Is hotel marketing ready for its next evolution?

In this episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens, CMO of Revinate, sits down with Dylan Cole, Managing Director EMEA at Revinate. Karen and Dylan mark the passing of the 200th episode of Hotel Moment and look at the technical evolution of hotel marketing software. They discuss why collecting guest data is no longer the main barrier for hoteliers, focusing instead on how properties can synthesize PMS records, Folio spending, spa bookings, and dining profiles into actionable omnichannel communication.

What you'll learn:

● The guest data evolution: How hotel tech moved from CRM interaction records to CDP identity resolution and real-time data activation.

● The cost of repeat OTA bookings: Why paying a 20% commission to re-acquire former guests drains hotel profit margins.

● Omnichannel communication channels: How coordinating email, SMS, WhatsApp, and voice channels reaches guests at their preferred touchpoint.

● Pathways automation: How Revinate Pathways uses booking windows and guest behavior to trigger automated digital messaging.

● Journey mapping vs single campaigns: Why designing an overarching guest pathway outperforms building isolated email marketing blasts.

● Hospitality-specific data fields: Why hotel marketing tools must natively parse stay nights, Folio data, room types, and cancellation history.

● Connecting PMS and ancillary records: How stitching together PMS stay history and spa preferences enables targeted pre-arrival offers.

● Contextual on-property AI chat: How Revinate Chat leverages rich guest profiles, property image assets, and brand voice to manage guest queries during stays.

Karen and Dylan also talk about how marketing teams facing workload pressures benefit from unified platforms rather than adding extra disconnected software. They discuss the mechanics of identity resolution across restaurant, golf, and Folio data, and explain how automated campaigns instantly cease the moment a guest completes a new booking.

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Episode Highlights:

[02:37] Meeting changing guest expectations requires delivering clear personal preferences. "When people expect brands to understand what their preferences are and deliver on those... if it's e-commerce, you know, you get the right pair of shoes in the mail. But if it's your holiday, it's like everything, right?"

[05:13] Transitioning from basic records to actionable data requires a third step in hospitality software. "CRM, what is that? It is, who are my guests? That was the first step in evolution. Then you got CDP: what do I know about them? And now this third point that I just mentioned is the data activation platform, and it's basically, how can I use that information?"

[08:16] Re-acquiring international travelers through third-party channels becomes costly when repeated over multiple visits. "I always think about this person who referenced that their little hotel here in the Netherlands was getting guests from Japan to visit them, and you know, they were paying 20% to the OTAs to get that. That's great. You would never get that at that price. But the shame is when it continues to happen over and over and over again."

[12:21] Designing end-to-end guest pathways replaces the traditional focus on isolated marketing blasts. "The focus was always about building the individual campaign or that individual touchpoint... But now when you engage with Pathways, you actually look at it as this overarching, 'What does this full journey look like for this guest type?'"

[16:27] Deploying artificial intelligence effectively on property depends directly on deep context from hotel operational data. "Revinate Chat is how we carry on the conversation with the guest once they get on property... this is advanced AI, and the context that the AI is picking up is actually built off of the property data."

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro

01:48 - Solving the hotel guest data value gap

04:18 - Moving from CRM and CDP to data activation

07:36 - The true cost of repeated OTA guest re-acquisition

09:21 - Introducing Pathways and hotel omnichannel automation

12:21 - Shifting from single campaigns to complete guest journeys

16:27 - Using AI for contextual on-property guest messaging

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Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.

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