This multi-property, Dubai-based luxury hotel group is already known for award-winning resorts, destination dining, and unforgettable hospitality. With several properties across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia boasting Tripadvisor Travelers’ Choice Best of the Best awards, this hotel group knows how to wow their guests. But it takes a seamless strategy to encourage travelers to book with the hotels directly.
“The biggest challenge in recent years has been our tracking. It’s becoming harder by the day to understand and detangle the ball of strings that is the user journey. We know there are between 100 and 200 touch points, on average, that a guest makes before they book their stay,” says the associate director of brand & digital marketing at this hotel group.
Tripadvisor’s audience of millions of travelers gave this executive confidence that they were investing in the right place. “Tripadvisor is one of the dominant ways to sell your hotel and room nights. It’s a critical step in the journey, and we want to be on this channel as much as possible to capture that.”
“Our end goal is always to get a traveler to come to our website to make a booking,” he says. “If you’re not using Business Advantage, you’re not reaching that end goal.”
Here’s how they worked with Tripadvisor to tell a better story and impact direct bookings across their hotel properties:
Optimizing the traveler journey with Business Advantage
In the true spirit of hospitality, their marketing team wanted to tell travelers a better story with their properties’ online presence — and encourage them to book directly.
“I have been using Tripadvisor for almost 10 years now [personally], and I know when you have to plan a trip or when you’re going somewhere, you open the app and search the reviews to decide whether to visit a place or not. That’s why it was important for us to partner with them.”
With Tripadvisor Business Advantage, the marketing team has several powerful features at their disposal for each of their properties:
- Promotional videos and a multimedia Storyboard puts guests right in the middle of the property so they can visualize themselves there
- A pinned Favorite Review makes a memorable first impression at the top of the Reviews section
- Contact details like website, phone number, and email address make it easy for guests to book directly
- Exclusive Special Offers take guests from considering to booking
These hotels use all of the above features, maximizing their business listings — and seeing better results.
“100% of the features are being used. In particular, Favorite Reviews is one we use consistently, and we ask our properties to update it every three months,” says the hotel executive.
“One of the best things we have noticed is when we use Special Offers, we’re seeing travelers interested in exploring our property, and we’re getting some conversions as well. It’s helping us in multiple ways for multiple properties.”
32% more clicks in just one year with Tripadvisor
In just one year of using Business Advantage, this hotel group has seen some impressive results:
“We started seeing results immediately,” said the hotel executive. “It’s a no-brainer to try it and see for yourself.”
Business Advantage has become such a critical part of this hotel group’s online strategy that they’ve made it mandatory for each property in their portfolio.
“We push all of our properties to use Business Advantage because we’re seeing results. The more they use it, the better results we’re seeing. It’s the best way to leverage information that drives traveler decision-making to stay with us.”
As the hotel group continues to expand with properties in additional destinations — Paris and Geneva are the two newest locations — their marketing team is keeping the user journey in mind.
“Our end goal is always to get a traveler to come to our website to make a booking,” he says. “If you’re not using Business Advantage, you’re not reaching that end goal.”
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