Unified Data Layers: Driving Personalisation, Guest Satisfaction, Revenue
In a recent podcast on dojo.live, I spoke about the game-changing role of a unified data layer in staying competitive, especially in an era driven by AI and other emerging technologies.
Clean, structured data is no longer optional; it's the fuel for smarter decisions, smoother operations, and excellent guest experiences. In the hyper-informed world, data is the engine behind personalisation. In hospitality, it is what differentiates an average stay and a holistic experience that can build loyalty beyond the check-out.
As hospitality goes digital, data is everywhere, but clarity isn't. While collecting data is easy, what matters is turning it into insight. Despite investing in advanced systems, many businesses struggle to get the full picture. The missing link? A single, unified source of truth.
The bottleneck: data silos
One of the biggest challenges for the industry is working with fragmented, siloed data. Without a unified view, understanding guests or serving them with personalisation is nearly impossible.
Here's what siloed data leads to:
Isolated departments with no full picture of operations
Slower decision-making and broken workflows
Generic experiences instead of personalisation
Barriers in adopting new tools like AI
Lost revenue and guest retention
Unified data: changing the game
A unified data layer flips the script. Unlike disconnected systems, it builds a connected ecosystem: one view of guests, operations, and opportunities.
1. One language, one source
A centralised database means that all departments—from the front desk to housekeeping—'speak the same language'. It means the same data definitions, sources, and metrics, leaving no room for breaks or data loss. This minimises errors, inconsistencies, and miscommunication, ensuring a cohesive brand experience across every touchpoint. With a single source of truth across all revenue touch points, teams stay aligned and informed, enhancing responsiveness to requests, front office enquiries, and other guest needs. Open platforms with a unified data layer enable seamless communication within departments or across multiple branches and outlets, creating a connected ecosystem that supports smarter decisions, faster service, and a more unified guest journey.
2. Enhanced guest journeys
A unified enterprise platform can capture the entire guest journey. Consider a guest who has a known allergy to lemongrass oil. If this detail is recorded only at the front desk, the restaurant or wellness centre may unknowingly expose the guest to this allergen, maybe through a dish or a spa treatment. But, with integrated systems, this allergy note is instantly visible to all departments, enabling teams to deliver a safe and personalised service. It is a way to show guests that the hotel has put in an effort to understand their needs, preferences, and concerns. This is what leads to enhanced experiences and, consequently, guest retention
3. Staying ahead, future-ready
Unified data lays the groundwork for adopting AI and automation across the hotel ecosystem. Predictive analytics, intelligent automation, and dynamic decision-making all rely on one fundamental asset: clean, consistent, and real-time data. Consider AI-driven tools that forecast demand, optimise staffing, personalise guest experiences, or automate inventory planning. These models pull from historical booking data, guest profiles, maintenance logs, consumption patterns, and live inputs. AI is only as smart as your data. And with a unified data layer, hotels are not just collecting information. They're turning it into intelligent, scalable action.
4. Smarter revenue strategies
Models such as dynamic pricing that analyse historical data, real-time demand signals, competitor pricing, and external factors all depend on clean, consolidated data. Businesses can use advanced systems to suggest "Netflix-style" recommendations to personalise offers and, as a result, increase the likelihood of conversions. With a unified system, predictive algorithms gain access to a 360° view of the guest; this enables dynamic pricing engines to respond to demand shifts with precision, optimising rates to boost RevPAR. It also allows automated upselling strategies, from room upgrades and wellness vouchers to dining packages, to be targeted based on actual guest behaviour rather than assumptions.
5. Cultivating loyalty that lasts
Beyond targeted marketing, data enables businesses to cultivate true loyalty that extends beyond bookings and points programmes. More than a simple birthday email, true loyalty comes from anticipating what a guest needs before they ask. When a guest's pillow preference is already known by housekeeping or their favourite table is automatically reserved at the restaurant, it shows attentiveness that feels human, not algorithmic. Unified data turns fragmented service into a seamless, memorable journey that encourages guests to return, not just out of habit but because they feel truly valued. AI and other models can personalise experiences in a way that is thoughtful and not invasive, ultimately building trust while respecting privacy.
Data is the new oil. But it's the refining that counts
Digital hospitality brings in a flood of data. But the challenge? Turning raw data into refined insights. A unified data layer bridges that gap, from cluttered silos to clear insights. The true value of data is in the insights we derive from it, and by unifying that data, businesses will be unifying their ecosystem. It is what empowers hotels to deliver truly personalised experiences, foster stronger loyalty, and achieve sustainable growth.
About IDS Next
IDS Next is the largest hospitality solutions provider in emerging markets, catering to global customers in over 50 countries with award-winning software. Streamlining both front and back-office hospitality operations, IDS Next provides full-stack ERP solutions for hotels, restaurants, leisure and wellness sectors and integrates with over 100 leading technology partners. Having over 35 years of experience, the company promises the most secure operations with its PA DSS-certified and GDPR-compliant solutions. Today, the company powers 300,000+ rooms, 220+ hotel chains, 25,000+ POS outlets and 300+ leisure venues across the globe. Spanning across Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Rim, the company is trusted by renowned hospitality brands, including Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, Taj Hotels, ITC Hotels, Choice Hotels and Louvre Hotels Group, for more, visit www.idsnext.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hospitality Net
20 hours ago
- Hospitality Net
Rebuilding hotel tech stacks for the Agentic AI era Philip Barton
A new kind of traveller is emerging, one who may never visit your website, click an ad, or speak to a human. Instead, they rely on their personal AI agent to plan, compare, negotiate, and book every aspect of their trip. This shift marks a seismic change in how travel is discovered and transacted, demanding a fundamental rethink of hotel technology stacks. Are hoteliers ready for this new class of guests and their digital representatives? Consider how AI-driven website traffic is already having a dramatic impact: According to Ahrefs, 63% of websites receive AI traffic , with smaller sites experiencing the highest proportion. , with smaller sites experiencing the highest proportion. A survey by Adobe reveals that traffic from generative AI sources (chatbots or AI-powered search assistants) on U.S. travel websites rose 1,700% from Jul 2024 to Feb same survey shows that visitors arriving via generative AI tools show 8% higher engagement, view 12% more pages, and have a 23% lower bounce rate than non-AI traffic sources. reveals that traffic from generative AI sources (chatbots or AI-powered search assistants) on U.S. travel websites rose 1,700% from Jul 2024 to Feb same survey shows that visitors arriving via generative AI tools show 8% higher engagement, view 12% more pages, and have a 23% lower bounce rate than non-AI traffic sources. Cloudflare found that monthly traffic to generative AI services grew by 251%between February 2024 and March 2025. So, what does this all mean for the hospitality industry? Most hospitality tech stacks weren't built for AI; they were designed for humans, not machines. Legacy systems are slow, fragmented, and incapable of speaking the language of autonomous AI. To stay visible and bookable in an AI-agent-first ecosystem, hotels must rethink their infrastructure from the data layer up, embracing real-time interoperability, AI-native protocols, and machine-readable data formats. Is your data AI-ready? The rise of AI agents demands a fundamental shift in how hotels manage and present their data. Traditional website designs optimised for visual appeal and manual navigation are insufficient for engaging with AI-driven tools. Hotels must evaluate their systems against the following criteria: Structured data formats: Implement markup to make room availability, pricing, and amenities accessible to AI crawlers. Implement markup to make room availability, pricing, and amenities accessible to AI crawlers. Real-time accessibility: Ensure APIs deliver fast, accurate responses to queries from AI agents, with latency ideally under 100ms and definitely under 200ms. The 95th percentile for API response times should always be under 3 seconds. Ensure APIs deliver fast, accurate responses to queries from AI agents, with latency ideally under 100ms and definitely under 200ms. The 95th percentile for API response times should always be under 3 seconds. Interoperability: Adopt protocols like Model Context Protocol (MCP) to enable seamless interaction between hotel systems and external AI platforms. Adopt protocols like Model Context Protocol (MCP) to enable seamless interaction between hotel systems and external AI platforms. Dynamic content updates: Automate inventory and pricing updates to reflect real-time changes, ensuring AI agents always access the latest information. Hotels that fail to meet these standards risk becoming invisible to AI agents, which prioritise systems capable of delivering clean, actionable data. By preparing their data for this new user class, hoteliers can ensure they remain competitive in an increasingly automated travel ecosystem. Building the foundation: A focused, AI-ready architecture Modern hospitality stacks begin with unified data ecosystems that aggregate guest profiles, operational metrics, and market signals into cloud-based repositories. This eliminates silos between PMS, CRM, and revenue management systems, creating a single source of truth. Unifying data overlaid with semantic meaning is the prerequisite for AI innovation, enabling real-time analysis of guest preferences, occupancy trends, and competitive pricing. With clean data pipelines, hotels can deploy AI co-pilots that: Adjust room rates dynamically using market demand signals Predict guest preferences (room, meal selection, room settings, etc) Handle customer inquiries through conversational AI Optimise housekeeping routes and inventory orders. These systems learn continuously, improving efficiency and personalisation over time. Agentic integration: MCP and the rise of the A2A Economy The emergence of AI agents opens a new paradigm for hotels: active participation in the agentic economy. Hotels can no longer passively rely on traditional distribution channels. To thrive, they must embrace strategies that enable seamless interaction with AI agents, creating new avenues for booking, personalisation, and revenue generation. This starts with understanding and implementing key protocols such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which paves the way for the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) economy. MCP is a new and evolving protocol that transforms hotels into active participants in the A2A economy. It standardises how AI agents interface with hotel systems, expanding the capabilities of individual agents by enabling them to connect and interact with other specialised agents, leading to richer and more versatile functionalities. This benefits hotels as it allows their systems to: Offer more comprehensive travel solutions : By connecting with external AI agents, hotels can offer bundled packages that include flights, transportation, and local experiences, all coordinated seamlessly. : By connecting with external AI agents, hotels can offer bundled packages that include flights, transportation, and local experiences, all coordinated seamlessly. Reach a wider audience : Integration with diverse AI travel platforms expands the hotel's reach beyond traditional channels, tapping into new customer segments. : Integration with diverse AI travel platforms expands the hotel's reach beyond traditional channels, tapping into new customer segments. Improve efficiency and reduce costs: Automating interactions with AI agents minimises the need for human intervention in routine tasks, freeing up staff to focus on higher-value activities. MCP is a rapidly evolving landscape that can potentially eliminate fragile API integrations, allowing properties to connect with numerous services through a single MCP gateway. Imagine a guest's travel agent AI seamlessly booking rooms, spa services, and dinner reservations by interfacing directly with your hotel's agent. Optimising the agent experience 8Traditionally, websites have focused on the user experience (UX). However, the rise of AI demands a focus on the agent experience (AX) that must consider a different set of technical priorities: AI-accessible inventory: Expose rooms, amenities, and add-ons through GraphQL APIs and enable multi-property package bookings in a single transaction. Expose rooms, amenities, and add-ons through GraphQL APIs and enable multi-property package bookings in a single transaction. Machine-readable content: Replace visual call to actions (CTAs) with annotations, reconsider SEO in the context of how LLMs view your brand visibility, and implement tags for preferential crawling. Replace visual call to actions (CTAs) with annotations, reconsider SEO in the context of how LLMs view your brand visibility, and implement tags for preferential crawling. Agent Experience (AX) design: Develop parallel website versions optimized for API interactions. Semantic consistency and support for multiple data sources, including social and query graphs, are all key. Develop parallel website versions optimized for API interactions. Semantic consistency and support for multiple data sources, including social and query graphs, are all key. Dynamic commission structures: Create lower AI-specific affiliate tiers and offer bulk booking discounts for high-intent agent queries. Transitioning from legacy systems to seize the AI opportunity The transition to an agent-mediated hospitality landscape is not a distant possibility but an accelerating reality. Hotels that delay implementing MCP capabilities and an agent-friendly infrastructure risk significant market share erosion within 12-18 months as AI travel planning becomes mainstream. Forward-thinking properties are already capturing early-adopter advantages through strategic partnerships with emerging AI travel platforms. The challenge now is how quickly hoteliers can transform their digital infrastructure to become preferred partners in the A2A economy, where AI agents will increasingly mediate guest relationships. The journey to an AI-first architecture means hotels must adopt a modern technology stack by: Phasing out on-premise systems with cloud-native platforms offering open API access. Adopting composable data and platform architecture using microservices for easy MCP integration. Considering website SEO and agentic presentation pathways. Retraining staff on AI-assisted workflows, reducing manual data entry. Revamped stacks for the Agentic AI era will drive operational efficiency and real-time channel optimisation by automatically redistributing inventory across the most profitable channels and guest profiles. First-mover hoteliers will help shape the new distribution paradigm and have greater control over their digital destiny in the age of AI.
Hospitality Net
20 hours ago
- Hospitality Net
Why legacy PMSs are holding hotels back and how cloud technology solves it
As hospitality evolves, hotels must streamline operations, harness data more effectively, and enhance efficiency to stay competitive. The Property Management System (PMS) is at the core of hotel management, an essential tool connecting various hotel functions. As more business shifts online and seamless digital experiences become the expectation, PMSs must integrate with internal and external systems, including POS, front desk, and housekeeping. Yet, most PMSs were built for a different era, making it difficult to support the growing web of integrations required in today's digital-first environment. Traditional property-based legacy systems are cumbersome to use and maintain. These old systems often require hotel staff to navigate complex menus and wade through irrelevant options just to retrieve information that should be readily available with minimal clicks. Additionally, new rollouts and upgrades come at a very steep cost to hotels in terms of time, personnel, and resources. In contrast, cloud-based software updates are completed remotely, delivering greater efficiency and enhanced functionality without disruption. The shift toward digital marketing and personalized guest experiences further emphasizes the need for more agile PMSs. Integrating with loyalty programs, guest marketing, CRMs, and mobile apps wasn't envisioned when legacy PMSs were first implemented. These aging systems have reached the end of their functional lifespan. Unlocking greater agility with a cloud-native PMS A modern, cloud-native PMS offers far more than just streamlined operations; it empowers teams with intuitive, real-time control over every aspect of property management. Designed for today's dynamic hospitality environment, intuitive, user-friendly displays reduce staff training time and increase productivity, allowing teams to focus on the guest experience instead of clunky system navigation. Leveraging the cloud's scalability and flexibility enables centralized access to critical functions, like front desk operations, housekeeping, and maintenance. In addition to greater insights, it allows teams to stay connected and responsive no matter where they are on the property. Real-time reporting and analytics further equip hotel leadership with the information they need to make fast, informed decisions that improve performance and guest satisfaction. Facilitating seamless integration with other hotel systems eliminates the friction of disconnected data and disjointed processes, resulting in a more agile, efficient operation. Simplifying access to data across systems while enriching functionality unlocks new capabilities, like real-time rate and availability management through integrated channel managers or inline RMS capabilities to optimize revenues. Unified platform, unlimited possibilities Delivering the modern, digital experiences guests expect hinges on seamless systems integration and single-source data to unlock data´s full potential. iStay, IBS Software's unified hospitality management platform , doesn't just upgrade how hoteliers manage their properties and enhance guest experiences – it completely transforms them. iStay's cloud-native PMS integrates seamlessly with the platform's CRS, PMS, RMS, Booking Engine, distribution, and loyalty software, eliminating traditional data silos across disparate systems that complicate hotel operations and personalization efforts. This holistic approach enables hotels to grow their business, deliver exceptional guest experiences, and allow staff to focus on personalized service rather than complex system workarounds.
Hospitality Net
a day ago
- Hospitality Net
Edouard Lapasset has been appointed General Manager at Mandarin Oriental, Paris
Mandarin Oriental is pleased to announce the appointment of Edouard Lapasset as General Manager of Mandarin Oriental, Paris, effective June 1, 2025. He continues his career at the prestigious rue Saint-Honoré property, where he has served as Hotel Manager since 2022. With nearly 20 years of experience in luxury hospitality, including 11 years within Mandarin Oriental, Edouard brings extensive expertise in hotel management and a deep understanding of the luxury hospitality sector. Driven by curiosity for all aspects of the hotel industry, Edouard gained experience in various departments (Purchasing, Food & Beverage, Guest Services, Housekeeping, Project Management) before joining Mandarin Oriental as Assistant Front Office Manager at Mandarin Oriental, Geneva. He then rose through the ranks to become Director of Rooms, before taking on the same role at Mandarin Oriental, Doha in 2020. In 2022, he joined Mandarin Oriental, Paris as Hotel Manager, where he has since contributed to strengthening the hotel's position as a benchmark for French luxury hospitality. Born in Paris and a proud ambassador of French savoir-faire both in France and abroad, Edouard discovered his passion for hospitality early on through extensive travel, which sparked his love for service and, above all, for human connection. He places great importance on both guest and employee experience and is committed to embodying excellence in every role he undertakes. A competitive athlete, particularly in fencing, he draws on values such as performance, self-improvement, leadership, and the importance of family, discipline, teamwork, and perseverance. Principles that he applies in both his personal and professional life.
