Industry overview
What is shaping hospitality
Hotels, restaurants and travel brands are judged on every stay, meal and review. Guest experience, consistency and online reputation drive bookings.
- Online reviews strongly influence bookings
- Consistency across properties builds trust
- Guests expect personalised service
Client background
A beach and hill resort group, working in Goa, Kerala & Himachal Pradesh. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.
- Organisation
- A beach and hill resort group
- Sector
- Hospitality
- Team engaged
- Digital Marketing
- Services
- Performance marketing, Landing page & CRO, SEO services
Client challenge
Most of the resort group’s bookings came through online travel agencies, which charged high commissions and controlled the guest relationship. The group’s own website attracted visitors but converted poorly, and past guests rarely booked directly when they returned.
Research objectives
- Deliver on the brief: growing direct bookings for a resort group.
- Set measurable targets and a tracking baseline before launch.
- Improve results through structured testing, reported in plain language.
Target audience
Scope: Website and booking engine for six resorts.
Audiences we typically reach in hospitality
Guests and dinersCorporate travel buyersFront-line staffTravel agentsOnline reviewers
Geographic coverage
Coverage: Goa, Kerala & Himachal Pradesh. Market: India.
- India
Research methodology
A test-and-learn programme: a clear baseline, focused campaigns and weekly optimisation against agreed targets.
- 1Brief
- 2Booking engine optimisation
- 3Search and social campaigns
- 4Email journeys
- 5Insight
We reviewed the booking journey on mobile and desktop, simplified the booking engine, added clear room comparisons and photos, and introduced member-only rates and benefits. Search and social campaigns targeted people searching for each resort by name and destination, and email journeys invited past guests back with personalised offers.
Performance marketingLanding page & CROSEO services
Sampling strategy
- Audiences were defined from the client's customer data and platform targeting, with test and control groups where possible.
Data collection
- Campaign, website and CRM data were tracked daily through analytics and ad platforms.
Data quality & validation
- Conversion tracking tested end to end
- Consistent UTM tagging on every link
- Numbers reconciled between ad platforms and analytics
- Two-person check before anything goes live
Data analysis
- Funnel analysis from impression to lead or sale
- A/B test results on creatives, keywords and pages
- Channel and campaign attribution
Key findings
- Direct bookings grew as a share of total bookings within the season, reducing commission costs.
A simple booking experience plus member benefits gave guests a reason to book direct.
Recommendations
- Build on the core insight: a simple booking experience plus member benefits gave guests a reason to book direct.
- Keep testing creatives, keywords and landing pages against the new baseline.
Business impact
- Repeat guests increasingly booked directly, and the group gained email consent for more guests to market to directly.
Impact is described qualitatively.
Deliverables & next steps
- Campaign assets and landing pages
- Monthly performance report
- Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
- A natural follow-on question: what do reviews tell us?
Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.