Marketing for Hotels: how to extend consent to data treatment in the GDPR era

The advent of GDPR has introduced new data processing procedures for hotel managers, and, more in general, for all companies that use customers’ data for marketing activities or simply store clients’ information in their database.

The new regulation, like every major change, represents a challenge and for some also an obstacle to routine procedures that have consolidated over time.

GDPR, under some aspects is also an opportunity to regulate the use of our data and also to limit energy dispersion in marketing activities directed to uninterested people.

If we look at the regulation from a different point of view, we realize that this change does not only brings duties with it but also leads to a greater control over activities that rely on data usage. For example, email marketing activities that hotels and restaurants periodically organize for customers who have already stayed at their property or have demonstrated their interest while browsing online by providing their consent to promotional communications.

Google and Facebook teach us that data is the greatest treasure that companies keep: profiled and organized databases are indeed a very powerful marketing tool. One of the new rules introduced by GDPR is the request for proof of explicit consent. Each form of paper registration that is given to the customer at the time of check in must also have a tick box to request data processing consent for promotional activities. Not only it is mandatory to request consent, but the company – in this case the hotel – must also be able to prove to have obtained it.

How to carry out promotional activities in compliance with the new privacy regulations?

It is necessary to have a property management system whose database is compliant with GDPR regulations and therefore equipped with functionalities that allow the hotel to collect, process and store data according to the new regulation.

The functionalities that have been added to the Ericsoft PMS to comply with GDPR, not only allow to insert the date and time the consent was received and automatically delete it once the pre-defined data retention period has elapsed; but also, to extend the retention period of data. How? Thanks to a specific feature, available only in the Ericsoft CRM, which allows to renew consent to email marketing automatically.

In detail, the PMS system will send an automatic email where the guest will be required to renew his consent to receive promotional communications shortly before its expiration. A link with limited validity, will be inserted in the email and it will lead to a website containing the privacy policy. In case of acceptance by the customer, the new consent date will be updated automatically in the PMS system via a “token” associated to the guest’s profile card.

The Ericsoft PMS systems not only allow to handle data processing in compliance with the law, but also positively contributes to the development of marketing activities for hotels and restaurants.

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