When you work in a multi-sourcing environment, you happen to gather hotel data from various suppliers, bed banks, and wholesalers. Each supplier shares hotel data in its predefined style, which leads to inconsistent and duplicate data in the OTA’s hotel inventory. This duplicate data makes it difficult for OTAs to sell the right properties to their customers, leading to a lost booking opportunity. This is where it becomes essential to standardize data and make it usable for all business requirements. In this blog, we will learn everything about hotel data standardization and why it’s essential for all travel businesses.

TL; DR 

• Travel companies often receive hotel data from multiple suppliers in different formats, resulting in duplicate and inconsistent records. 

• Hotel data standardization is the process of converting this inconsistent data into a uniform, structured format. 

• Standardized data enables accurate listings, seamless operations, and better decision-making. 

• Key benefits include reduced duplicates, improved analytics, enhanced customer experience, and consistent inventory. 

• Vervotech’s AI-powered Hotel Mapping solution helps standardize hotel information from multiple sources, eliminating duplicates and enriching listings with 40+ attributes. 

• Embracing data standardization ensures better conversions and streamlined business processes for OTAs and travel companies. 

What Is Hotel Data Standardization? 

Picture this: You work with three suppliers and have received hotels in Chicago from each supplier. Unfortunately, the suppliers have shared similar hotel properties in Chicago, leading to duplicate data in your database. Added to this, each supplier has shared the hotels in their own format, creating a frustrating experience for your business. This is where data standardization comes into the picture and is a must-have for every travel business.

Hotel data standardization is the process of transforming inconsistent hotel data into a consistent and similar format. Think of data standardization as a process to organize your cluttered database. With this step, you are formatting your data to create consistency across your inventory. It optimizes data quality while making data easier to track, analyze, and detect errors.

Also Read – Hotel Data Duplication: How to Solve the Growing Challenge for the Hospitality Industry

Why Is Hotel Data Standardization Essential?   

Every travel company must include hotel data standardization as a part of its data management strategy. Without this, the business could work with unreliable data that might cause a rise in operational costs, misinformed business decisions, and dissatisfied customers. When all the data collected from multiple sources is transformed into a similar format, that data becomes easy to read and makes better business decisions.

Here are a few reasons why data standardization is a must-have:

• Display accurate hotel information on your platform
• Prepare data for business intelligence and analytics
• Error-free business operations with consolidated data, free from duplicates
• Improved productivity within the teams
• Offers data transparency
• Homogeneous data across the systems
• Better customer satisfaction and customer experience

Hotel Data Standardization with Vervotech   

In general, the data standardization process involves the following steps:

• Get/acquire or download the source data from multiple sources
• Perform a data audit
• Declutter data sources
• Define data standards for hotel data formats
• Data cleansing for accurate and properly formatted data
• Standardize new and existing data in your database
• Deliver the data
• Repeat the process again and keep the data updated

Let’s take an example of how Vervotech standardizes hotel data shared by its clients. Here, we have chosen Hotel Wallace in Paris, France. The hotel information shared by various hotel providers is in its unique format. For example, one of the providers has shared as:

Hôtel Wallace Paris
89 Rue Fondary 75015 Paris,Rue Fondary , PARIS, FR

Whereas another known provider has the hotel information as:

Wallace
89 rue Fondary, 75015 Paris , Paris, FR

Both hotels are the same, but there isn’t a standard format. This can affect OTA’s database and lead to duplicates. Here, the Vervotech Hotel Mapping tool plays a crucial role. Powered by AI and machine learning, the Vervotech Hotel Mapping process works as:

• Data collection
• Data sanitization
• Data validation
• Removes duplicates
• Data standardization
• Data processing
• Accurately mapped hotel data

Through the AI-based tool, we ensure our clients’ inventory has standardized hotel information. For the above example, our tool displays

Hotel Wallace
89 Rue Foundry, Paris, 1253, FR, 75015

Along with the correct hotel name and address, we showcase 40+ attributes, including star ratings, geocodes, hotel phone numbers, facilities, and much more. Below is our dashboard with standardized hotel information.

Image:  Vervotech client portal

Conclusão 

Data standardization is a must for every travel company. Consistent and uniform hotel data will only lead to better conversions, customer experience, and enable informed business decisions. Remember to account for all your data sources and standardize external sources and existing data. For all of this, Vervotech can help you achieve high-quality data standards. Once you partner with Vervotech, you can take your data strategy to new heights.

FAQs  

What is hotel data standardization?
Hotel data standardization is the process of transforming inconsistent hotel information received from multiple suppliers into a uniform format. This ensures consistency across platforms, reduces duplicates, and enhances data quality.

Why do OTAs and travel companies face duplicate hotel listings?
Duplicate listings occur because different suppliers share the same hotel data in varied formats. Without standardization, these variations are stored as separate entries in an OTA’s database.

How does data standardization benefit travel businesses?
Standardized hotel data enables accurate inventory management, improves operational efficiency, enhances customer trust, and allows for better analytics and decision-making.

How does Vervotech help in hotel data standardization?
Vervotech uses AI and machine learning to collect, validate, clean, and standardize hotel data. It eliminates duplicates and enriches listings with over 40 attributes like geocodes, facilities, and ratings.

Is data standardization a one-time task?
No, it’s an ongoing process. As new data is continuously received from suppliers, it must be regularly standardized to maintain accuracy and consistency.

Can data standardization help with customer experience?
Absolutely. Clean and accurate hotel listings help customers make informed choices, improving their booking experience and building trust in your platform.