How to Clean Up Your Guest Data Before the Holiday Rush

Your end-of-year revenue depends on more than the offer. It depends on whether your CRM is ready for it.

The holiday season is one of the most lucrative periods in the hospitality industry.

Between fall getaways, Thanksgiving travel, and Black Friday booking sprees, your marketing team is probably already prepping deals, designing campaigns, and building out email calendars.

But here’s a question most marketers overlook: Is your guest data ready for any of it?

No matter how good your offer is, it won’t perform if your CRM is cluttered with duplicate profiles, outdated emails, or OTA contact info that can't convert. The best campaigns fall flat when the data behind them is unreliable.

Before the holiday rush begins, here’s how to clean up your guest database so your marketing actually performs - and your revenue reflects it. (And yes, if you're already working with HMA, these steps are automatically handled behind the scenes.)

1. Audit for OTA-Sourced Profiles

Why it matters: OTA reservations often clog your CRM with profiles that can’t be emailed, segmented, or tracked effectively. They inflate your list size but don’t drive results.

What to do:

• Identify OTA-sourced profiles based on email patterns (e.g., guest1234@guest.expedia.com)

• Flag or suppress them from marketing sends

• Build strategies to collect real email addresses at check-in, Wi-Fi sign-on, or post-stay surveys

  
  

For HMA clients: OTA profiles are automatically identified and suppressed from marketing sends. Clean email collection is built into the guest journey through Wi-Fi, surveys, and other touchpoints—no manual list building required.

2. Merge Duplicate Profiles Across Channels

Why it matters: Guests often book under different emails, loyalty numbers, or variations of their name. If those profiles aren’t merged, you’re missing a full view of guest behavior - and your segmentation suffers.

What to do:

• Look for common duplicate triggers: same last name + phone, or email variation + postal address

• Merge profiles so history, preferences, and email permissions carry forward

• Standardize fields like city, state, and postal code to avoid further fragmentation

  
  

For HMA clients: Duplicate detection and merging happen automatically using custom-built matching logic. Guest histories are unified without compromising data integrity, so marketers can segment with confidence.

3. Remove Invalid or Inactive Emails

Why it matters: Sending to invalid addresses harms your deliverability. High bounce rates and low engagement signal spam filters, which can tank even your best campaigns.

What to do:

• Run a list health check to identify hard bounces and syntax errors

• Remove or quarantine invalid addresses

• Segment based on activity (opens/clicks in the last 12 months) and re-engage or suppress inactive users

  
  

For HMA clients: List health is monitored in real-time. Invalid addresses are automatically suppressed, and clients receive regular engagement reports to fine-tune their campaigns and avoid deliverability issues.

4. Update Guest Preferences and Permissions

Why it matters: Even guests who opted in last year may not want the same kind of content now. Respecting updated preferences and permissions helps maintain trust, reduce unsubscribes, and improve targeting.

What to do:

• Ensure opt-in status is clearly tracked and up to date for each guest

• Review consent timestamps and permission source (especially for GDPR or CAN-SPAM compliance)

• Offer a preference center so guests can choose content types, frequency, or property-specific communications

• Use these inputs to build smarter segments based on what guests actually want to receive

For HMA clients: Permissions are tracked with every source of data collection, and preferences can be honored across properties. The platform ensures marketing stays compliant and personalized at the same time.

5. Build an End-of-Year Cleanup Routine

Why it matters: Guest data doesn’t stay clean on its own. Without a process, errors creep in, and that’s when performance suffers.

What to do:

• Create a monthly data health report to track duplicates, bounce rates, and OTA percentages

• Assign ownership for regular cleanup

• Schedule quarterly reviews to update segmentation rules and permission logic

  
  

For HMA clients: Ongoing data integrity checks are part of the service. You don’t need to assign a team member to run manual audits - clean, usable data is maintained automatically, so your campaigns are always built on a solid foundation.

Clean Data = Better Campaigns (and More Revenue)

Your marketing strategy for the holidays can only perform as well as your data allows. By cleaning up your CRM now, you’ll not only improve engagement and deliverability… you’ll drive more direct bookings when it matters most.

And if you’re already using HMA, the good news is most of this cleanup is already done. Fall is the perfect time to focus on messaging and performance, knowing your data is working with you, not against you.he end of the year. And with the right tools, it’s all far easier… and more effective… than it used to be. To learn more about data cleansing or if you want a quote on how we can clean up and validate your email database, reach out at sales@wearehma.com.