In the Data Age, What's the Best Way to Collect Customer Emails?

"sOTAs play a crucial role in hotel bookings but often withhold customers' real emails. Hotels should collect customer data through methods like Registration Cards, WiFi Login, Loyalty Programs, and Guest Portals. These strategies allow hotels to obtain genuine customer information, enhance marketing efforts, streamline the check-in process, and increase chances of repeat bookings by delivering a more personalized and efficient experience."

In the era where data is crucial, obtaining customer emails from OTAs has become increasingly difficult. 
**[[ How can hotels keep them? ]]**
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It is undeniable that OTAs play a significant role in generating bookings for hotels. Each OTA employs various strategies to retain customers on their platforms, using techniques like pricing strategies and loyalty programs to compete with one another.

However, for every booking sent to a hotel, OTAs do not disclose the real email addresses of the customers. Instead, they create temporary email addresses for hotels to use for communication during the booking period until the customer checks out.

Information such as email addresses and phone numbers is essential for hotel marketing teams, as it can be leveraged for various marketing initiatives. Hotels invest significant effort in designing products and services, providing care, and offering experiences that ensure customer satisfaction and encourage repeat bookings.

 

So, how can hotels obtain customers' real email addresses?

Registration Card
This is a traditional method. Every time a guest checks in, most hotels provide a paper form for customers to fill out with details like name, surname, passport number, address, and country. Hotels should utilize this information rather than letting it remain on paper.

Are there other methods to digitally collect customer information without manually transcribing it from paper?

WiFi Login
Nowadays, there are few hotels that do not offer free WiFi to customers. It has become a necessary and fundamental factor for customers when choosing a hotel. As a result, many hotels require customers to log in to free WiFi by entering an email address or phone number. However, this method has become less popular as customers are often reluctant to provide personal information in exchange for free services, knowing that it may lead to things like advertisements.

Loyalty Program
It is often said that the best strategy for acquiring new customers is through pricing, but to encourage repeat purchases, a loyalty program is needed. The cost of retaining an existing customer is seven times cheaper than acquiring a new one.

Guest Portal
In today’s world, efficiency and convenience in check-in processes are vital. The COVID-19 situation has accelerated the acceptance of contactless check-in procedures, reducing the need for conversation and physical contact. One of the processes modern hotels are implementing is the Guest Portal.

A Guest Portal offers hotels a way to provide guests who have booked a stay with an option to fill out check-in information, such as name, surname, address, email, and country of origin, as well as upload passport pages and specify any additional details before their arrival. This allows hotels to prepare the necessary information before the guest arrives, significantly reducing check-in time.

 

Modern hotels will implement this system, which securely collects data according to international standards, to obtain real customer emails and prepare to use them for future marketing purposes.

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However, while collecting customer emails for public relations and marketing purposes is important, data collection should prioritize the privacy and security of customers' personal information. If a hotel understands and upholds data security and respects customers' privacy rights, it will earn greater trust and establish high standards in the eyes of its customers.