Summary

How Vizlly Made Digital Marketing Easy and Effective for Hospitality Associates and its Portfolio of 22 Hotels

Their Problems
  • Managing digital marketing
  • Low direct bookings
  • High digital marketing costs
  • Not optimized for mobile
Highlights With Vizlly

https://www.vizlly.com/wp-content/themes/salient/css/fonts/svg/23_room_serviceWh.svg

Increased

Occupancy

https://www.vizlly.com/wp-content/themes/salient/css/fonts/svg/08_market_analysisWh.svg

Improved

ADR

https://www.vizlly.com/wp-content/themes/salient/css/fonts/svg/03_goals_achieveWh.svg

Increased

Purchase Intent

https://www.vizlly.com/wp-content/themes/salient/css/fonts/svg/23_online_bookingWh.svg

More Off-Season

Bookings

Request a Consultation

See how Vizlly can help you with a personalized demo.

Case Study

How Managing 22 Properties Went From Expensive and Agonizing to Easy and Effective, Thanks To Vizlly

Laurie Theisen, Director of Sales & Marketing at Hospitality Associates, started her career in hospitality as a college student, working her way up from housekeeping to front desk to General Manager. After 15 years in hotel management, she decided to explore the sales and marketing side of the industry. She joined Hospitality Associates over twelve years ago.

Hospitality Associates is a third-generation, family-owned hotel management and development company in Spokane, Washington with 22 properties and counting. Laurie is based in Montana but is on the road visiting properties two to three weeks every month to ensure they’re on track to achieve their sales and marketing goals.

Solving The Digital Marketing Dilemma

Prior to 2014, Hospitality Associates didn’t have a strong focus on digital marketing and were investing in print and offline advertising. While they had a subscription to a technology platform to manage digital marketing, they didn’t have the time to dedicate to it and weren’t experiencing the performance they desired. They struggled with a number of digital marketing challenges, including:

  • Managing digital marketing effectively for 22 properties was agonizing
  • Occupancy, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and booking conversions on direct booking channels all needed to be improved
  • Online experiences for their hotels weren’t seamless and consistent across desktop, mobile, tablet, phone and social media
  • Marketing spend was too high given the time and resources required to manage it and the low performance

Laurie knew that they needed a better way to manage digital marketing and drive better performance while decreasing their marketing spend.

Moving To The Better Way To Manage Digital Marketing

Hospitality Associates was introduced to Leonardo’s Vizlly Digital Marketing System at a conference in 2015. Impressed by the results Vizlly was generating for other hotel properties large and small, they wanted to see what it could do for theirs. They moved one of their properties, the Bitterroot River Inn and Conference Center in Hamilton, Montana, over to Vizlly.

After the Bitterroot was onboarded to Vizlly and their new digital marketing system was in place, Laurie met with the property’s General Manager, Bonnie-Sue Upchurch to see how the experience was going. Bonnie only had positive feedback to share.

“Most guests go to Hamilton in the summer which has always been high season for them, but since they launched their Vizlly website, their ADR and occupancy have improved greatly in the off-seasons and they have noticed that people been staying on the website longer. Bonnie-Sue also shared that she and the hotel staff receive a lot of positive feedback about the hotel’s online presence.”

Insights from Vizlly analytics show that 38% of visitors to the Bitterroot River Inn’s website are clicking on the “book now” button, which is known as purchase intent, a strong indicator of website performance. To put that into perspective, the industry average of this metric is between 20 and 30%, which the Bitterroot River Inn surpasses.

With Bitterroot River Inn’s results and overall experience with Vizlly off to a very strong start, Hospitality Associates decided to move most of their remaining their properties over to Vizlly as their contracts with their previous marketing vendor expired. Today, all 22 of Hospitality Associates’ properties are actively using Vizlly and are seeing great results. Here are some of results and feedback Laurie has received while visiting some of the properties.

How Vizlly Outperforms Hospitality Associates’ Old Digital Marketing Platform

  • Hotel websites are instantly mobile optimized
  • Simplifies digital marketing management
  • Frees up time for General Managers and Directors of Sales and Marketing
  • Quick and easy to update digital marketing content for different seasons

How Hospitality Associates’ Properties Are Benefitting From Vizlly

  • Increased occupancy and improved ADR
  • Increased website engagement
  • More mobile and off-season bookings
  • Better search engine rankings
  • Contest wins and partnership opportunities
  • Relevant targeting and positive feedback

Improved Search Engine Rankings

“Kalispell La Quinta was one of three properties in Montana that won a free photoshoot from TripAdvisor. The winners were selected based on their search engine rankings which we know (and TripAdvisor also confirmed) have improved dramatically because they have a Vizlly website.”

More Mobile Bookings

“Mobile hotel shopping and booking is here to stay, so having our hotel websites optimized for mobile is a top priority for us. Since launching a Vizlly website which is automatically mobile optimized, the Coeur d’Alene Quality Inn & Suites has begun attracting a younger clientele that books on mobile.”

Targeted Visual Experiences

“A couple of months ago there was a horse jumping event (pre-Olympic qualifiers) in Kalispell. The Kalispell La Quinta created a customized Vizlly Digital Brochure with content relevant to guests who would be looking for event accommodations. As a result, they increased occupancy and ADR during the event and the event organizers were impressed with the hotel’s visual experience on Kayak and other Online Travel Agencies (OTAs).”

Valuable Partnership Opportunities

“Both Quality Inn & Suites Coeur d’Alene and the Sandpoint La Quinta Inn have gained valuable partnership opportunities with local businesses and attractions. They provide the hotels with images to use in their digital marketing, which help the hotels better showcase the local area and get more bookings while the attractions get more exposure.”

The Result: More Revenue For Their Properties and Hospitality Associates

The results that Hospitality Associates’ properties are seeing after adopting the Vizlly Digital Marketing System speak for themselves. “When our properties are successful, we’re successful. Vizlly has become an important factor in our properties’ sales and marketing performance, which equates to increased revenue for our company.”

More importantly, Laurie and Hospitality Associates have found the best, easiest, most cost-effective solution to manage digital marketing for their growing portfolio of hotels.

“Revenue aside, I have to say that another huge benefit is that managing digital marketing for 22 properties has transformed from expensive and agonizing to easy and effective. I highly recommend Vizlly to any management company that is struggling to simplify digital marketing and drive better results. Empowering your properties with Vizlly is the solution.”

Request a Consultation

See how Vizlly can help you with a personalized demo.

All fields are required. Your privacy is important to us.