GDPR for hotels — The New Normal for hotels?

Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is live, and the sky hasn’t fallen. So what happens next for hotels? We have some of the answers here.

Hotels are not the early target

As a hotelier, you don’t have to be riddled with anxiety that the GDPR will hurt your hotels. Based on a report by One World Identity, the real target seems to be the big tech companies. Google and Facebook were hit with privacy complaints within hours of the GDPR taking effect. Facebook watched its stock price plummet 20 percent after a million active users left the platform. Twitter and Nielsen both credited the GDPR for their company’s decline in profits last quarter.

The GDPR has clearly made online users more aware of their rights and their freedom to exercise them, and it appears to be having an early impact on some large companies. However, even Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai said during Q2’s conference call that he thinks it’s still too early for his company to fully understand the impact of the GDPR.

Guest engagement has increased

One of the most important aspects of the GDPR is Proof of Consent, the explicit consent European Union citizens and residents must give before companies can use their personal data in any form. Using double opt-in in email marketing (double confirmation of subscription) is a good way to ensure compliance regarding consent. And these campaigns really work — since the GDPR went into effect on May 25th, Revinate Marketing customers have seen an impressive average open rate of 30.5% and click-through rate of 18.1% on double opt-in campaigns.

Engagement rates have also increased. Unsurprisingly, recipients with a genuine interest in your property and brand are more likely to engage with your emails. According to our data science team, six months prior to the GDPR, average open rates and click-through rates for one-time and automated campaigns created by Revinate Marketing customers were 22.8% and 3.5%, respectively. Since May 25th, the average open rate has increased to 25.9% and the average click-through rate has increased to 6.2%. This makes sense because these subscribers have demonstrated they want to receive your emails.

The new normal

While the post-GDPR world looks very much the same as it did before, it’s still early to draw conclusions. The effects of the GDPR for hotels are coming – maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon. The regulation was never going to be a light bulb moment for data privacy but rather the start of ongoing change.

In essence, data privacy is the new normal. In June 2018, California passed an online privacy legislation going into effect in January 2020. While not as expansive as the GDPR, it’s a big step forward for the United States. So consider yourself lucky as a European marketer since you’re ahead of the curve! The rest of the world will be forced to catch up soon.

Revinate breaks down the GDPR

If you want to learn more about Revinate and the GDPR, reach out to us today.