Introducing Unified Profiles for Travelers and Guests on AWS

Historically, travel and hospitality companies relied on loyalty programs to do exactly that—build loyalty. However, a McKinsey & Company 2023 report shows that loyalty is in decline. Now, customers often belong to three to four different loyalty programs, rather than devoting all or most of their spending to a single brand.

The same study from McKinsey advises that travel and hospitality companies can win loyalty by “offering distinctive, satisfying experiences.” The only catch? The survey showed that only 20 percent of travelers were delighted by a recent travel experience.

The key to delighting those customers—and providing the seamless experience they crave—starts with accurate customer data. In this blog series, we’ll explore how travel and hospitality companies can use Unified Profiles for Travelers and Guests on AWS (UPT) to create unified traveler and guest profiles, improve data collaboration for marketing campaigns, partnership, and measurement, and use generative AI to offer more personalized engagements and service.

Unifying customer data is challenging

Companies across every sector want to create a unified view of their customer data, also known as Customer 360 or a single view of the customer. In fact, a Gartner survey found that 82 percent of companies surveyed want to attain a Customer 360 view. Why are so many companies pursuing the same goal? It comes down to profitability. A recent APQC study revealed that organizations with a Customer 360 view created using five or more data sources reduced sales cycles by 43.9 percent, drove 22.8 percent higher customer lifetime value, and increased their Net Promoter Score by 19.1 percent.

While everyone aspires to a single view of the customer, those in the travel and hospitality industry know how challenging this can be. Travel and hospitality companies sit on a trove of first-party data. However, that customer data is siloed. It can live in booking tools, loyalty platforms, reservation systems, and property management systems. It can be in the cloud or on premises. It can be structured or unstructured. It can used to enhance the traveler and guest journey at every step but only after it’s merged into a unified view of the customer.

Introducing UPT

UPT is a customer data unification solution that helps travel and hospitality companies to create a single view of the customer. UPT automatically sources, merges, de-duplicates, and centralizes traveler and guest data from multiple industry systems. Using UPT, travel and hospitality companies can rapidly unlock the insights they need to drive customer engagement, retention, and loyalty with personalized messaging, up-sell and cross-sell offers, and tailored customer service throughout the journey.

How does UPT work?

UPT is a solution purpose-built to help travel and hospitality companies quickly create a unified profile of travelers and guests.

• It seamlessly ingests customer data from core industry systems such as passenger servicing systems (PSS), central reservation systems (CRS), loyalty systems, and property management systems (PMS).
• Using out-of-the-box specialized schemas for common travel and hospitality business objects such as bookings, loyalty profiles, hotel stays, and customer service interactions, UPT can reduce data transformation and integration time from months to weeks.
• UPT also integrates with travel and hospitality industry connectors to provide no-code integration with 11 PMSs and the Tealium customer data platform (CDP). More connectors will be added in the future.
• It accurately de-duplicates traveler and guest profiles with rule-based and AI-based identity resolution.
• Additionally, it has the capability to support custom matching using AWS Travel and Hospitality Competency partners, such as Amperity.
• Customer data is securely stored in an Amazon Connect Customer Profile (ACCP) in the customer’s AWS account.
• After a unified profile is complete, it updates in near real-time so you have timely, accurate customer data that can be used to attract, engage, and service customers using contact center solutions and advertising and marketing software, such as CDPs.

UPT diagram: An overview of how it works

Getting started with UPT

UPT can be deployed into a company’s AWS account directly from the AWS Solutions Library. Customers can download the AWS CloudFormation template to launch both the frontend interface and underlying resources required for UPT. An implementation guide with step-by-step instructions for deploying UPT is also provided in the Solutions Library. With the automated CloudFormation template and detailed documentation, customers can rapidly deploy UPT into their environment and start unifying traveler data to deliver personalized experiences.

If you’re ready to learn more:

• Contact your AWS account manager to set up a demo.
• Download the CloudFormation template from the AWS Solutions Library.
• Work with AWS Travel and Hospitality experts to develop a proof of concept (POC) in your environment.
• Access the implementation guide in the AWS Solutions Library to deploy UPT into your AWS account. See firsthand how it can unify your disparate traveler data.
• Engage professional services or consulting partners if you need additional support.