In this insightful episode of Hotel Moment, Karen Stephens speaks with Dana Cariss, Senior Vice President of Revenue Strategy at CoralTree Hospitality, about how his company leverages data to drive revenue while delivering exceptional guest experiences across their diverse portfolio.

Dana shares his journey with CoralTree Hospitality, which has grown from 8 properties in 2019 to over 40 hotels and 1,200 vacation rental keys today. Throughout the conversation, he emphasizes the importance of consolidating data and using it to understand total guest value beyond traditional metrics like acquisition costs.

CoralTree's four-year journey to build a single data warehouse has enabled them to analyze guest spending at the transaction level — revealing surprising insights about channel value and creating opportunities for highly targeted marketing. Dana also addresses the challenges of technology integration, the potential drawbacks of industry consolidation, and the need for curiosity in developing effective revenue strategies.

What You'll Learn:

• How to leverage transaction-level data to personalize marketing communications
• Why tracking where guests spend resort credits is the "silver bullet" for effective personalization
• The surprising truth that OTA bookings often generate more total on-property revenue than direct bookings
• How "seventh-level segmentation" dramatically improves email marketing conversion rates
• Practical strategies for consolidating data from multiple systems into a unified dashboard
• The importance of curiosity and challenging assumptions in revenue management
• How to balance service delivery with technology enhancements in luxury properties
  
  

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Connect with Dana Cariss here:

• LinkedIn
• CoralTree Hospitality

Connect with Karen here:

• LinkedIn
• Revinate

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• LinkedIn

Episode Highlights:
[04:49] Managing diverse portfolio types - Dana explains the challenge of managing revenue strategy across CoralTree's diverse portfolio, which includes branded hotels (Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt), independent luxury properties, and vacation rentals. This requires a "flexible thinking" approach, as revenue strategies differ dramatically from a resort in California to a boutique hotel in Chicago to vacation rentals in Colorado. Dana emphasizes how their success stems from having great people empowered to make decisions daily across these varying property types.
[07:10] Focus on service in luxury properties - Dana highlights that before discussing technology and communication strategies, luxury properties must prioritize service delivery. He shares experiences from their newly opened Pier 66 property in Fort Lauderdale, where guests are recognized by name throughout their arrival journey. This attention to personal service creates the foundation for guest loyalty, which technology then enhances through personalized anticipation of needs at properties like Terranea Resort.

[10:04] Consolidating data for guest insights - CoralTree Hospitality has spent four years consolidating data from multiple systems into a single warehouse. They've integrated PMS, sales and catering, point of sale, and financial data at the transaction level. This allows them to analyze not just whether guests use resort credits, but precisely where they spend them, which Dana describes as "the silver bullet" for personalization. Understanding spending patterns enables truly tailored communications that drive higher conversion rates.
[13:03] The power of deep segmentation - Dana reveals that conversion rates improve dramatically with deeper segmentation. Rather than sending generic mass emails, CoralTree creates "buckets of consumers" based on personas, then takes segmentation several levels deeper based on spending patterns and amounts. Dana references a partner finding that the "seventh level of segmentation" produced the best email conversion rates. This approach shifts marketing from "shotgun to rifle" precision, drastically improving engagement compared to the mass email approaches of the past.
[15:40] Technology evolution and integration challenges - Looking at future technology trends, Dana highlights the continued development of Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) to better understand guest personas and journeys. He expresses hope for improved integrations across the industry, noting that data fragmentation remains a significant challenge despite years of effort to consolidate information. Dana also raises concerns about industry consolidation, questioning whether larger companies offering numerous services can maintain expertise in each area versus specialized providers excelling in specific niches.
[22:32] Challenging assumptions with data - One of the most surprising insights from Dana's data analysis challenges conventional wisdom about direct bookings. While direct bookings offer lower acquisition costs (single-digit percentages versus higher costs for OTA bookings), their data reveals that in many cases, guests who book through third parties and intermediaries actually spend as much or more on property than direct bookers. This insight demonstrates the importance of measuring total guest value beyond booking channel metrics, using consolidated data dashboards to make more informed revenue decisions.

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro03:11 - Dana's journey with CoralTree Hospitality04:49 - Managing different property types07:10 - Blending efficiency with luxury service10:04 - Using data to understand guest spending13:03 - Segmentation for personalized marketing14:40 - Technology evolution in luxury hospitality17:12 - The importance of integrations19:54 - Advice for centralizing data22:32 - Direct vs. indirect booking insights24:27 - The value of curiosity in revenue strategy
If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to subscribe, rate and review it on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Instructions on how to do this are here.
Hotel Moment Podcast is handcrafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Previous guests include: Shannon Knapp, CEO of Leading Hotels of the World (LHW), Patrick Norton of Brittain Resorts & Hotels, Shawn Jereb of Montage International, Carlo Del Mistro, Chief Digital Officer of Ennismore, Jason Pirock of Springboard Hospitality, and many more.

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