CON-X interview: Daniel Alzina, CEO at Hotelinking

In today’s interview, Daniel Alzine, CEO at Hotelinking, explains the major role of automated communication and why better customer experience is important in travel & hospitality

How was Hotelinking born?

Hotelinking was founded on the basis of our 10 years of experience in the hospitality industry. After working with several clients, we soon realized that we could improve the guest registration process by optimizing the hotel’s PMS system. In summary, the digitalization and automatization of the whole process helps the hoteliers to get to know their guests better.

On the other hand, the information that intermediaries share with hotels is usually scarce, so we wanted it to be possible to validate that data instantly and obtain a complete database to allow the hotel to automatically connect with its guests, generate loyalty and boost sales through the direct channel.

Why have you chosen Mallorca to settle in?

Despite working with many hotels around Spain, which has given is a broader view of the hotel scene and improved our workflow, our company has chosen Mallorca because it has a great ecosystem of technological innovation and a sophisticated hotel industry that faces major challenges.

Our national presence allows us to work side-by-side with some of the most prestigious hotel chains, gain experience and implement improvements before making the leap to the international market.

How should technology and travel companies prepare for the next challenges in the digital content sector?

Hotel companies are capable of producing a massive amount of information. Unfortunately, many of them have minimal analytical capabilities or fail to capture the full potential of this data.

Without these data, they are missing out on the opportunity to create unique experiences for their clients, be it before, during or after the stays. Experiences that adapt to the needs and desires of each guest.

Therefore, investing in technology to get to know the customer better is an essential step, and digital strategies in this sector should increasingly rely on process automation and big data analysis to be more competitive.

Hotel companies are capable of producing a massive amount of information. Unfortunately, many of them have minimal analytical capabilities or fail to capture the full potential of this data.

Hotelinking has coined the concept of “hotel data” to refer to the entire universe of data generated in a hotel. Data that collects information on current guests or potential clients and that we can analyze to carry out more precise marketing campaigns.

Nowadays to be competitive you have to be proactive and offer customers better alternatives to take the whole digital experience and stay to a new level.

How do you help your clients?

We created a verified database for them that complies with European data processing regulations (GDPR). A segmented database of customers who have visited their establishment and from which they can obtain great commercial performance.

Through an automated communication and engagement system, the hotel can significantly increase the success of the loyalty campaigns and divert reservations from repeat clients from commissioned channels to its direct channel.

Through an automated communication and engagement system, the hotel can significantly increase the success of the loyalty campaigns

In the end, both the hotelier and the guest benefit from it, since by going through fewer intermediaries and not paying commissions, the hotelier can offer better benefits and discounts to the client.

From a marketing point of view, how different is the travel industry from other sectors?

On the one hand, the hotel sector is especially sensitive to the opinions and experiences that customers share on the Internet. And on the other, there is a high dependence on the network of intermediaries involved in the process of a reservation.

All this affects the positioning in the market, the determination of prices, the degree of loyalty and, consequently, the total income. Unlike other sectors, online reputation and distribution channels are crucial in the marketing strategy.

How does Hotelinking help brands?

One of the main problems we find in the hotel industry is that guests recognize and remember the name of the hotel they stayed in, but not necessarily the brand, which is why Hotelinking has developed a way to solve this problem.

Thanks to the automated communications, we are able to reinforce the emotional bond between the hotel and the guest. We send personalized emails during and after each stay making sure the experience is exactly what they were expecting – from the moment they arrive at the establishment until they arrive back home.

On the other hand, from our platform, we give the option to the guest who shares all his personal experience directly on Facebook. This is something that already occurs naturally, but thanks to our process we achieved levels of brand viralization that would not be achieved otherwise.

Each experience shared and published on social networks generates, on average, two visits to the hotel’s website. That means more traffic to the web, more visibility of the brand and consequent quality advertising. An effective way to get new customers and retain the ones we already have.

Why do you think network and innovation are essential today?

Today, business environments are increasingly volatile, and changes are constant. Given this scenario, innovation is the key technological and strategic tool that allows transforming companies, their business processes and even their relationships with their stakeholders.

In the tourism sector, competitiveness is undoubtedly growing, especially in the tourism sector. Therefore, it is fundamental to think about elements such as innovation. It allows us to increase the satisfaction of the needs of travelers, as well as to exceed their expectations and to generate unique experiences – which is a crucial point to take into account if we want to differentiate ourselves from the competition and at the same time offer an added value to our offer.