IMH

I'm accustomed to receiving advertising mails from Accor that aren't particularly well targeted, but the two in my inbox this morning had me shaking my head. One was promoting two Novotels in the city I moved to some months ago, the other two Mercure properties in the same city. I should consider visiting "with the kids" because City X will surprise and delight me and "the little ones".

Accor, obviously, knows my address. Accor knows that, earlier this year (when I had a different address) I stayed in three of the four hotels they're pushing -- some of them more than once. So even ignoring my address I'm not a good target for "Have you considered visiting City X?" marketing. Accor can also see that I've never been accompanied by children when using their hotels.

Any 'better' examples?

hotel_user

Blunderbuss coverage - something will hit eventually

RJ77

Maybe the data tell them another story. There is business to be made for staycationers who would book a night or two in their own city over the weekends or holidays. I'd agree the email could have been worded more appropriately for such audience.

IMH

Of course -- although probably not in rather average Novotels located just a few minutes' walk from their homes.

My point was that Accor seems to be unusually bad at targeted marketing and to make rather poor use of the data they have. I was wondering if others here have examples that would tend to support or rebut that observation.

CanadaDH

That's about as useful as the surveys Accor sends me, designed for residents of the UK, and when asking me where I live, only allows options within the UK. They would clearly know from my profile that I live near Toronto, which I might add is still a fair distance from London, yet they somehow think I should receive a survey on the opinions and preferences of English travellers. I suppose we share a common language. But we know Accor doesn't know a bloody thing about IT, customer service, or quality in general, so I probably shouldn't expect them to understand geography either.

Beckett66

On the bright side, with their terrible IT, the chances of Accor implementing an effective dynamic pricing system are slim.

fifty_two

also had the same when they suggested me to discover hotels in my city ... even when they had no records of me living there ! its not poorly targeted but they think of customers as sheeps sometimes

martin_paris

We are really missing a dislike button here ...

margarita girl

Hmm, isn’t Accor’s pricing already dynamic? You make a cash reservation and then use your points at a 2000 pts = 40 Euros ratio.

As as a matter of fact, it’s worse than dynamic as you usually can’t even apply your points on the lowest rate available.