The hotel industry has been facing many challenges post-pandemic. Besides staff shortages and increased operating costs, hotels still face increased pressure from online travel agents (OTAs). With ever-increasing commissions eating into your revenue, it’s more important than ever for hoteliers to drive direct bookings to recover. And as Pillows Hotels found, increasing your direct revenue can be as easy as a seasonal update to an already strong food and beverage (F&B) bundle. We look at how they turned their offer into a year-round gift that keeps on giving.
What was Pillows Hotels’ goal?
In addition to bringing attention to your facilities, a strong bundle offered exclusively on your website can incentivise direct bookings. Moreover, when including material benefits like a glass of bubbles, it can boost revenues and improve the guest experience. With that in mind, Pillows Hotels was looking to attract attention to their Pillows Luxury Boutique Hotel aan de IJssel property in Deventer, Netherlands, as well as its luxury restaurant. Equipped with the knowledge of their target audience’s wants and needs, they wanted to focus on the hotel’s unique selling points (USPs). As a result, they focused on its luxurious restaurant offering multi-course culinary delights and beautiful surroundings by the IJssel river. Lastly, to optimise the efforts and time spent, the offer needed seasonal updates to the messaging and imagery.
How did Hotelchamp help?
Using Hotelchamp Convert, Pillows Hotels created a website message highlighting their strong F&B bundle. Designed in a non-intrusive manner, the message did not interfere with the browsing experience. As such, it was easily dismissable and was only shown once per session. Featuring a “Book Now” call to action button, it directed visitors to the booking engine. There, they could choose their desired room type and finalise their booking.
For the Spring version of the message, guests could book a culinary package—complete with an overnight stay and a 5-course meal at their luxurious restaurant. Lastly, a flexible 24-hour cancellation period offered an additional incentive to book. Moving onto Summer and Autumn, the message also displayed a starting price of 290 euros. Moreover, a 7-course dinner replaced the original 5-course meal. To increase the perceived value of the offer by capitalising on the hotel’s USPs, guests would be welcomed with a glass of bubbles and tickets to see the IJssel river on a ferry. While such additional benefits do not come at high additional costs for the hotel, they provide a strong incentive for guests to book direct. On top of that, they create an unforgettable experience during guests’ stay.
Throughout the year, Pillows Hotels were also able to change the visual aspect of their website message to seasonal imagery. For the Summer months, the message displayed their culinary arrangement served on their terrace by the IJssel river. However, the Spring message showed an image of a colourful meal served inside their restaurant.
To match the elegance and luxury of the brand, the message was customised using Pillows Hotels’ font and brand colours. This ensured consistency with the rest of the website and maintained Pillows Hotels’ strong brand identity.
What results did our client see?
The three versions of the message successfully highlighted Pillows Hotels’ USPs while also convincing guests to book direct. As the message was perfected throughout the year, it rendered better results with each new version. In Spring, the offer had a high click-through rate of nearly 17% and converted 1.75% of visitors into paying guests. After adding the starting price for Summer, the message had a click rate of nearly 13.3%, and the added benefits converted nearly 2.8% of visitors. Lastly, the best-performing version was for the Autumn package, which converted over 3.8% of visitors after clicking.
These results show how certain changes can influence the performance of a website campaign. A small change, like an added glass of bubbles and ferry tickets, has successfully increased conversion rates at a small cost for the hotel. In addition, displaying a starting price to an already strong bundle framed the offer favourably, showing good value for money. All in all, Pillows Hotels succeeded in raising awareness of their luxurious culinary package by capitalising on their USPs. They also brought in direct bookings with minimal additional effort and provided an amazing culinary experience that their guests will never forget.
If you want to learn more about how you could bring in direct bookings by capitalising on your USPs, contact us through live chat or send us a message at welcome@hotelchamp.com.
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