A Collaborative Data Driven Approach to Developing Resilience for Hospitality SMEs

The focus of this project is on improving the resilience of hospitality Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by enabling them to take advantage of digitalization tools and data analytics in particular. Hospitality SMEs play an important role in their local community but are vulnerable to shifts in demand. Due to a lack of resources (time, finance, and sometimes knowledge), they do not have sufficient access to data analytics tools that are typically available to larger organizations. The purpose of this project is therefore to develop a prototype infrastructure or ecosystem showcasing how Dutch hospitality SMEs can develop their data analytic capability in such a way that they increase their resilience to shifts in demand. The one year exploration period will be used to assess the feasibility of such an infrastructure and will address technological aspects (e.g. kind of technological platform), process aspects (e.g. prerequisites for collaboration such as confidentiality and safety of data), knowledge aspects (e.g. what knowledge of data analytics do SMEs need and through what medium), and organizational aspects (what kind of cooperation form is necessary and how should it be financed).

Eindrapportage

This project, funded by SIA/NWO addresses a pressing challenge facing Dutch hospitality SMEs: their vulnerability to sudden demand disruptions caused by events in the external environment (such as travel restrictions, transport strikes, or severe weather,…) While data analytics can significantly improve decision-making, many smaller hotels lack the resources, technical expertise, and time to adopt digital tools effectively.
The project's central output is the conceptual design of a federated data platform tailored to hotel SMEs. The platform would allow participating hotels to contribute operational data (including occupancy levels, booking pace, cancellations, and room rates) while retaining full control over their data through a privacy-preserving, federated architecture. Only aggregated, anonymized insights would be shared, ensuring compliance with GDPR and the European Data Governance Act. Key features of the proposed platform include a personalized demand monitoring dashboard, anonymous competitive benchmarking against peer hotels, automated early-warning signals for demand shifts, and scenario exploration tools that allow operators to simulate the impact of pricing changes or external disruptions. The platform would also integrate external datasets such as weather forecasts, mobility data, event calendars, and public transport updates to enrich the interpretation of demand patterns. A distinctive element is the inclusion of a digital skills learning environment, offering tutorials and guided workflows to help SMEs build data literacy without significant upfront investment. The project involved collaboration with hotel partners, Impuls Zeeland, and the analytics firm Juyo Analytics. Its academic outputs include conference contributions at EuroCHRIE 2025, the 38th Bled eConference and the CHME 2026 conference, addressing topics such as benchmarking data analytic capability in hospitality firms and digitalization as a catalyst for sectoral resilience.