In the ever-evolving realm of hospitality and expanding reach of OTAs, increasing direct bookings is crucial for hoteliers. The key to direct channel success? Value-targeted campaigns, adapted to the booking intent of each and every visitor on the hotel website.
NB: This is an article from The Hotels Network, one of our Expert Partners
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Predictive Personalization is the ultimate tool to help reach direct booking objectives and increase conversions.
Hotel At Six, a luxury establishment located in the heart of Stockholm and part of Nordic Hotels & Resorts, recognizes the importance of boosting direct bookings. To achieve this goal, they partnered with the THN team, leveraging their expertise to implement the cutting-edge technology, Predictive Personalization.
What exactly is Predictive Personalization? The platform utilizes advanced machine learning technology to enhance the online user experience while also boosting hotel revenue. The real-time machine learning algorithm assesses each website visitor and assigns a value score, indicating their probability of making a reservation. Then, it tailors the user experience by automatically presenting the most relevant offers and content based how likely they are to complete a booking.
Hotel At Six worked with THN’s team of direct channel experts to implement Predictive Personalization by adjusting value scores for low-intent users. THN’s Campaign Manager handled the entire campaign process, creating tailored Smart Notes for domestic and international visitors, aligning them with At Six’s brand identity, and monitoring the campaign’s performance.
To assess its effectiveness, A/B tests were conducted on both domestic and international traffic, dividing low-intent users into Group A (exposed to an exclusive offer) and Group B (not exposed to the offer). The results were evaluated, excluding users detected to have a mid or high booking intent.
Hotel At Six’s experience
Two separate trials were conducted on Hotel At Six’s direct channel: one specifically for visitors from Sweden (domestic market) and another for visitors from all remaining countries (international market).
To entice low-intent users (those with a 0 to 40% likelihood of making a reservation), a tempting message offering discounts of 5% or 10% was displayed using Smart Notes.
To safeguard the exclusivity of the discount, At Six utilized a one-click promo code method. This ensured that the discount could only be utilized for the specific booking in question and could not be shared with other users.
The Results
Following a three-month period (from June 1st to August 31st) of implementing the low-intent campaign with Predictive Personalization, At Six observed remarkable results, including heightened conversion rates, increased bookings, and amplified revenue.
At Six’s implementation of these targeted offers resulted in savings of 15,330€ in promotional spend. Moreover, personalized discounts generated 11,945€ in revenue from low-intent users, demonstrating their effectiveness in encouraging bookings. The campaign influenced 25 bookings from website visitors who encountered the exclusive offer and finalized their reservations using the provided promo code. Additionally, there was an average 10% increase in conversion rate for low-intent users in Group A (with access to discounts) compared to Group B (the control group without any discounts).
These results highlight the impactful outcomes of At Six’s personalized approach, emphasizing the efficiency of Predictive Personalization in optimizing conversions and maximizing revenue. Interested in finding out more about Predictive Personalization? Read the full case study.
