their likes and dislikes and ultimately, perhaps more importantly, influence other booking decisions to be made by other like minded travellers. We are moving the control and power back to the customers," added Lim.

As an extension of its programme, in order to provide a more customised experience, HotelClub.com is continuously looking for ways to further understand its customers and their needs through its Membership program – initiatives range from simply asking customers to share their travel preferences to tracking search patterns and travel needs through market research and surveys.

"By listening to our customers and members, we are able to create different tools customers need to enhance their travel experience. Each hotelClub.com has an online member account which gives the member access to a variety of such tools. For example, there is a hotel booking archive tool which allows a member to review all old and existing hotel bookings he/she has made with us. This saves customer time and effort in trying to recall a hotel he/she has stayed in one year ago," explained Lim.

Lim, an interview, shared further details of how its focusing on improving customer experience. Excerpts from an interview with EyeforTravel.com's Ritesh Gupta.

Ritesh Gupta: For online travel agents (OTAs), a major opportunity is to leverage the intelligence it has built through CRM to drive business to suppliers. How do you think HotelClub.com has attained proficiency in the same over the years?

Chloe Lim: HotelClub.com is very focused on enhancing customer experience, to end- consumers as well as business partners and suppliers. Intelligence and analytics is part and parcel of supporting this process.

Being part of the online travel industry and with ever-evolving technology, we are fortunate that we are able to maintain our focus and continue to drive value to our customers and partners.

In order to have accurate data to formulate strategies on, the first requirement would be to have a good source for data collection. 10 million unique visits to our platform of websites and an active base of over 5 million registered HotelClub.com members provides us the unique opportunity to access to data, understand customer needs and in turn, leverage the information we have collected to assist in the reselling of our suppliers products ie Hotel rooms.

For example, popular hotels that create high value to our end consumers are rated as "Recommended Hotel" on our website. They receive prime positioning on our website and additional exposure to our users. At the same time, all hotel partners receive promotion and exposure to our customers from over 200 countries. The type of exposure each hotel received ( where, when, how) would be influenced by intelligence gathered on each source market's needs and requirements so as to create the best fit for customer and supplier and hence, maximise value to the supplier.

Ritesh Gupta: There's a huge asset to being an online agency because loads of data can be compiled – shopping, purchase, etc. – which can be converted into sales leads. How do you think OTAs or HotelClub.com specifically capitalising on the same?

Chloe Lim: The ability to meet and understand customers' needs is an important part of business. Through various mechanisms such as search profiles, destinations selected and booking path taken, HotelClub.com seek to continue to understand the motivations of customers when making an online transaction. Once, we have an understanding of what our customers 'do' whilst making an online purchase, there are 3 items that we focus on:

1. Interaction with our customers - ensure there is necessary dialogue with our customers in order to provide support and to garner feedback

2. Enhance booking experience - continuously review and refine a simple, straight forward booking experience that meets the customer's needs

3. Value add services and activities – provide value add promotions and services to assist customers in making a purchase decision

Ritesh Gupta: Could you share some info on CRM analytical and execution tools and how are they enabling you to strengthen your bonding with consumers?

Chloe Lim: We have a customised approach when it comes to analytics and CRM tools. Most of the tools we used currently are built in-house in order to best meet our customer needs and in turn, strengthen our relationship with our customers.

The main reason behind creating our own tools to better service our customers is essentially due to the uniqueness of the HotelClub.com membership program - one of the key benefits to the HotelClub.com Membership Program is that customers can see their rewards instantly. Every time they make a booking with HotelClub.com, customers automatically receive up to 4% of the total booking value back to their online member account in the form of Member Dollars (1 Member Dollar = 1USD). As the rewards are tangible and have a real dollar value, customers can also know the true value of their reward.

On a consumer side, the program is very transparent. On an administrative front, we have created reporting tools to assist us in tracking the utilization of our program.

HotelClub.com's membership program was designed specifically to meet the needs of customers. With the data that we have collected and feedback that we review, we will continue to use technology to create tools and functions to enhance our relationship with our customers.

Ritesh Gupta: Is personalisation really an effective way of increasing online sales? What are the practical challenges is designing and implementing a more personalised approach?

Chloe Lim: As the market continues to evolve – namely, consumers are bombarded with more choices but have less time to take a purchase decision – online travel providers will need to create and implement different ways to support customers in their booking decisions.

Personalisation is a way to simplify purchase decision for customers as it streamlines choices to a more considered decision set.

The key challenge to implementing a personalised approach is the balance between cost Vs degree of personalisation. In general, heavier personalisation would be more effective to each customer as different consumer is different. However, more intense personalisation would generally require more resources to implement, resulting to heavier investments and costs.There is a balance that an organisation will need to strike in order to roll out an effective personalization strategy that is also cost efficient.

Ritesh Gupta: The challenge in travel is that pricing changes so quickly, and the volume of consumer shopping is so high, it takes very powerful systems to sort out this particular personalisation and ensure that the right customer gets the right offer at the right time via the right channel. What's your viewpoint regarding the same?

Chloe Lim: Being an online accommodation specialist, our core role is to be a conduit between our end consumers and our hotel suppliers, matching the needs (pricing, location, facilities, service, availability, cleanliness) of each consumer to the hotel that best serves the needs. For us the question is not if we should be doing this – rather, we are constantly reviewing how best to deliver the right offer at the right time to the right customers via the right channel.

(EyeforTravel's forthcoming conference on CRM:
CRM and Loyalty Strategies in Travel Conference as part of Travel Distribution Summit Europe 2008, scheduled to take place in London on May 20-21 this year.

For more information, click here: http://events.eyefortravel.com/tds/crm-conference.asp?q=tds/crm-conferen...)