Skiathos Palace
Ιn New Hotel Reservations Compared to 2019
In Direct Bookings Compared to 2019
Awards
The Case
Background: Skiathos Palace Hotel is one of the best hotels in the Sporades islands and overall Europe. Skiathos Palace is located on a pine hill offering a breathtaking view over Koukounaries beach. The Skiathos Palace combines astonishing natural beauty with luxury services.
Challenges Faced
Objectives:
- Increase in direct onsite bookings & booking value vs aggregators
- Increase in sales compared to 2020 but also compared to 2019
Challenges:
The main challenge we had to face was the restrictions that each country announced, to and from Greece, due to Covid-19 safety measures, leading to travelers’ uncertainty to book their holidays in Greece.
In addition, one of our main target countries, the UK, had characterized Greece as an orange zone. So, the British did not want to or it was rather difficult for them to visit our country during the summer of 2021.
Finally, a large part of the reservations came from the aggregators (such as booking.com, etc). We wanted to limit these bookings by bringing prospective customers to make their reservation directly through our site.
The Strategy
Given the situation with Covid-19, we first conducted detailed research of the countries where most citizens were vaccinated and also there was active demand for vacations in 2021 (such as Israel where 85% of the population was fully vaccinated).
In addition, we analyzed data from the last 3 years from the customer’s CRM and concluded on the countries with the largest Sales Revenue.
Based on the results, we focused our campaigns on the following countries, Greece, Cyprus, Serbia, Italy, England and Israel.
Execution
GOOGLE ADS
STEP A – Google Search Ads
We analyzed the aggregators and created Search Campaigns with branded keywords.
We conducted research for terms such as hotels in Skiathos and created separate campaigns for each target country (Greece, Cyprus, UK, Serbia, Israel, Italy) so that we can have better control of budget and performance. Ad copies were related to the country of targeting.
STEP B – Google Display Ads
We ran Remarketing campaigns in custom lists with users who visited the hotel site but did not book. We led these users to a special Landing page with an early booking offer in order to do online booking immediately, since they were already one step down in the funnel.
SOCIAL MEDIA ADS
STEP A – Facebook Conversions Campaign
We created audiences with new users interested in hotel booking and travelling to Greece & Skiathos for their holidays, and relevant aggregators (Booking.com etc.) as well.
We created campaigns for each target country (Greece, Cyprus, UK, Serbia, Israel, Italy) so that we can have better control of budget and performance. Ad copies were related to the country of targeting.
STEP B – Facebook Remarketing Campaign
We ran Remarketing campaigns in custom lists with users who visited the hotel site but did not book. We led these users to a special Landing page with an early booking offer in order to do online booking immediately, since they were already one step down in the funnel.
