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Exclusive from AccorHotels: "Our strategy is driven by data"

Hear from Connie Marianacci, Director of E-Commerce Strategy & Performance at AccorHotels, about data you need to measure your hotel website performance.

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Exclusive from AccorHotels: "Our strategy is driven by data"

Ahead of the Direct Booking Summit: Miami, we caught up with one of our speakers, Connie Marianacci, Director of E-Commerce Strategy & Performance at AccorHotels.

Join us in Miami on October 22-23 for her session Beating big data: Organize and visualize your data to drive meaningful actions and many other insightful talks. Discover the agenda here.







What does your role involve?

My role is to bring all of the levers we have over website conversion together to drive the most revenue possible. My team analyzes our website and PMS data to make sure our digital presence is continuously driving more conversions. We test different formulas to reach our KPIs, and determine how each lever performs on its own and in combination with other website elements. Knowing all of this allows the AccorHotels team to continuously optimize our website strategy.

My team works closely with the Revenue Management team to ensure that all E-Commerce strategies are driving revenue for Accor's hotels. The Revenue Management team helps us understand which hotels need more support so that we can take action. Revenue growth is my team's main KPI.


What is the key to a successful E-Commerce strategy?

It's really about finding out how to best target your audience. There are so many touchpoints nowadays, I sometimes wish a guest would just go straight to the website and book!

The more online places you are present, the more a guest is aware of you. We need to be present in as many channels as possible, and that requires a healthy budget. Our most powerful tool right now is email marketing.


What would your main advice be for hotels just getting started with email marketing?

My tip to those hoteliers would be that email marketing strategy needs to be reviewed often and correctly. Its main purpose is to build the guest relationship. We have the opportunity to learn about our guest, their preferences, and their previous experience at the hotel, if any. We use all these pieces of information to perfect our email strategy.


How can hoteliers improve their website performance?

As hoteliers, we should never be guessing, or getting stuck in the idea that guest behavior never changes or evolves. It's all about having a strategy that is driven by data, by analytics. I call it a testing and learning culture, and I encourage the use of data in my team. I ask them to 'tell the story with the numbers'.


What's next for AccorHotels's direct booking strategy?

There's a lot of talk about mobile, and what will happen with voice, and how searches have been impacted by voice technology. And that is definitely on the radar. Additionally, we are focusing on experiences. We know the guest is taking into consideration, 'What is unique about this hotel that I wouldn't experience at another?'


What can hoteliers expect to learn from you at the Direct Booking Summit in Miami?

I will be presenting a case study. We are a fast-growing hotel group with new brands joining our portfolio all the time. From a performance standpoint, I will talk about how we keep track of all that and analyze all the data of all the hotels. I will explain how we have implemented different dashboards and different data sources, bringing them together to have one single view. What does performance look like? What are the variants? Which brand is struggling? I am hoping to encourage the audience to think about how they use their data.


The tickets to the Direct Booking Summit: Miami are currently sold out, but you can add your details to our waitlist.

Find out more about Connie's session and other keynotes and panels in our latest agenda

About The Author

The Triptease Platform is built to help hotels take back control of their distribution and increase their direct revenue.


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