If you’re here, you might have encountered the same ugly truth: personalisation is necessary for survival. Perhaps not literally, but it means it is crucial for your brand to keep growing. 

Guests now expect personalised experiences tailored to their individual needs and desires, instead of just a place to sleep, putting hospitality brands in a tough position as they need to adapt fast.

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The benefits of personalisation are many, and that is not up for debate. However, achieving the right level of personalisation for your guest experience can be tough if you don’t have the right approach. 

Many property managers, marketing managers or guest experience managers feel tired of this “personalisation talk” because in reality it takes away a lot of their time, they don’t have the resources or don’t even know what to say to their guests. 

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There has to be a better way, right? And there is. 

Personalisation can turn into a smooth job and you can see the benefits from day one. It doesn’t need to take hours or demand of all your effort, because a customer relationship management (CRM) system helps you to get the job done without much hassle.

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How a CRM helps to drive personalised experiences? 

In short: a CRM helps hotels use their guest data to personalise the guest experience.

Each guest produces a lot of data, from booking history to their email interactions, their feedback, among others. A hotel CRM allows you to easily understand this data to be able to use it to personalise the guest experience from pre-arrival to post-stay. When you have access to real and accurate data, you can focus on what each guest actually cares about, not just on general trends.

Having all guest information in one place makes it easy to spot patterns and preferences. Marketers or guest experience managers can quickly see trends, like a high demand for spa services among leisure guests, and act on it. 

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Types of Guest Data for Personalisation: 

‍The data a CRM system gathers goes beyond simple demographics. Hotels can use it to understand:

• Preferences and Habits: What are their favourite services? Are they super supers of the spa? Do they always book a table at the restaurant?
• Booking Patterns: How many bookings they have done in the past, how often they book, how many rooms on average, etc. 
• Special Dates: Birthdays, anniversaries, or loyalty milestones give hotels the chance to surprise guests with a personal touch.

These are only a few examples, but the truth is that you have a large amount of data that you can leverage when it comes to personalisation. 

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Personalisation that doesn’t take hours: tips and tricks

Now, we can deny that although personalisation is crucial, it can also turn out to be scary for anyone working with the guest experience or marketing in hospitality. Why? Because it has often been associated with having to spend hours on it, focusing entirely on that task.

Nothing could be further from the truth. And that’s why this article focuses on how you can leverage a CRM to the dirty work, meaning, it will save you from doing all the manual research and it will allow you to use specific features to finish the task in less time than you thought possible.

The main complains when it comes to personalisation are two: either people don’t know what to say to their guests or it takes them a long time to manually personalise every message. 

How a CRM makes it easier? As we saw in the previous section, all the data is in one place, so you don’t need to chase information, this already saves you good time. And now let’s review what you can do to save time: 

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1. Create audiences or guest segments. 

When you create these guest segments, you can start seeing the shared characteristics of certain groups of guests. For example, you want to target the spa super users with a specific campaign, you don’t need to manually look for them, only set up the filters and they will be added to the group. 

Just like that one, you can create as many segments as you can think of. 

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2. Create and save templates 

Once you have your segments, create messages that are more personalised for them. Continuing with the example of the spa super users, use a message around wellbeing and about welcoming back to the spa for another great treatment. 

Once you have your message, save it as a template! In this way, you can go back to it as many times as you need without having to re-do it.

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3. Leverage personalisation tokens

Sometimes, all you want to do is add their room number, their arrival date, and other specific details. Without a CRM, you have to do this manually, copy-pasting. 

With the system, it gets much more straightforward: add the tokens in the space where you need them, and it will update for every guest that receives that message.  

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4. Schedule your campaigns

Because what good will it be if you personalise but you still need to send all messages manually? 

When it comes to recurring messages like booking confirmations, check-in reminders, invoices or thank-you messages, you can personalise them and then automate them, so they are sent on the right time without you having to take care of them. 

Learn more about automation: 5 triggers to automate hotel marketing communications

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The emotional effect of personalisation on the guest experience

Personalisation goes beyond offering guests what they want—it taps into how they feel. When guests see that a hotel understands their needs, they feel valued and appreciated. This connection is what makes personalisation so powerful. It’s human nature to want to feel recognised. When hotels go the extra mile to make guests feel special, it can leave a lasting impression.

For hospitality brands, personalisation is a way to stand out in a competitive market. When a hotel anticipates what a guest might enjoy, it creates memorable experiences that set it apart. Guests are more likely to remember these details, and when it comes time to book again, they’ll choose the place that made them feel welcome.

On the guest side, personalisation builds trust and loyalty. According to PWC Customer Loyalty Executive Survey 2023, personalisation is a primary driver for loyalty, with 26% of executives identifying a “personalized experience” as a top reason for customer retention.

For guests, receiving a birthday greeting or a tailored recommendation isn’t just convenient; it’s meaningful. It shows that the hotel values their individual preferences. This sense of care is what turns a simple stay into a positive memory, and it’s often what brings guests back.

In the end, personalisation isn’t just about boosting satisfaction or loyalty—it’s about creating a lasting connection. For hotels, this emotional impact is worth the effort. It transforms a stay into a relationship, one that guests want to revisit time and again.

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