Market Segmentation allows properties to group guests by shared characteristics and track reservation data accordingly. With this feature, you can assign market segments to rate plans and reservations, giving your property greater visibility into why guests stay and how different guest types contribute to your revenue.
What is Market Segmentation?
Market segmentation involves dividing rate plans based on the characteristics of the target customer segments they are designed to attract. This segmentation focuses on marketing and revenue management, aiming to optimize pricing strategies for different guest demographics.
This segmentation is applied to reservations and rate plans, enabling your team to understand and report on booking patterns across key customer types. It answers the question of why a guest is staying.
For example:
- A guest booking a weekend getaway may fall under a Retail/Transient segment.
- A booking from a company for multiple employees might belong to the Corporate Group segment.
- Airline crew stays may be categorized under the Contract segment.
By assigning each reservation to a segment, your property can better manage pricing strategies, create targeted campaigns, and gain clearer revenue insights.
Benefits
Market segmentation improves your revenue management and marketing strategy by:
- Tracking demand by guest type: See how much revenue is driven by corporate travelers, tour groups, or direct bookings.
- Optimizing pricing: Adjust rates and offers to match the value and price sensitivity of each segment.
- Targeting campaigns: Run personalized promotions or packages for specific market segments, such as weekend discounts for leisure travelers or long-stay rates for corporate guests.
- Enabling better forecasting: Accurate segmentation supports more reliable business forecasts and strategic planning.
- Alignment with USALI Standards: The feature is aligned with the USALI (Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry) benchmarking standards. When the feature is enabled, your property will have access to a predefined list of Market Groups and Segments based on USALI categories. This ensures consistency in reporting and simplifies the adoption of industry-standard financial practices.
Market Segmentation Overview
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Reservations
- Each accommodation on the reservation can be linked to one market segment. The reservation defaults to the default market segment if no segment is explicitly assigned (by rate plan or base rate).
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Rate Plans
- Rate plans can be configured to "suggest" a market segment when a reservation is created. By default, the system will automatically assign the market segment associated with the rate plan to the reservation upon creation.
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Update Market Segment on Reservation
- Users can override the suggested market segment and assign a different one to a reservation based on their operational needs. This allows flexibility in cases where a specific booking requires manual categorization outside of the default.
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Manual Reservation Creation
- When creating a reservation manually, users can select a market segment to associate with each accommodation on the booking.
Comments
not so helpful!
Hello, Hope,
We truly appreciate your feedback on this article.
Could you please provide us with more details about why the content does not meet your expectations, so we can review it and improve it?
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Thank you!
Is there an option to opt out of using or "turn off" the Market Segments all together? This is overkill for our hotel and it only causes confusion for our staff. Thanks!
Hello, April Kramer,
Our dedicated Support Team will get back to you with more information about this request.
Regards!
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