During the pre-Black Friday Week campaign, the hotel chain experienced a 109% increase in revenue over summer season campaigns.

INTRO 

For hotels, the significance of boosting direct bookings to increase profitability and develop lasting guest relationships cannot be understated. The end-of-year holiday season – generally speaking, the period from late November (the week of Black Friday in the U.S.) through the end of the year – presents many valuable opportunities to convert demand into loyal guests by introducing compelling and strategic campaigns.

SETTING THE SCENE 

Flemings Hotels is a collection of family-owned hotels offering unique mid- and upscale accommodations in Germany and Austria. Known for their unique urban settings and attention to detail, the hotels feature sophisticated design, outstanding culinary options, and a sense of history and tradition.

THE CHALLENGE 

Flemings Hotels sought to maximize ADR (Average Daily Rate), grow occupancy rates, and increase the number of loyalty program members. With these objectives in mind, the Flemings hotel group reached out to Amadeus in the weeks leading up to “Black Friday Week.”

SOLUTION  

During this critical pre-holiday period, Amadeus designed the perfect solution to meet all three challenges. Flemings Hotels utilized its newest Hotel IT partnership with Amadeus to expand the value of one campaign by leveraging cross-functional product promotion tools: Digital Media, Metasearch, iHotelier®, GMS (Guest Management Solutions) and Web.

This orchestrated approach optimized customer acquisition and retention through seamless distribution and personalized communication.

The successful multi-channel campaign consisted of:

The launch of an engaging digital loyalty campaign  
The hotel group developed tactics to boost metasearch visibility and reach a wider audience to enhance the guest experience and build brand loyalty. They also established an email marketing campaign to attract new customers and reward them with discounts.

• Boosted Metasearch Visibility 
  Through targeted metasearch campaigns based on historical data insights, the metasearch team significantly increased direct bookings with Flemings Hotels during the Thanksgiving and Black Friday period. iHotelier®’s dynamic MRM (Member Rates Merchandising) feature allowed the hotel group to boost visibility on sites such as Kayak, Trivago, and Google. Member-only rates and competitive pricing drew travelers’ attention, elevating traffic to Brand.com and increasing member sign-ups with exclusive offers.
• Broader Audience Reach 
  The digital media campaign achieved a remarkable outreach of 75,817 users across PPC (pay per click), Display, and social media channels over thirteen days as a result of the Digital Marketing team’s astute use of a cross-selling display strategy. They were also able to power the digital media strategy and capture demand ahead of the competition by leveraging Amadeus’ exclusive BI (Business Intelligence) and proprietary data.
• A Dynamic Email Marketing Campaign 
  Finally, with the goal of rewarding loyal customers, Flemings launched the “Flemings Family Program” with a multi-channel digital campaign. The initiative enhanced the loyalty experience with exclusive discounts for all new members and built brand loyalty. Several thousand new members joined the “Flemings Family Program” between November 17 and December 1, 2022.

A more seamless experience for guests 
Flemings Hotels combined the strengths of iHotelier®, GMS, and Web to offer guests a smoother booking journey. Through iHotelier®, the hotel chain highlighted member discounts on search engines and improved their website’s booking process. They also adjusted prices in order to attract more users and, with the help of GMS and Web, made sure guests could view special offers at the right time. This not only increased guest loyalty, but it also led to more people signing up.

By understanding their guests better, Flemings Hotels was able to make the booking process more appealing and more efficient, which led to increased revenue.

RESULTS  

By implementing these consistent and creative advertising tactics using Amadeus’ key hospitality solutions, Flemings Hotels generated some impressive results.

• The “Black Week” campaign led to a 109% increase in revenue over summer campaign results.
• A ROAS (return on ad spend) of 8.7 – an increase of 98% over summer campaign ROAS – showed considerable growth.
• Overall, the campaign successfully drove direct bookings and brought about an increase in loyalty program sign-ups of several thousand over the brief period that the campaign ran (November 17 – December 1, 2022).