Why is the data from analytical tools so valuable?

With a hotel analytics tool, you can get answers to questions like:

• Which periods are most and least popular?
• What are the booking patterns over time?
• Which guests spend the most and what do they spend on?
• Which channels generate the most profitable bookings?

In this article, we'll look at the reports and metrics you should keep an eye on. And how you can use your data to make better decisions and improve your business.

What can you learn from your data?

Your booking system contains a treasure trove of information. By analysing the data, you can gain insights that help you understand your guests, improve profitability and streamline operations.

Occupancy and booking patterns

How does occupancy look over time? Which days and seasons have the most bookings, and when is it slower? Understanding these patterns will help you adjust prices, plan promotions and adapt your business to demand.

Revenue and guest behaviour

What is your average revenue per booking? Which additional services are most popular? By looking at guest behaviour, you can identify opportunities to increase revenue by packaging offers or marketing extra services more effectively.

Booking channels and their profitability

Do your bookings mainly come from your own website or from high fee external channels like Booking.com and Expedia? Knowing which channels produce the most profitable bookings makes it easier to allocate your marketing budget appropriately. Some channels might also provide a more profitable visit because it's a guest who spends more once they're there.

Cancellations and no-shows

How many bookings are cancelled at the last minute? And how often do guests not turn up despite a booking? By analysing these patterns, you can find ways to reduce lost revenue, for example by adjusting cancellation policies or offering prepaid bookings.

Forecasts and future trends

By comparing historical data with current trends, you can make better forecasts for the future. This allows you to adjust staffing levels, plan purchases and set the right prices to maximise profitability.

By using a booking system that offers flexible reports, you can choose which key figures you want to analyse and present them in the way that best suits your business.

Key reports and metrics to keep an eye on

To make the most of your data, you need the right reports and metrics to analyse. A good booking system, such as Modular Visit, gives you the opportunity to produce both fixed reports, which provide a quick overview of important key figures, and customised reports where you choose parameters and filter data based on your specific needs. Here are some of the most important reports and KPIs to help you understand and improve your business.

Occupancy report

An occupancy report manages accommodation dates and booking dates. It shows how many rooms in hotels or units in campsites are booked during a given period. It gives you a more detailed overview of:

• Reservations, booked rooms & guest nights at your hotel
• Bookings, booked units & guest nights at your campsite
• Occupancy rate (what percentage of your rooms/units are booked)

By analysing this data, you can identify periods of low occupancy and put in place targeted campaigns to fill up empty seats.

Revenue report

A revenue report shows how much you earn per booking and per unit. Some of the most important KPIs to keep track of are:

• ADR (Average Daily Rate)
  Average revenue per room rented in a hotel or camping unit.
• OCC (Occupancy Rate)
  Occupancy rate in per cent
• Rev.PaR
  Revenue per available room for hotels
• Rev PaU
  Revenue per available unit for camping
• Extra spend per guest/booking
  Shows how much guests spend on top of the accommodation itself by adding extra products to the booking. For example, breakfast, bed linen or activities. This only applies to products booked in advance and registered in the system, not spontaneous purchases on site in a restaurant or shop.

Keeping track of these metrics makes it easier to adjust prices and offers to maximise revenue.

Cancellations and no-shows

How many bookings are cancelled and how many guests do not show up? A cancellation report shows the cancellation rate and which booking types are most frequently cancelled. KPIs to keep track of here are:

• Cancellation rate - What percentage of bookings are cancelled?
• No-show rate - Percentage of bookings where guests never show up.

By analysing these figures, you can calculate how many rooms to overbook and when, in order to maximise your occupancy and revenue. You can also adjust cancellation policies or offer non-refundable options to reduce lost revenue.

Average length of stay (LoS)

This report helps you analyse trends over time, identify which periods attract longer stays and optimise pricing or offers accordingly. It shows how long guests stay on average per booking. For example, a hotel can customise its packages to extend guests' stays, while a campsite can see which unit types are most frequently booked for longer periods.

On-site sales

Shows revenue from products and services purchased directly on site, for example in the restaurant, shop or reception. Unlike pre-booked add-on services, this report provides an overview of spontaneous purchases made during the stay. By analysing this data, you can see which products are selling best, identify trends and optimise your upselling, for example by adjusting opening hours, stocking or promoting specific offers.

Booking channels

A channel flow report helps you understand which booking channels generate the best revenue. For example, you can compare:

• Direct bookings via your website
• Bookings via OTAs (e.g. Booking.com, Expedia)
• Bookings by phone or e-mail

If you see that a particular channel has higher revenue or better occupancy, you can focus more on it in your marketing. But it's also important to factor in costs. Manual bookings require more labour, while bookings through OTAs and GDSs often involve high commission fees. By analysing both revenue and costs per channel, you can optimise your booking strategy and maximise profitability.

Waiting lists and walk-ins, capturing more guests

If you often have full bookings, it can be smart to work with waiting lists and analyse how many of these convert into actual bookings. Walk-in reports will help you see how many unbooked guests you are getting, which can be useful to take into account when planning.

Staff and operational reports

In addition to booking-related data, it is also important to keep track of costs. Staff costs and customer satisfaction can provide insights into how to improve service and optimise operations.

With a report generator, you can choose which key figures you want to analyse and present them in the way that suits you best.

How to use data to optimise your business

Booking data is more than just numbers. It's the key to understanding your guests, increasing your revenue and streamlining your operations. By analysing the data, you can make more informed decisions and optimise operations to both save time and maximise profitability.

The right price at the right time with dynamic pricing

Adjusting prices according to demand is one of the most effective strategies to increase revenue. Many hotels and campsites only make small adjustments between high and low season but by analysing occupancy and booking trends you can set more dynamic prices. If you see that certain dates are getting fully booked, you can increase prices during these periods while during quieter weeks you can offer lower prices or packages to attract more guests. Using early bird offers is also a smart way to fill up capacity well in advance.

Better planning of occupancy and staffing

By analysing your occupancy history, you can forecast which days require more resources and plan staffing accordingly. Having the right number of staff on site allows you to keep costs down while maintaining high service levels. In addition, you can use data to predict when the most walk-in guests will arrive, making it easier to determine if extra staff are needed during certain times of the day or week.

Customised marketing to increase conversions

Data provides invaluable insight into guest behaviour and preferences, allowing you to create targeted offers. Instead of sending generic promotions, you can use data to personalise communications. For example, guests who frequently book during the low season can receive exclusive discounts, while previous guests can be offered upgrades or special packages. Automated reminders to returning guests can also be an effective way to get them to book their next stay. By analysing which offers actually generate high revenue and occupancy, you can optimise your marketing strategy and focus on what performs best.

Reduce cancellations and no-shows

Cancellations and no-shows can be a big challenge, but by analysing patterns you can take steps to minimise losses. By identifying the types of bookings that are most frequently cancelled, you can adjust cancellation policies or introduce non-refundable options. If you see that certain weeks have a high no-show rate, you can test taking prepayment or sending automated reminders to ensure the guest actually shows up. Understanding why cancellations happen will help you create smarter booking rules and increase the percentage of guests who actually check in.

Fill empty seats with waiting lists and walk-ins

If you have high demand during certain periods, waiting lists can be an effective solution to ensure that all places are filled. By analysing waiting lists, you can determine if there is an opportunity to increase capacity or adjust offers. Similarly, you can analyse data on walk-in guests and determine if more resources are needed, especially during peak seasons.

Maximising income beyond the stay

Many guests do not only generate revenue on their accommodation. By analysing the purchasing behaviour of your guests, you can optimise the sale of additional services. By seeing which upsells are most popular, such as spa, dinner or parking, you can promote these more effectively at the right time. For example, if you know that certain guests often book dinner at your hotel, you can send an offer before their arrival. By bundling popular services with your accommodation, you can also increase the average revenue per booking and improve profitability.

Modular Visit - Make it easy to work data-driven with hotel analytics tools

To make the most of all this data in a seamless way, you need a booking system with a powerful analysis function and report generator. Modular Visit offers a user-friendly solution where you can easily get the information you need without having to manually compile figures or analyse Excel sheets.

With Modular Visit's report generator, you can choose which parameters you want to analyse and how you want the data to be presented. There are reports covering everything from occupancy and revenue to guest behaviour and booking channels.

Here are some of the fixed reports that will help you get a clear overview of your business:

• Occupancy report - See occupancy rates and bookings.
• Revenue report - Analyse revenue and KPIs such as ADR (Average Daily Rate), RevPAR (Revenue Per Available Room) and additional revenue per guest or booking.
• Cancellations - Gain insight into cancellation rates, reasons and timing of cancellations to optimise cancellation policies and reduce lost revenue.
• No-shows - Identify patterns and optimise your booking policy.
• Channel flow - See which booking channels generate the most and most profitable bookings.
• Guest analysis - Understand customer satisfaction and spending patterns to create better offers.
• Waiting lists - Analyse how often waiting list places are filled, which periods have the highest demand and how you can improve the conversion from waiting list to actual booking.
• Walk-ins - Analyse how best to fill empty seats and optimise capacity.

Using the right data takes the guesswork out of making decisions based on concrete numbers.

Take control of your data

Using booking data correctly is crucial to running a successful hotel or camping business. With Modular Visit's report generator, you'll have access to the key metrics and insights you need to understand your guests, optimise your operations, and increase profitability. Whether you want to increase your revenue, analyse marketing efforts or optimise staffing, you'll have all the data at your fingertips in one system.

Want to know more about how you can use Modular Visit's report generator to make better decisions and have a more profitable business? Contact us today and discover how you can take your hotel or campsite to the next level.