BookingSuite - Quality Hotel Parnell Case Study

QUALITY HOTELPARNELL

A BookingSuite Partner Story | Copyright BookingSuite 2015

DESTINATION:

15K547

REVENUE IN THE FIRST MONTHOF GOING LIVE

DIRECT BOOKINGS IN THE FIRST MONTH OF GOING LIVE

DAYS TO RECOUP THE TOTALANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION COST

www.booking.com/suite | [email protected]

THE ULTIMATE COMEBACK FOR QUALITY HOTEL PARNELL

Situated at the gateway to

New Zealand amid

Auckland’s most desirable

attractions, Quality Hotel Parnell has

always been poised for success.

Cricket Word Cup fans are regulars,

along with a steady stream of

concertgoers at nearby Vector

Arena, host to artists ranging from

Billy Idol to Katy Perry.

With sold out crowds and cricket

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much for occupancy, though its

digital marketing was another story.

Being in the center of it all, it’s

crucial for General Manager Wayne

Darbyshire and his staff to be able

to change content on their website

quickly and easily.

Wayne understands that every

property, chain or not, has a

unique story to tell, and says

there was never a time when

he considered not having a

property website.

“Personally, I’ve always felt that

even if you’re part of a large chain

like Choice, you still have your own

uniqueness. We’re under contract

with Choice for a certain period,

but if for some reason we decided

to go with someone else, we would

be able to take our own identity

with us,” said Wayne.

But if knowing you need a

property-level website is half the

battle, the other half is choosing

the right provider. This is where

the “comeback” portion of our

story begins.

Previously, Quality Hotel Parnell used an agency that managed all of its

content. Wayne, like many hoteliers, faced the issue of the agency’s

pace and fee when it came to making even the simplest changes. It

could take weeks, not to mention a hefty hole in the pocket.

Even worse, the agency controlled all of the hotel’s accounts, passwords, and

optimization, which led Hotel Parnell to a search engine optimized (SEO) crisis.

Whether they knew it or not, the agency’s SEO provider was using SEO tactics

recently banned by Google without Wayne’s knowledge.

Once Google caught wind of this, the hotel was penalized and ultimately

disappeared from Google altogether.

Wayne knew it was time for a change.

When Quality Hotel Parnell came on board in October of 2014, they were in dire

need of a digital marketing makeover along with high quality content to help

boost conversion and rank higher on Google—the right way.


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With our product, Hotel Parnell has more than doubled those numbers. In the past month alone the hotel has received 131 direct bookings with revenue of $35,420+.

Hotel Parnell recouped their total annual subscription fee in seven days!

Since joining, Hotel Parnell’s total revenue has skyrocketed to over $146,000. Quality Hotel Parnell’s improvement has been unbelievable, especially taking into account the slow start due to the SEO crisis.

MAKING BANK AND SHARING IT

“IF YOU COMPARE QUARTER TO QUARTER, [OUR REVENUE IS] NEARLY THREE TIMES MORE.”Wayne Darbyshire, General Manager


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revenue through the

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quarter to quarter, it’s nearly three

times more,” Wayne said.

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Parnell—the hotel is very unique

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organization, donating all of its

earnings to various charities, from

medical research groups to the coast

guard. Parnell keeps just enough to

make renovations.

The foundation’s goal is to contribute

to advancing medical research in

New Zealand, and to have ongoing

scholarships available to graduates

pursuing careers in the sciences.

“

Since his last performance review, Wayne was happy to report that his

direct bookings were running above average compared to other hotels

on the platform.

Wayne estimated that currently 10% of his bookings are direct, compared to a

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One of the many aspects that convinced Wayne to sign up, was the product’s

copious design options.

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team over there is really good about guiding us and from our perspective they’re

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“If you want to stay ahead of the game with digital marketing then you need to

sign up.”


MORE DIRECT BOOKINGS THAN EVER BEFORE

Traffic from smartphones topped 2,200 visits over the past three months, plus 1,300 visits via tablet. In the past month alone, Hotel Parnell has seen 756 visits from smartphones and 417 visits from tablets, totaling 1,173.

That’s 2.5 times more mobile traffic than the website saw in its first month!

SMOOTHOPERATIONS

Digital Marketing Consultant, Damien

Spurdle, takes care of most of the

content updates online, plus the

hotel’s social media presence. He

said the cloud-based software tools

were one of his favorite things about

the platform.

“I’m not restricted to staying in the

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said. “I can take it home. I can do

it straight away. I don’t have to go

through another authority to change

something, which is great. I can make

changes instantly.”

Before discovering our product,

Hotel Parnell had to manually input

all of their bookings, so the

innovation and cutting-edge tech-

nology has been a good learning

curve for Wayne.

“I’m kind of an old school hotel

manager, but I recognize that

this is the way of the future,” said

Wayne, a 30-year veteran of the

hospitality industry.

For being old school, Wayne is

catching on fast, as one of his

favorite features of the site is its

mobile optimization.

“That was another feature of the

product—the ability to adapt to

any sort of device whether it be

desktop or mobile, Apple or

Android. Our previous website was

looking into that capability, but

wasn’t nearly as advanced,”

Wayne said.

And mobile looks good on Quality

Hotel Parnell ...

Wayne and Damien also love their new website’s capacity for

reaching global visitors in their own languages and tracking where

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majority of Parnell’s international guests hail from China, Australia, Germany,

and France.

“I think that’s outstanding that we can see who’s been looking at our website and

from where. It’s important for us to have this information because we always feel

we don’t do as well in the Australian market as we should be. So, it’s helpful to

see which parts of Australia are looking at us,” Wayne said.

Wayne is surprised that some properties don’t have their own websites. Even

though he’s a franchisee, not having a property-level website never occurred

to him.


VISIT THE WEBSITE

We actually consider

this a partnership

more than just using

your website,” Wayne said.

Parnell is still working on telling

their unique story online and has

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Wayne not only appreciated the

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provide, but also giving them guide-

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content themselves.

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at doing that. We believe we can

make our story bigger and bigger.”

“


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dation providers grow their businesses and brands through cloud-based

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reservation systems, channel managers, social media channels, and property

management systems.

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BookingSuite - Quality Hotel Parnell Case Study