At MASCH Software Solutions, we talk about the Central Destination Marketplace (CDM) as a comprehensive and sustainable strategy for digitizing key services in a tourism destination.
To give you an introduction into the CDM strategy, we start with this article a complete series of further BLOG posts about MASCH Software Solutions' CDM strategy in the upcoming weeks.
The digitization of the guest card requires a succesful introduction of the digital guest registration service:
A common goal for tourism organizations, the hotel- and vacation-rental-industry, as well as the other players (such as mountain railroads, event organizers and all providers of outdoor and leisure activities) in a holiday region, is to offer their guests an attractive portfolio of favorable benefits and services which will help to link guests to the holiday destination beyond their first-time visit for a long-term relationship.
For this purpose, many cities and regions have designed an analog or digital guest card as a central "transport" medium which includes a variety of local services.
Now, in addition to the attractiveness of the content and the ease of use for guests and service providers, a targeted analysis of the effective use is crucial for the success of such a ticket.
- The guest wants easy access to as many benefits of the guest card as possible.
- The hosts in the hotel- and the vacation-rental-industry support such a project only if the additional effort in registrating the guests for the guest card remains at a minimum.
- The providers of services offered via the guest card want control and protection against abuse and…
…similar to the tourism organization, they need a comprehensive analysis and evaluation of how often the guest card is deployed and used.
Analysis of usage is one of the most important aspects in the digitization of these services, in order to be able to continuously evaluate and improve the tourist offer of a region or a city.
How do you as a tourism organization now effectively and automatically obtain the necessary data to be able to issue an attractive guest card already at the day of arrival?
- Within the CDM strategy of MASCH Software Solutions, the regional tourism organization, together with their partners at the hotel- and the vacation-rental-indstry, can use the legal requirement to register all guests for each stay in a hotel or a vacation apartment.
- Already with the booking process initiated by the guest, the basic data will be recorded online and especially also automated through various interface channels. Similar to the online check-in in the airline industry, the guest will be invited to check-in early into his accommodation.
- The travel data thus digitally recorded enables the host (either hotel or vacation-apartment rental organization) to issue the digital guest card automatically (but also, if desired, analogously by paper printout) and, above all, without time-consuming additional effort at the reception desk. The digital guest card will be send to the guest automatically even before his/her arrival.
- Interfaces between various booking platforms, hotel reservation systems (PMS software), channel manager software and the digital registration system of MASCH Software Solutions (CM Studio .GRM-CLOUD) provide the most important technology basis for this process. All interfaces should be designed basically as an open API (Application Programming Interface), which is compatible with the international standards such as OTA (Open Travel Alliance) and GDS (Global Distribution System).
The MASCH philosophy is simple and clear:
Good cross-linking with open standards is the basis for the business success of our customers.
At the same time, each software module in the Central Destination Marketplace also includes its own counterpart to all automation functions, which the users (such as hosts and members of the tourism orgaization), who do not use the recommended third-party software, still allow to execute the functionality of the software system by themselves with a few simple steps, because…
Networking is basically a strong argument if the user can use the networking as a targeted supplement to his or her own self-sufficient processing. The decision, how he / she uses the functionality of the software is always incumbent on the accommodation facility.
