Hoteliers outline the important roles business intelligence play at their hotels and identify wish lists for additional data that would shape future operational decisions.

　　REPORT FROM THE U.S.—While business intelligence has served the hospitality industry for years, it’s importance has taken on a new, more important role inside hotels.

　　Hoteliers have long been aggregating various sources of data and using that data to make decisions that improve the ownership and operation of their hotels. But technology advancements today allow hoteliers access to wider varieties of data at a quicker pace. The real challenge, source said, is curating the data points and whittling the information down to that which will help make the most impactful decisions.

　　Critics say business intelligence practices often lead to information overload, but Jack Breisacher, GM at the Swissotel Chicago, said even those focused on using data to tweak operations for optimal profitability put the guest at the center of every decision.

　　“Our No. 1 mission is to take care of the internal guest and acquire the external guest,” he said. “What business intelligence does here is to come in and say, ‘What could we do to allow you to spend 20 more seconds with a guest?’

　　“I think business intelligence, when they go into an operation, their mission is: how do we get more guests because more guests mean more revenue.”

　　Breisacher is in a unique position at the Swissotel because the hotel’s owner, Host Hotels & Resorts, takes a hands-on approach to asset management and has a business intelligence team constantly monitoring data—from guest feedback to utility bills to profit-and-loss statements—and using that data to make operational tweaks.

　　For Caleb Beasley, regional director of revenue management at OTO Development, business intelligence provides a more direct impact on his job by helping him sort through multiple trend reports and spreadsheets to determine where to place OTO’s room inventory and at what price.

　　“On a day-to-day basis, business intelligence is very important for backcasting—forecasting backward—looking at which segments came in and why some didn’t come in, slicing and dicing the intelligence,” he said.

　　Beasley said the data he uses comes from the industry’s many performance data-tracking companies, mainly TravelClick and STR, parent company of Hotel News Now. “Future-forward BI is very helpful with how the segmentation is coming in,” he said. “What segments are booking at what time, the length of stay for particular segments, etc. All that data really helps us strategize by segment.”