Increasing Bookings and Average Daily Rate with New Technology

In today’s economically-challenged hospitality market, resorts, hotels and destinations face im-mense competition for leisure travelers and meet-ing planners. With budgets tight, leisure travel-ers and meeting planners are both curtailing the frequency of their trips and attempting to be more frugal with the trips they actually book. Converse-ly, resorts, hotels and destinations are looking to increase their bookings and their average daily rate to maintain their profi tability.

Online research is a fi rst step among virtually all travelers and meeting planners, thus more and more destinations are judged by their online pres-ence. An easy-to-navigate, informative website with a clear call-to-action is a must but today’s travelers are demanding even more information on the destination prior to making a fi nal decision. Traditional photography gives potential travelers a one-dimensional view of a property or the desti-nation and savvy travelers wonder about what’s not being shown in photographs. Videos are a more robust experience, but tend to be costly to produce and production values vary widely from videographer to videographer.

This paper will discuss a new marketing solution that combines the rich experience of video with the interactivity of a website. This technology provides a photo-realistic replica of destinations, offering potential guests an effi cient, easy-to-navi-gate and immersive online “walking experience” of a property and its destination. Most importantly, this paper will show how this marketing solution has driven signifi cant sales results, including a 38% increase in group bookings and a 43% increase in online bookings!

Introduction

In a campaign to increase bookings and average daily rates through online technology, there are some common trends that hospitality marketing organizations are striving towards.

Hospitality Marketing Organization Goals

Offering guests the most accurate and representative realistic online experience of the destination

Increasing awareness of the unique features of the property as well as the setting, whether rural, urban or somewhere in between

Increasing revenues by converting online visits into guest bookings

Enhancing customer service and up-sell by being able to differentiate mul-tiple offerings to clarify cost scales to guests and meeting planners over the phone and online

Capitalizing on word-of-mouth and viral online marketing

Gaining a competitive advantage by offering a unique online experience

Giving a property’s sales, reserva-tion and conference services teams cutting edge sales tools that helps streamline the sales process

Top goals include:

Increasing Bookings and Average Daily Rate with New Technology

Learn how to increase your online bookings by more than 40%

Copyright © EveryScape 2008

New Solution for Hospitality Marketing Organizations

WebScapes, an innovative new technology from EveryScape, Inc. addresses all of these goals and more. By transforming 2-D panoramic images into a robust, fully navigable and interactive 3-D environment, WebScapes bring destinations to life online in a manner that allows online visitors to experience the destination as though they were there themselves. With full 360 degree views of the exteriors and interiors of a property, poten-tial guests have the capability of seeing the full breadth of amenities that a property can offer.

WebScapes are showcased within the property’s existing website and therefore online visitors have a seamless experience navigating from the main site to the WebScape. This also means that exist-ing online booking tools can be embedded within the WebScape environment, which signifi cantly increases the “look-to-book” ratio.

In budget-tight times, when meeting planners are bypassing the traditional site visit and leisure trav-elers are conducting expansive online research on potential destinations prior to investing in a specifi c trip, WebScapes prove to be an invalu-able resource. WebScapes enable reservation agents, sales managers and conference service managers the ability to visually walk potential customers through their property, giving them a true feel for the property, and how meeting space “fl ows” from one room to another.

This rich and interactive online experience invites site visitors to take their time visually strolling the grounds of a property and sharing what they’ve seen with friends and family. Not only does this increase the average time-on-site but also in-creases the viral nature of a property’s website through word of mouth, which again can lead to increased online bookings.

In the competitive Napa Valley hospitality market, The Carneros Inn faces immense rivalry from long-established venues and properties. Boasting some of the most tranquil and unique accommo-dation options in the Valley – 86 individual cot-tages, including 10 suites, 17 luxury Napa Valley fractional home cottages, three full-service restau-rants and a luxury spa – The Carneros Inn sought an innovative online tool to help them break through to new and returning consumers across

Case Study: How a WebScape increased ADR by $120 and Web Bookings by 43% for The Carneros Inn, a Napa Valley Resort


Finally, “World Tags” (images, text, videos or reviews that can be embedded directly into the WebScape) and “VideoScapes” (online guided tour of relevant content within the WebScape) en-ables destinations to tell an even more compelling story about their property, whether it be a menu of services offered by the spa or a promotional video of their wedding offerings. Being able to tell a compelling story in a geographically relevant way allows meeting planners and leisure travelers alike to truly imagine their own experience at the destination, which will take them a step closer to booking.

World Tag Example- Link to Online Booking

WebScape Example- The Carneros Inn in Napa Valley


Case Study (Cont...)the world, and out of the pack of numerous Napa Valley resorts. Brian Gipson, director of sales and marketing for The Carneros Inn, realized that 2-D fl at images and a traditional website weren’t enough. He turned to EveryScape to develop a one-of-a-kind interactive and photorealistic Web-Scape to differentiate the Inn from its competition.

As a cost-effective website marketing tool with worldwide reach, EveryScape’s virtual experience of The Carneros Inn captured the property’s true essence by allowing people to explore the en-tire resort online as if they were there in-person. Moving beyond one-dimensional photographs, the Inn used the visual experience to engage guests and fully showcase the resort’s wood-burning fi replaces with polished concrete hearths, Brazil-ian cherry wood fl oors, French doors leading to private patios and gardens, teak patio furniture, stone kitchen counters, professional grade ap-pliances, private outdoor showers, rooftop sun decks, as well as living rooms with 16-foot ceil-ings.

“We realized that to get ahead of our competi-tors and increase bookings we had to step up our strategy online,” said Gipson. “As soon as we saw a demo from EveryScape we knew a visual experience was exactly what we were looking for. Now guests can experience the true feel of the entire resort with one click of their mouse and from the comfort of their home.”

The online “walking experience” of The Carneros Inn offers guests the truest possible experience with fi ne detail that cannot translate over the phone or through a traditional website. Guests can be assured of booking the exact room, cot-tage or suite that they want without misleading im-ages or information. The Inn’s reservation agents and sales managers can use the WebScape to upsell potential visitors and meeting planners by showcasing upscale amenities and the “fl ow” of meeting space. The visual experience showcases all facets of The Carneros Inn to people around the world, thus increasing customer retention, word-of-mouth and revenue.


$120,000 in direct revenue from the tour pages since March 2008 imple-mentation of WebScape

Increased online group and wedding bookings (minimum of $12,000) by 38% over prior year

Web bookings have grown by 43% over prior year

ADR increase YTD of $120.00 over prior year, up 23%

Homes bookings increased by 87% over prior year

Conversion rate up by 1.6% over prior year

Group conversion increased by 17% with guided tours

The Results:

To learn more about WebScapesContact Mark Oliver

email: [email protected]

phone: 415.430.3543


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Increasing Bookings and Average Daily Rate with New Technology