The hotel launched its first meta search campaigns in 2019 and was therefore able to benefit from a high return on investment and a low cost ratio. But in 2020, the hotel achieved even more revenue – despite the Corona crisis. This is a perfect example of how important direct marketing is and how it can be a significant contribution, especially in difficult times.
Status Quo & Challenges
The 3-star house on Lake Garda in Malcesine (Italy) with its central position, facilities and incomparable design offers the perfect accommodation for a variety of travellers.
Tired of paying high commission costs to OTAs every month, the family-run hotel decided in April 2019 to increase its own direct sales within the myhotelshop campaign management. The goal was to establish the hotel website as a successful sales channel, thus becoming more and more independent from booking.com & Co.
As the hotel is a seasonal hotel, open from the end of April to mid-October, the challenge was in particular to manage the online campaigns successfully in the remaining time.
Measures
Before the first online advertisements were placed, our campaign manager analysed the client’s website and booking engine and made initial suggestions for improvement, such as changing the price ranking or images with regard to content, to ensure an optimal conversion rate.
In addition, together with the hotel’s revenue manager, we had a look at the rate structure and eliminated price differences compared to the OTA rates in order to create the perfect basis for the meta search campaigns.
Since PrimaLuna had no experience in the area of meta search marketing, we started with the meta searches of ‘the first hour’ in spring last year: a direct link to the price comparison websites Trivago and Tripadvisor. After the turnover had visibly increased within the first three-quarters of the year and the success of the online advertisements was evident, we decided to run further campaigns together with the design hotel.
So in January 2020, we placed two more Google Ads campaigns (generic and brand) and a Google Hotel Ads campaign to increase direct sales.
Results & Outlook
Within the first eight months of campaign management, we were already able to achieve an ROI (return on investment) of 11 and a cost ratio of only 9% with the two ads placed on Trivago and Tripadvisor – even though the campaign started in the middle of the season.
Based on the great results, we added Google to our marketing portfolio in January 2020: and this with impressive effects. With a ROI of 30 and a cost ratio of 4%(!) we were able to follow up on the initial success and even develop it beyond.
Also the hotel confirms:
“We are very satisfied with our collaboration with myhotelshop, thanks to their marketing campaign management we have achieved excellent results so far. The conversion of direct sales through our hotel’s web page has significantly increased, keeping costs under 6% YTD”.
For the coming season, we plan to launch more placements (including additional restaurant ads on Google) to further increase direct sales.
