Global Hotel Alliance personalizes guest experiences across channels with Oracle

As an entity operating independently of the more than 40 brands it works with, Global Hotel Alliance (GHA) strives to deliver personalized hotel experiences through its loyalty platform, GHA DISCOVERY.

With 21 million members and over 800 hotels spread across 100 countries, GHA collects a wealth of customer data to cater to the individual journey of each guest. However, the company struggled to manage all this data and proactively deliver the right messaging. GHA knew it needed a scalable, centralized solution to align with its increasing customer base. 

Because each hotel brand has its own independent initiatives, objectives, and positioning, a top priority for GHA was to build out a holistic loyalty program while maintaining the specific identity of each hotel. At the same time, the company wanted to boost engagement across the whole alliance, encouraging guests to travel to new places and thus increase the overall success of all the brands.

With the launch of DISCOVERY Dollars—a digital currency that offers cash back on any amount spent during a guest’s stay—GHA needed a way to incentivize hotel guests to redeem their rewards. The goal was to combine DISCOVERY Dollars with personalized messaging for each customer touchpoint, based on where each member was in the loyalty lifecycle.

Lastly, GHA wanted to sustain the multichannel delivery of communications while the program continued to grow. That would allow the company to coordinate with hotels on marketing strategy implemented on the GHA DISCOVERY platform.

With several Oracle solutions in place, GHA chose Oracle Responsys, part of the Oracle Advertising and Customer Experience suite, for its ability to seamlessly operate with existing Oracle systems. It was not only the perfect fit within the company’s current environment, but it also addressed the limitations of GHA’s prior platform.

Additionally, GHA selected Oracle Responsys because it provided a centralized data hub to support the continuous growth of the GHA DISCOVERY loyalty platform. The company also valued the segmentation, targeting, and reporting features that Oracle Responsys offered, which were essential in delivering relevant and personalized messaging on its platform.

Using Oracle Responsys, GHA took advantage of built-in intelligence to capture trip details and behaviors of hotel guests in real time after they enrolled in the company’s GHA DISCOVERY platform. The company also streamlined the data collection process from multiple data points, such as point-of-sale systems, and centralized on one platform.

GHA now communicates more consistently with hotel guests and meets their needs at every stage of their journey by consolidating fragmented customer information. Using Oracle Responsys’ segmentation and targeting capabilities, GHA can quickly analyze customer data and build out personas for targeted messaging.

GHA also ran tests to verify what types of content shared on the GHA DISCOVERY platform were most relevant and impactful for hotel guests. Using refined customer segments, the company increased customer engagement by sending relevant email messages and surveys based on specific customer criteria. This approach allowed GHA to recommend new travel destinations and hotel experiences that guests otherwise may not have considered.

With Oracle Responsys, the company further engaged with members on its loyalty platform by implementing currency-driven communications based on a member’s DISCOVERY Dollars balance. Consequently, the company enhanced its ability to personalize recommendations for services, experiences, or hotels within the network.

Additionally, GHA took steps to implement Oracle Responsys Browser Push for sending real-time web push notifications to communicate news or promotions to customers and increase engagement.

Using detailed reports, GHA evaluated the performance of its loyalty platform and messaging while staying informed about hotel guests, which helped develop tailored marketing campaigns to boost conversions. As a result, GHA maintained a consistent voice on the GHA DISCOVERY platform and unlocked new possibilities for hotel brands and their guests.