The rise of predictive analytics has brought many benefits to marketers. The tremendous amount of both real-time and historical data available about customer behaviour has afforded them the unprecedented ability to anticipate customer needs as opposed to merely respond to them. It has also enabled them to build ideal customer groups and target promotional materials. Marketers can quickly identify...

Big Data in loyalty programs is being used to learn detailed profile metrics on our customers and use predictive semantics to identify triggers of loyalty/disloyalty, responses to promotions and other incentives. We know their favorite seat, their favorite day to fly, their preferred car hire, hotel, grocery store, their favorite wine, who they travel with, and we can draw amazingly...

Ride-sharing company Uber acquires a new startup. This time Uber is venturing into the world of artificial intelligence by creating Uber AI Labs, a new division of Uber dedicated to cutting-edge research in artificial intelligence and machine learning. Leading this division is AI research and machine learning startup Geometric Intelligence, whose 15 members will form the initial core team. Uber Chief Product Offer,...

Your Uber rating may be important, but what if it were possible for Uber to predict your credit rating more accurately than banks? What places does Uber have in using your data today? Specific country laws are in place to protect the information you provide to companies, cross-border transfer restrictions, and consumer data privacy rights. The pace of technology is fast...

There’s no question short-term rentals made a splash around the world this year — mainly from the likes of Airbnb — even amidst the backdrop of ongoing regulatory battles, discrimination debates, and fresh product lauches aimed at owning more of travelers’ trips. As of March, some 32 of the 59 largest U.S. cities (54 percent), for example, had some kind of restriction in...

In today’s mobile-first world, people turn to their phones regularly to help make travel decisions. In a new report, Google shares insight into the role our phones play in making travel decisions. Key findings: 1. Smartphones are travel guides. More than half of smartphone users turn to their device in I-want-to-go moments. Most often, they’re seeking out discounts and researching activities...

Every data company boasts its ability to provide actionable insights. Is this term more than marketing? Business Intelligence vs actionable insights Companies need to track their progress towards their various goals. They need metrics to track what works, where, and when: this is the heart of BI. Understanding why operations are successful is what insights are about. Actionable insights get you...

  In a recent blog post we discussed the importance of data quality. In this post, we provide you with seven ways you can improve the quality of your data and ensure it is fit for purpose. Continually improving the quality of your data is essential to remain ahead of your competition. Failure to keep your data up to date will...

The (endless) debates over the future of airline distribution often fail to mention the wider context in which they take place. Growth in air travel. And this isn’t just a few percentage points here or there, depending on the region. This growth ratchet expected over the next 20 years is nothing short of extraordinary, in both the volume of passenger numbers...

Airlines across the globe remain focused on maximizing utility of their existing digital assets, including their highly lucrative loyalty programs, which in the US alone, generated more than $10B in earnings in 2015. One major gripe of travellers who rack up miles with the airline loyalty programs is the ability to find and redeem an award ticket. In fact, it's...

Ctrip is acquiring Skyscanner for numerous reasons but a big plus is its razor-sharp focus on data. Senay Boztas reports from EyeforTravel’s Amsterdam Summit where ‘data’ is the conference buzzword Like the typing pool of the 1950s, we will soon wonder why only data experts should deal with data. That’s the view of Mark Shilton, Principal Data Scientist at data-driven...

There are indications that the level of interest towards brand loyalty remains increasingly strong. Do a quick search in Google Trends and interest in the topic of ‘customer loyalty’ shows signs of steady growth after the 2008 recession. It comes as no surprise, as macro-economic forces drive customers to seek better value in some of the more considered purchases they make each day. However...

“Instant Gratification 2.0” is how the Priceline Group is defining how tech will influence travellers as they look for and interact with travel brands. The industry powerhouse behind companies such as Booking.com and Kayak reckons one of the key trends to affect the consumer landscape over the course of the next 12 months will be how travellers look to technology to...

Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) is the latest major global hotel chain to cut off loyalty perks for elite loyalty members who make their reservations through an OTA after January 1, 2017. TravelDataDaily spoke with a top manager from a major Hong Kong hotel chain, who revealed that while more than 50% of their room nights are booked through Online Travel...

A study by research house ReportLinker found that brand awareness amongst millennials was extremely high, with 96% of respondents mentioning Uber when asked about what product they used for ride-hailing. Some 70% said they will hail an Uber to “go out”, the most popular form of usage for the service. There are lots of reasons for its popularity, in both domestic and travel...

What if frequent flyer programs could drive new revenue by adding elite benefits? This scenario is one I've been hypothesizing recently. Airline and hotel loyalty program managers around the world seem hell bent on removing benefits, limiting access, restricted lounges and decreasing the miles earned by the frequent flyer. All to cut costs or try to re-train members into thinking or...

Step by step guide on segmenting frequent flyer member databases. Want to dive deeper than traditional segmenting? Check out my other article on Propensity Modeling and Advanced Segmentation. Customer micro-segmentation is without a doubt one of the most robust methods for extracting value from your database, and a must for every frequent flyer loyalty program. Segmentation underpins almost every aspect of...

Online Travel Agents (OTAs) are known as an efficient distribution channel for hotel rooms, but with more major hotel brands pushing direct bookings to reduce commissions paid out to agents- this leaves OTAs searching for the next goldmine product to fuel their continued growth. With this in mind - for years - hotels have enjoyed a non-competitive landscape with their...

Airline big data, combined with predictive analytics is being used to drive up airline ticket prices. As airlines and their frequent flyer programs gather more intelligence on your day to day lifestyle, flying and financial position - they begin to build an airline big data profile. Consumer interests, goals, psychometric assessment, your motivations to engage with a brand at any given...

Hotel revenue management and use of analytics for room sales have remained virtually unchanged for decades since the early 1980s when hotels started looking at yield and how they could optimise the revenue each room could generate. By the mid-1990's, Marriott's successful execution of revenue management strategies were adding between $150-$200 million in annual revenue and thus marked the...

Virgin Australia's loyalty program - Velocity Frequent Flyer made a host of fundamental core changes to the loyalty program this past week. Most notably are changes made to status credit earning which contribute towards elite status and take effect from January 30, 2017. Read the full list of changes from Velocity here. Velocity noted that changes to status credit earning will...

For years, the airline loyalty industry has been debating over what the definition of a high-value customer is. One that spends big on airline tickets or one that filters millions of credit card miles through the banks? Recently at the Loyalty Event in San Diego, Mike Hecht from Delta noted that they don't mind whether their customers are loyal due...

I recently shared an article on how airlines are using information to individually price airfares and extract maximum value from passengers which was thought provoking and insightful for many aviation industry, business intelligence and travel data professionals. With all the overwhelming feedback and questions I received, I wanted to dig deeper into the big data world and share with you...

Dear Frequent Flyer Programs of the World, Thank you for making 2016 a year to remember in the loyalty business. A year of devaluation announcements, revoking benefits, adding ever more complex learning rules, for implementing immediate rules and restrictions without notice, for not giving me any points when being loyal to the alliance on an economy ticket, for jacking up award...

Recently, we learned that hotel big data start-up, StayAngel had closed its doors.  This is a piece written by the Founder, Mark Ross-Smith, on why they shut up shop. While ultimately it's a series of events which lead to the downfall of any business, and I am under no illusions on other contributing factors which played a part towards the business...