Hospitality organisations rely on highly specialised operational systems to run day-to-day activity. Booking engines and property management systems are optimised for reservations, check-in, room allocation and billing, not for sales enablement, guest lifecycle management or cross-property analysis.
This project focused on bridging that gap.
The work centred on extending operational booking and guest data into a broader sales, engagement and reporting environment, without disrupting the systems responsible for running properties. The challenge was as much architectural as it was organisational: enabling data to move safely and reliably between systems designed for very different purposes.
Executive Summary
The organisation wanted to improve how sales, marketing and front-of-house teams worked with booking and guest data across multiple properties. Operational systems held rich data, but access was largely confined to property-level workflows. Guest communication relied on manual processes, and reporting was produced through static extracts that limited timeliness and comparability.
A phased Zoho One implementation was introduced to act as an extension layer rather than a replacement. Booking data was integrated into Zoho CRM, automated communication workflows were introduced across email and messaging channels, and live reporting was built using structured data pipelines.
The outcome was a more connected, technically coherent environment that supported sales activity, guest engagement and performance visibility at scale.
Problem Statement & Key Challenges
Each property generated high volumes of booking and guest data through core operational systems. While this data was accurate and reliable, it was not structured for use by sales or marketing teams, nor easily consolidated across properties.
As a result, there was no shared customer view, limited ability to automate communication consistently, and no single source of truth for group-level sales and performance reporting.
The challenges were multi-layered:
Data was fragmented across systems and properties, with no centralised model for sales or engagement.
Pre-arrival guest communication required manual triggers and follow-up, increasing operational load and inconsistency.
Reporting relied on manual extracts and static outputs, making trend analysis and cross-property comparison slow.
Any solution needed to scale across properties while remaining secure, maintainable and usable by non-technical teams.
Evaluation of the Problem
Detailed evaluation showed that the operational booking and property management system was performing its role effectively. It remained the system of record for reservations, check-ins and on-property activity. However, it was not designed to support:
Sales pipeline management
Guest lifecycle communication
Cross-property analytics
Near-real-time performance reporting
Sales and marketing teams lacked access to booking history beyond individual properties. Communication workflows sat outside the systems where guest data lived, leading to duplication and manual effort. Reporting depended on manual consolidation of data exports, introducing delays and inconsistencies.
The underlying issue was not data quality, but data accessibility and structure.
Proposed Solution
The solution introduced Zoho One as a unified platform for sales enablement, guest engagement and reporting, positioned deliberately alongside existing operational systems.
Key elements included:
Centralised CRM architecture
Booking and guest data was integrated into Zoho CRM to create a consolidated customer view across properties, supporting sales activity and guest engagement workflows.Automated guest communication
Pre-arrival communication was automated using CRM-driven workflows, email automation and messaging tools, reducing manual intervention while maintaining personalisation.Structured data pipelines
Zoho DataPrep was used to ingest and structure regular booking data extracts, creating a clean, analysable dataset for reporting without impacting operational system performance.Live analytics and dashboards
Zoho Analytics provided live sales and performance dashboards, enabling visibility into revenue, occupancy and performance versus budget at both property and group levels.
The solution design prioritised native tooling, low-code automation and phased delivery to ensure long-term maintainability and internal ownership.
Implementation
Implementation was deliberately phased to manage complexity and adoption. Each phase focused on a defined set of integrations, workflows and user groups, allowing teams to validate data accuracy, adjust processes and build confidence incrementally. Training and change support were embedded into each phase rather than treated as a final step.
This approach reduced operational risk while ensuring the technical foundation could be extended in future phases without rework.
Results
From a technical perspective, the organisation moved from disconnected systems to a coherent data and engagement layer sitting alongside operations. Booking and guest data now flows into a shared CRM environment. Communication workflows are automated and repeatable. Reporting is driven by structured data and delivered through live dashboards rather than static outputs.
From an operational perspective, teams spend less time compiling information and more time using it. Sales and front-of-house teams work from the same data. Leadership has clearer, more timely visibility across the portfolio. The result is a scalable, data-driven foundation that respects existing systems while materially improving how information supports decision-making and guest engagement.
Digital Transformation