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Fighting low occupancy with ‘Tuesdays’

Low occupancy days got you down? California-based Terranea Resort found a solution. The 360-room property’s “Travel Tuesday” campaign offers contributed over 52 room nights and just over US$17,200 for key low-occupancy dates (not including ancillary revenue from Travel Tuesday offers for dining, spa, golf, retail and recreation, or revenue generated from guests within these departments while redeeming their stays).  

The top-performing post promoted a low-occupancy Sunday night stay on Father’s Day 2018. The 50% off room offer encouraged Terranea guests to “treat dad” to an overnight stay, when they previously may not have considered it. Additionally, over this period, Facebook directly contributed as the top traffic referrer to Terranea.com, generating US$53,877.64 in revenue and over 387 inbound calls.

“Our guests have learned to check in with Terranea Resort on social media to find exclusive weekly promotions only available to Terranea fans — a unique offering not available at other hotels on such a regular basis,” says Hilary Feutz, the property’s associate director of communications who also oversees social media. “While we do invest a minimal amount to boost the Travel Tuesday weekly Facebook posts, the demand for and relevance of the content is the true driver of the campaign’s success and shareability.” 

Why was the Father’s Day promotion such a success?

“This strategy works especially well when paired with holidays and seasonal events that fall on dates we have a desire to drive booking for: in this case, Father’s Day,” says Feutz. “The Father’s Day Travel Tuesday offer found a sweet spot of emotion and utility while playing into the exclusivity of being offered only on social media.” 

From January 1, 2017 through June 18, 2018, Travel Tuesday room stay offers have contributed over 52 room nights and US$17,235.25 for key low occupancy dates.
From January 1, 2017 through June 18, 2018, Travel Tuesday room stay offers have contributed over 52 room nights and US$17,235.25 for key low occupancy dates.

(Rancho Palos Verdes, California-based Terranea Resort was one of six winners in HOTELS 2018 Social Hotel Awards for Best Social Media, Property)

Budget: Each Travel Tuesday post was “boosted” with a minimal spend (typically US$100-US$200) 

Goals: Generating revenue for key need/low occupancy dates 

Target audience: Guests who are affluent yet unpretentious, well-traveled, sophisticated and experiential, with 62% of leisure guests coming from Southern California. Targeted guests’ average household income is US$200K-plus and they are between the ages of 35-54 

ROI: From January 1, 2017, through June 18, 2018, Travel Tuesday room stay offers have contributed over 52 room nights and US$17,235.25 for key low-occupancy dates. The top-performing Travel Tuesday post, promoting a low occupancy Sunday night stay on Father’s Day 2018, resulted in the booking of 26 room nights and over US$6,490 in total trackable revenue.

Judges?

Julie Freeman (EVP and managing director, NJF at MMGY Global): Terranea Resort created authentic conversations through individualized, human conversations. They succeeded by combining one-to-one communication with property level messaging.

Jennifer Wesley (director of travel, Google): Terrenea took a strategic approach to word-of-mouth marketing and managed a thoughtful influencer campaign at scale

Runner-up: The Cove Rotana Resort

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