Shire Group First in Line for New Guest Relationship Optimization Software
UNITED KINGDOM, July 22, 2005. The 25 year-old Shire Hotel Group is one of the first organizations implementing the latest Guest Relationship Optimisation technology, which, they say, is a powerful, completely intuitive system that can be used by any marketing professional because it is so user-friendly, and will help to dramatically increase yield and RevPAR (revenue per available room).
"The new Amateo 360 system," said Jane Waterworth, marketing director for the Shire Group, "is a completely new version of their marketing module, which we originally implemented in 2001. Its simplicity of use, for such a powerful tool, will allow us to move even further towards micro-marketing, allowing us to target small sub-segments of guests based on their spend-levels, reason for stay, area, preferences, such as golf, spa, dining, and combinations of these and many other variables.
Amateo's software has already given Shire Group a 'first', very personal ommunication with each guest, based on their specific requirements. They have been able to introduce regular opt-in, personalised e-mail communications, where all the html coding is done by the Amateo software, so marketing staff can produce highly professional e-mailshots and newsletters themselves without the cost of external agencies.
Previously, each Shire property had its own separate database and a loyalty card scheme had yet another database. Marketing staff knew they shared guests between properties, but had no way of knowing where existing guests had checked in at another group property.
"Not only did the Amateo system implement the multi-property data warehousing we needed but it also has an in-built guest loyalty scheme module, allowing us to move administration of the scheme away from the conventional , and very expensive outsourced arrangement," explained Waterworth. "We've now moved over 8,000 loyalty client members across."
Guest relationship optimisation software has effected significant reductions in marketing spend. "We now know precisely which guests to send a food/beverage newsletter or spa-related offer to, without duplication across different properties," said Waterworth. "And, as the software regularly analyses our growing guest data, we've found three times as many guests as we thought were actually converts from social events like weddings, so we've adapted our marketing, which has significantly increased our conversion rates. The new Amateo 360 module will enable us to increase yield and RevPAR even further."
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