Leisure Hotel Booking Preferences & Deals

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Leisure Hotel Booking Preferences & Deals

Joel Brandon-Bravo, UK MD

National Hotel Marketing Conference, June 2014


What do I know?

What do people think they want?

What do they actually want?

When are doughnuts useful?


What do I know?


What do I know?

What do people think they want? – Survey Results

What do they want?

When are donuts useful?


How many times have you booked a hotel in the past 12 months for leisure?

None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10+0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

6%

9%

17%

20%

16%

10%

8%

3%3%

1%

7%

• 2-4 breaks 52%• 5 or more 32%


Who did you book with? (tick all that apply)

Travelocity

Mr&Mrs Smith

Travelsupermarket

Trivago

Expedia

Lastminute.com

Hotels.com

Laterooms.com

Booking.com

Other

Direct with the hotel

0.0% 5.0% 10.0% 15.0% 20.0% 25.0% 30.0% 35.0%

0.3%

0.3%

2.1%

4.0%

6.1%

6.2%

6.5%

6.8%

14.7%

18.5%

32.1%


Who did you book with? (tick all that apply) – those who answered other


What types of hotel do you generally prefer? (select up to three)

Other

Business

Hip Hotels

Family Friendly

An International Chain

Budget friendly

Boutique (stylish, smaller hotels)

Luxury

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

6%

6%

8%

21%

32%

47%

51%

52%


What value do you place on the following when it comes to choosing hotels?

Free Wi-Fi

Discounts on golf/spa/restaurant

Vouchers for nearby attractions

Parking

Transfers to/from the airport

Full breakfast

Early check-in or late checkout

Room upgrade

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

65%

44%

43%

76%

79%

84%

79%

79%

22%

34%

39%

16%

17%

13%

17%

19%

13%

22%

18%

8%

4%

3%

4%

2%

Important

Neither Impor-tant or Unimpor-tant

Unimportant


What value do you place on the following when it comes to choosing hotels?

Kids' club/children's activities

Chocolates in the room

Afternoon tea

Free movie package

Free massage

Bottle of wine in the room

Welcome drink

Continental breakfast

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

10%

14%

20%

24%

29%

28%

28%

36%

26%

60%

55%

47%

44%

54%

52%

46%

65%

26%

25%

30%

27%

18%

20%

18%

Important

Neither Impor-tant or Unim-portant

Unimportant


Extremely last minute

Quite last minute

1-2 weeks 2-4 weeks 4-8 weeks Two months or more

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

1%

7%

13%

21%

33%

24%

How far in advance do you generally book a hotel?


What value do you place on the following when it comes to choosing hotels? -Ratings

Accreditation schemes

Star ratings

Tripadvisor ratings

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

55%

86%

81%

38%

11%

15%

7%

3%

4%

Important Neither Important or Unimportant Unimportant

*Conde Nast Traveller’s Gold List or other magazine and newspaper awards


What value do you place on the following when it comes to choosing hotels? Coverage

Awards

Positive press article

Recommendations in travel guides

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

42%

63%

57%

44%

30%

36%

14%

7%

7%



What value do you place on the following when it comes to choosing hotels? Endorsement

Celebrity endorsement

Positive endorsement in social media

Positive endorsement from a friend or family

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120%

10%

31%

91%

42%

43%

7%

48%

26%

2%



Full board Set menu Half board A la carte Michelin-starred

restaurant

AA Rosette

restaurant

Table d'hôte

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

92% 91% 91% 90%84%

72%

61%

Do you know what the following terms refer to? (Please tick all that you fully understand)


When it comes to hotel deals do you prefer the price to be expressed as per person or for the room per night?

81%

18%

1%

Total per night

Per person

I don't understand the difference


Do you prefer a short description of what is included or do you prefer to be briefed on a full list of details?

57%

37%

6%

Short description of the deal with links to websites with further information

Full description with all details ex-plained on the same page as the deal

Short description of the deal


What do I know?

What do people think they want? – Survey Results

What do they want?

When are donuts useful?


What do they actually buy?

The presentation then showed a series of case studies of campaigns for hotel clients which illustrated

the impact of changes in price pint, deal structure and headline copy. As the hotels in these case studies

have not expressly chosen to have the data distributed these have been removed. Case studies can be

supplied on request.

The results shown illustrated

• Three night stay promotion did less than half the total room nights as a 2 night stay.

• Most promotions offering one night with an upsell of additional nights had 60% of people purchase a

2 night stay.

• A £20 increase in the price point reduced the room nights sold by 90%

• A £10 increase halved the room nights sold on a like for like promotion

• A £6 reduction in price (and removing £6 value from the deal) at £59 doubled the performance

• Properties with multiple facilities, such as golf, spa, dining mean a credit for use across them can be

the best way of driving volume and in-hotel spend.

Those case studies which can be circulated, either because the information was in the public domain, or

because the hotel gave permission, follow.


£20 makes a huge difference

Local Deals

42 sold at £119 504 sold at £99

1st send of the Getaway 2nd send of the Getaway


Local Deals

349 sold at £89Includes a 3-course à la carte dinner

& a glass of bubbly

647 sold at £79 Includes a 3-course à la carte dinner


£10 makes a big difference

£10 - Typically halves performance


Local Deals


170 sold at £109762 sold at £99

Especially £109 vs £99

£10 pushing it over £100 reduces performance by 75%+


Don’t take out the dinner if it’s miles from alternatives

Local Deals


212 sold at £99534 sold at £159


But don’t force people if it’s in a city

Result: 355 RM

Can always use a 2-4-1 or wine with dinner offer to keep people in if they choose


Talk about why people visit

The Manor Hotel

Distribution: 1m

Results:

• “West Yorkshire “Bronte Country” outperformed “Leeds Hotel Stay”


Headlines do matter – Spot the difference

Formby Hall

Results:

• “Northwest: Deluxe Resort” outperformed “Merseyside 4 Star Stay”


Afternoon Tea - Consider groups in the up sells

Add groups to up-sell.

Multiple group bookingsBigger additional spend when in groups.

A glass of Procecco.

Often drives additional alcohol spend


Spa

“The volume is most unexpected...”

“...the clientele are of high calibre and 95% new customers and at least 20% are buying extra treatments”.

Adam BellBusiness Development Manager Macdonald Manchester Hotel Spa

“We do see this type of tactical marketing taking over from our more conventional marketing spending. We see this working especially well for us as our business remains stubbornly 'seasonal’ ”

Peter LavinGeneral ManagerConway Castle


Lunch and Dinner

Fixed menus allow cost control

Tasting menus enable cross sell of taster

wines to complement


Promote the hotels wider offerings, subtly

Plas Maenan Country House

Results:

• Sold 680 £89 1-night packages

• 86% were first time guests of property; 92% of guests plan to return

• The hotel booked three wedding with subscribers who stayed at the hotel

I have also noticed that the restaurant enjoyed a real ‘buzz’ during the first two months of Travelzoo redemptions. Busy restaurants have a vibe and the E&O was very busy thanks to the hundreds of redemptions that hit in the first sixty days. We then booked a lot of banquet business for subsequent months during this window, which likely ensued as a result of this hot vibe. After all, people what to hold large events at hot spots not dead restaurants. The really nice thing was that the demographic of the patrons Travelzoo sent us fit perfectly with our core business, so the place felt good, not down market. This is an important attribute of the Travelzoo program vis-à-vis Groupon and others. Chris Hemmeter, Owner E&O restaurant


Ultimate booze cross sell

The Marquis at Alkham

Need: Superior rooms

Lead deal:

£135 -- Luxury Kent Downs Stay w/Upgrade &

Gourmet Menu

Cross sell:Luxury Room with the same extras for £115 per night

Results:

• 82 Standard/Luxury room nights• 207 Superior rooms sold

• 4 course tasting menu had cross sold wine for each course

“We made more money in alcohol sales of the wines to complement the tasting menu, than we paid in commission for the promotion.”


As long as your happy with what they are cross selling!


When can doughnuts help your business?


The doughnut

Spa Day deal sent to local market (offering overnight) and Overnight DB&B offering spa day

Local Deals

Hotel packagesLocal Deals


When can doughnut help you?


Thank You!

36

Joel Brandon-BravoCountry Manager, UK

+44 (0) 20 7420 [email protected]

@joelbrandonbrav

mailto:[email protected]

Leisure Hotel Booking Preferences & Deals

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