Note: This success story was originally created under the brand myhotelshop. Following the acquisition by RateGain, myhotelshop is now offered as a product under the name Demand Booster. The insights and results shared in this case study reflect the performance of what is now known as Demand Booster.
One of Europe’s largest family-run hotel groups found themselves increasingly reliant on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) and struggling with low website traffic in 2019. With a portfolio of over 150 hotels spread across multiple countries, the group aimed to enhance their digital presence and regain control over their online revenue streams. The brand-level performance metrics such as Average Daily Rate (ADR), Length of Stay (LOS), and conversion rates were not being reflected effectively in their reporting.
Determined to make a change, the hotel group partnered with myhotelshop’s Full Management Service to drive direct bookings and reduce dependence on OTAs. Over the span of four years, their website revenue skyrocketed from €23 million in 2019 to €92 million in 2023, while their hotel portfolio continued to grow.
“Through our collaboration with myhotelshop and their expertise, we were able to increase our direct bookings by 265%. Transparent reporting has provided us with valuable insights into key performance indicators, allowing us to make data-driven decisions.”
— CEO, Anonymous Hotel Group
To achieve long-term success, the hotel group set ambitious but attainable goals. As an e-commerce partner, myhotelshop worked with them to develop strategies and implement measures that would support sustainable growth and profitability.
The first priority was driving more traffic to their websites. Increasing online visibility and attracting new target audiences were crucial steps in boosting revenue. Conversion rate improvement was the second key focus. By continuously optimising the website and booking engine for seamless user experience, the goal was to increase turnover and maximise the value of each visitor.
The shift toward direct bookings was a cornerstone of the strategy. By reducing dependence on OTAs, the hotel group significantly lowered distribution costs and captured a larger share of revenue. This focus on direct bookings also boosted profitability.
Myhotelshop’s proprietary algorithms were key in managing and optimising all paid search campaigns effectively. Close monitoring of performance metrics and the constant refinement of bidding strategies helped to maximise the return on investment for the digital advertising efforts.
To further reduce reliance on OTAs, the hotel group activated Search Engine Advertising (SEA) and metasearch campaigns across platforms like Google Hotel Ads, Trivago, TripAdvisor, and Kayak. With myhotelshop’s advanced bidding algorithms, access to vast amounts of data, and insights into demand, the campaigns were optimised for maximum efficiency.
Additionally, a commission-based (CPA) model was introduced for SEA and metasearch, ensuring the hotel group only paid for actualized bookings. This approach proved especially advantageous during the uncertainties of the pandemic, offering flexibility and risk-free investment.
A dedicated Account Manager provided ongoing support and expertise, working closely with the hotel group to continuously refine the website experience. From deep dives into website performance to customer journey analysis and usability improvements, the team focused on enhancing every aspect of the digital presence.
Comprehensive reporting played a pivotal role in this data-driven approach. myhotelshop provided detailed insights into key performance indicators (KPIs), tracking everything from search engine performance to the effectiveness of digital tools like chatbots and consent management platforms.
Since 2019, the partnership has yielded impressive results. Direct bookings soared from 127,422 in 2019 to 464,510 in 2023, a staggering 265% increase. Although the hotel group expanded during this period, their growth outpaced their reliance on OTAs, as demonstrated by the 66% growth rate in bookings via a major OTA during the same timeframe.
The share of direct bookings through the group’s websites also increased significantly, rising from 16% in 2019 to 25% in 2023, marking a 56% improvement. This shift reflects a substantial reduction in OTA dependence, alongside a marked increase in profitability.
Conversion rates continued to climb, highlighting myhotelshop’s success in optimising the online experience and simplifying the booking process. The website cost ratio was consistently kept below 5%, ensuring that the group’s digital investments delivered optimal returns.
With transparent and comprehensive reporting, the hotel group gained critical insights into both brand and hotel-level performance, enabling them to track trends, make informed decisions, and identify areas for ongoing optimisation.
Note: This success story was originally created under the brand myhotelshop. Following the acquisition by RateGain, myhotelshop is now offered as a product under the name Demand Booster. The insights and results shared in this case study reflect the performance of what is now known as Demand Booster.
Historic Hotels is a small but distinguished group of five hotels, nestled in the heart of Ghent, Belgium, that has been a shining example of what can be achieved through a collaborative partnership and strategic digital marketing.
When you choose Historic Hotels, you are choosing a quality experience that goes beyond the ordinary. What sets them apart is not just the locations and amenities but their commitment to being family-owned and operated. The five hotels Hotel Gravensteen, Ghent River Hotel, Hotel de Flandre, Monasterium Poortackere, and Tower Hotel are dedicated to ensuring your stay is not merely a visit but a complete immersion in the city’s rich history and culture.
Our relationship with Historic Hotels Ghent began in 2022, spearheaded by their General Manager, who had previously experienced our services while managing another hotel. Impressed by the results we delivered in the past, he entrusted us with the digital marketing for Historic Hotels Ghent.
When we started, Historic Hotels Ghent had minimal marketing activity and relied heavily on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) for bookings. Their primary source of traffic was organic search through their own SEO efforts, with little to no digital marketing initiatives in place. This dependency on OTAs resulted in high commission costs and limited control over their customer relationships.
To turn this situation around, we implemented a comprehensive digital marketing strategy focusing on Search Engine Advertising (SEA). Our approach included:
Due to the early success of these initiatives, we expanded our efforts by incorporating Microsoft Ads into their marketing mix. The outstanding results prompted the GM to also entrust us with the SEA campaigns for their meeting rooms website.
Our partnership has yielded impressive results:
One of the most significant achievements was the dramatic shift in booking sources. Initially, most of the bookings came from OTAs. Today, the majority of bookings are direct, significantly reducing costs and enhancing customer relationships. This shift not only improves profitability but also allows Historic Hotels Ghent to establish stronger, more direct connections with their guests, leading to better service and guest loyalty.
“I have used Myhotelshop’s service twice. I was so pleased with my first experience that when I changed from 1 hotel to a group of 5, last year, one of my first contacts was Myhotelshop…They have reproduced the same level of service, speed and results. Using them to startup and manage our PPC campaigns has delivered 100,000s of visitors to our websites in 6 months, challenged the OTAs who were bidding on keywords and brought direct bookings to our hotels. With a ROI of 9x I’d say that was a result. On top of that our own websites have seen a dramatic uptick in traffic so we have become more visible and get more group and corporate requests as a result.Always available and always keeping an eye out for what’s going on, we have a great Account Manager in Katia, so the personal touch is also appreciated. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Myhotelshop for the ease of use and the financial returns. I just don’t want my competitors to know!”
Richard Gale
Pricing and Revenue Director
The future looks bright for Historic Hotels Ghent. Our plans include adding metasearch marketing to their strategy, further expanding their digital footprint and driving even more direct bookings.
Working with Historic Hotels Ghent has been an immensely rewarding experience. Their trust in our expertise and their openness to innovative strategies have been key to our mutual success. We look forward to many more years of collaboration, helping them grow and thrive.
Set in the picturesque Swiss countryside, the Romantik Hotel Bären Dürrenroth, with its 28-room charm and gourmet restaurant, offers guests a unique blend of historical elegance and contemporary comfort. Despite its very successful SEA and meta-search campaigns, the hotel had yet to venture into the realm of paid social media.
The Romantik Hotel Bären Dürrenroth had a well-established online presence but was missing out on the vast potential of paid social media to reach a wider audience and drive direct bookings.
Josephine and the MHS team sprang into action, crafting bespoke paid social media campaigns for Instagram and Facebook that showcased the hotel’s allure. The most suitable packages were selected for the respective social media channels. The focus was primarily on seasonal offers. For example, we advertised spring specials or e-bike packages for the summer. Particular attention was paid to the booking conditions in order to guarantee potential guests maximum flexibility.
We used high-quality photos to stand out visually on the social media platforms. Direct links led to the landing pages of the offers.
Customised targeting settings such as target group and region were defined for the social media channels so that the offers are displayed to the right target audience at exactly the right time.
The results of the first twelve months were nothing short of remarkable:
After just one year, paid social media has established itself as an important pillar of the hotel’s direct booking strategy. Following Google Ads, the campaigns generate the second-highest revenue. Buoyed by the success, Josephine and the hotel plan to continue their fruitful partnership, applying insights gained from the first year to refine and enhance future campaigns.
We are proud to have the Romantik Hotel Bären Dürrenroth as one of our customers and look forward to continuing our collaboration.
Contact:
Learn more about Romantik Hotel Bären Dürrenroth’s historic charm and modern amenities at their homepage: www.baeren-duerrenroth.ch/en/hotel
Note: This success story was originally created under the brand myhotelshop. Following the acquisition by RateGain, myhotelshop is now offered as a product under the name Demand Booster. The insights and results shared in this case study reflect the performance of what is now known as Demand Booster.
In the picturesque landscapes of South Tyrol, Italy, the Hoteliers- und Gastwirteverband (HGV) – the Association for Hoteliers and Innkeepers – has been a prominent advocate for the region’s hospitality industry. With more than 4000 hotels in its portfolio, HGV is a key player in promoting and supporting South Tyrol’s hotels.
In their journey towards digital prominence, they found a valuable ally in Myhotelshop (MHS).
This story begins in September 2016 when Myhotelshop joined forces with HGV as a reseller on a self-management service level. The dedicated account managers at myhotelshop embarked on a journey to empower HGV’s member hotels in the digital realm.
The partnership started with a simple yet ambitious goal: to enhance the online visibility and success of HGV’s member hotels.
One of the initial steps taken was to provide comprehensive training and guidance. Ulli Kastner, representing Myhotelshop, visited Bolzano in 2016 to introduce the MHS platform and conduct workshops for HGV.
Continuous training on the portal and best bidding practices became a hallmark of this partnership, enabling HGV to independently manage and optimize campaigns on popular meta-search platforms such as Google Hotel Ads, Trivago and TripAdvisor.
As the partnership blossomed, so did the portfolio of hotels. From 2017 to 2019, almost 100 hotels went live on platforms like Trivago, Tripadvisor desktop and mobile as well as Kayak. The real game-changer came in 2020 when the first 50 hotels went live on Google Hotel Ads (GHA).
The subsequent years saw an expansion of the hotel presence on meta platforms, with approximately 100 hotels actively engaged in 2021 and 2022. Currently, 315 hotels with a total of 600 campaigns are managed.
In 2023, the partnership reached a significant milestone. With the connection of 180 hotels to Google’s Free Booking Links (FBL), the joint portfolio tripled.
This milestone not only showcased the trust and synergy between Myhotelshop and HGV but also marked a quantum leap in the visibility of South Tyrol’s hotels on the digital stage.
Efficient tracking is crucial in the digital world, and myhotelshop assisted HGV in implementing precise tracking mechanisms via UTM parameters. Depending on the type of campaign, the parameters are automatically adjusted in the background.
This enables HGV to obtain a precise booking overview of the individual meta search platforms.
Beyond the statistics and numbers, this partnership is about building brand awareness and elevating the reputation of South Tyrol’s hotels in the digital world.
By harnessing the power of digital marketing, HGV’s member hotels are not just attracting more direct inquiries and bookings; they are also gaining greater recognition in the highly competitive hospitality industry.
Myhotelshop and HGV partnership is a shining example of collaboration that goes beyond business. It’s a journey of empowerment, growth, and digital transformation for South Tyrol’s hospitality sector.
As they continue to explore new horizons and set higher benchmarks, this partnership remains dedicated to propelling South Tyrol’s hotels to new heights of success in the digital age.
SlowDown Travemünde is a 3-star hotel located in the heart of BeachBay Travemünde. With its 110 cozy rooms and four different categories, it’s the perfect spot for a relaxing getaway by the Baltic Sea. The hotel’s full-service wellness area and fireplace lounge make it an ideal choice for families, couples, and conference guests looking to escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
When we started working with SlowDown Travemünde in 2020, we began with a small budget and a cautious approach. Our campaign manager Antonio saw great potential in the hotel and decided to launch some test campaigns on various metasearch platforms.
When we started working with SlowDown Travemünde in 2020, we began with a small budget and a cautious approach. Our campaign manager Antonio saw great potential in the hotel and decided to launch some test campaigns on various metasearch platforms.
Our first step was to create direct sales campaigns on Trivago, TripAdvisor, and Google Hotel Ads to improve the hotel’s visibility online. We knew that offering the best price was crucial on these platforms, so we made sure to focus on that in our regular feedback meetings with the hotel.
Our efforts paid off, and we saw some promising results, especially for the Google Hotel Ads campaign. Seeing the potential for growth, Antonio suggested running campaigns on Google Ads to increase website traffic and direct bookings. As sales began to grow rapidly, the hotel increased its advertising budget and expanded its visibility on Microsoft Ads, investing six times more than the initial budget.
Over time, we faced some challenges, and there were months when the hotel’s website prices were beaten by other providers on Google Hotel Ads. This led to a high number of OTA bookings, highlighting the importance of offering the best price. We worked closely with the hotel to optimise its prices, and by December 2022, the hotel was able to stay on Google Hotel Ads an average of 16% cheaper than the OTAs.
Despite these challenges, SlowDown Travemünde more than tripled its direct revenue through our campaigns, all while keeping the same cost. OTA bookings were continuously reduced, a clear indication that persistence always pays off.
Thanks to the trustful cooperation between SlowDown Travemünde and our team, the hotel achieved a 235% increase in revenue over the past two years. We’re grateful for their trust and are proud to have helped them grow from a cautious start to one of our top performers.
Taking a gamble in the midst of the pandemic, Freiburg-based start-up Black F opened its first house in Freiburg in November 2020 with 138 so-called serviced flats. But the concept of “temporary living” struck a chord: at BlackF, guests get high-quality, technologically advanced fully equipped flats combined with great service and high hygiene standards. This was particularly well received by long-term guests and business travellers, and such was their success that only half a year later they achieved their target sales. Their second house will be opened in October, continuing the expanding course.
We accompanied Black F from the very beginning as a Full management client. As early as June 2020, we entered into an exchange with the hotel and, together with the communications agency Medirata (http://www.medirata.de/), we created a modern hotel website, which went live in October. In parallel, we created marketing campaigns on Trivago, Tripadvisor, Google Hotel Ads, Microsoft Ads and Google Ads. Through monthly analyses of the website’s performance, we continued to optimize the website and the direction of the marketing campaigns and finally brought them to success. Special attention was paid to the target group of long-term guests, a special landing page on this topic was created, which we specifically promoted via Google Ads campaigns. In preparation for the opening of the second house, we are currently in the process of converting the existing website into a chain website. A new site will be created that will give the Black F brand the appropriate online presence and showcase the USPs of the two properties, allowing guests to choose what suits their needs. As further expansions are planned, we have already technically designed the new website in such a way that new houses can be easily integrated in the coming years.
The hotel website was able to establish itself as a successful sales channel from the very beginning and reached a share of 43% of the total online turnover in 2021. The website also excelled in terms of profitability: we achieved a top value of 5.17% In addition, the attractive website and the marketing campaigns played an important part in attracting long-term guests to the hotel, who then contacted us by phone or email.
Just in time for the opening of the second home, the new website will go live and shortly after, the second house’s marketing campaigns will begin. We will pay special attention to the Google Ads strategy, in which our goal is to design the website so that both short-term and long-term visitors can easily reserve the home that best meets their needs.
Note: This success story was originally created under the brand myhotelshop. Following the acquisition by RateGain, myhotelshop is now offered as a product under the name Demand Booster. The insights and results shared in this case study reflect the performance of what is now known as Demand Booster.
Located just 1km from Iceland’s spectacular Blue Lagoon and 45 km from Reykjavik, the Northern Light Inn is a family-run boutique hotel with a spa area and restaurant. The hotel features 42 rooms, a bar open 24/7, free shuttles to the lagoon and an exclusive airport taxi to Keflavík International Airport, 22 km away.
The modern spa area offers saunas, solariums, Aurora floating, fitness services and wellness treatments. Icelandic cuisine, Nordic specialties and fine wines can be enjoyed in the Hotel’s restaurant while appreciating Reykjanes Penisula’s lava field views. Truly an unforgettable stay!
The Northern Light Inn began their collaboration with Myhotelshop to strengthen direct sales and gain a bit more independence from OTAs. At the same time, the hotel created a new website and switched to “SimpleBooking” booking engine based on our recommendation. We started consulting to optimize their website and booking engine and took the hotel live on our marketing placements, such as Google and Trivago. At the beginning of 2020, we saw our combined efforts start to bear fruit: in January and February 2020, we each saw a 30% increase in revenue compared to the same month the previous year.
As we all know, the global pandemic made life difficult for the industry; from March 2020 onwards, booking numbers plummeted dramatically and were reduced to a minimum. In March we paused all marketing campaigns, and as a gesture of goodwill we paused their entire contract from June 2020, to give the hotel some relief from fixed costs during this difficult time. The contract initially remained paused for a full 9 months, and due to the ongoing Corona pandemic the future looked uncertain.
On the 19th of March, 2021, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland erupted and this proved to be an absolute stroke of luck for the Northern Light Inn, as the active volcano became a massive tourism magnet. And not only is the Northern Light Inn close to the Blue Lagoon, it also happens to be the hotel in closest proximity to the volcano. The hotelier immediately communicated with us, and we reactivated all campaigns on the 24th of March. Demand was particularly high in the U.S. and in several European countries, so we activated meta-campaigns for all potentially relevant markets to ensure maximum visibility; we also focused heavily on Google Ads and took brand campaigns live. In close consultation with the hotelier, we also switched to generic Google Ads campaigns to reach users searching for hotels near the volcano. In addition, we ran generic Google Ads campaigns on the hotel and the region, as well as on tourist hotspots in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, e.g. the Blue Lagoon, Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights or even the airport. Due to the success of the campaigns, we brainstormed together with the hotel to gather more “experimental”, unusual keywords to generate even more visibility on Google. In addition, the hotel partnered with Sojern (a digital marketing platform for tour operators) to run campaigns on social media and the display network.
The website revenue had an insane growth rate of 217% from 2020 to 2021 and it was even 24% higher than in 2019. The overall marketing spend and myhotelshop management fee expense ratio was only 6.72%, much lower than the OTA commissions, resulting in the website being the most profitable sales channel. The share of the website on the overall online revenue in 2021 was 37.40%. Before our collaboration this number was only 18.22%. The hotel benefited from cost savings and greater profitability as a result of this shift. In addition, it turned out that the website’s cancellation rate was “only” 22%, compared to 47.50% of Booking.com, making direct bookings even more interesting for the hotel.
Although the volcano is now no longer active, the booking trend currently continues and Q1 2022 has also been very successful. The hotel is looking to double website revenue this year compared to last year, and we think combined with the current trend of Revenge Travel (making up for everything missed by Corona, i.e. traveling a lot) and the high demand for Iceland as a destination, this is realistic.
Marketing campaigns, now solidly in place, continue to be live, driving demand from the US and Europe to the website and converting it to direct bookings. In addition, we added Microsoft Ads campaigns live this year, which have contributed to the success. We have, of course, now paused the Google Ads campaigns on the “volcano” theme, but are still active with the brand campaigns and a wide range of generic campaigns. In addition, an analysis of the Google Analytics figures showed that the hotel also gets a lot of traffic directly from Iceland. Since then, we now also run Google Ads campaigns in Iceland directly, which turned out to be a big positive surprise as they convert extremely well. We couldn’t be happier about this successful collaboration with this beautiful boutique hotel, and remember, if you are in Iceland, check out Northern Light Inn!
Note: This success story was originally created under the brand myhotelshop. Following the acquisition by RateGain, myhotelshop is now offered as a product under the name Demand Booster. The insights and results shared in this case study reflect the performance of what is now known as Demand Booster.
Located just 1km from Iceland’s spectacular Blue Lagoon and 45 km from Reykjavik, the Northern Light Inn is a family-run boutique hotel with a spa area and restaurant. The hotel features 42 rooms, a bar open 24/7, free shuttles to the lagoon and an exclusive airport taxi to Keflavík International Airport, 22 km away.
The modern spa area offers saunas, solariums, Aurora floating, fitness services and wellness treatments. Icelandic cuisine, Nordic specialties and fine wines can be enjoyed in the Hotel’s restaurant while appreciating Reykjanes Penisula’s lava field views. Truly an unforgettable stay!
The Northern Light Inn began their collaboration with Myhotelshop to strengthen direct sales and gain a bit more independence from OTAs. At the same time, the hotel created a new website and switched to “SimpleBooking” booking engine based on our recommendation. We started consulting to optimize their website and booking engine and took the hotel live on our marketing placements, such as Google and Trivago. At the beginning of 2020, we saw our combined efforts start to bear fruit: in January and February 2020, we each saw a 30% increase in revenue compared to the same month the previous year.
As we all know, the global pandemic made life difficult for the industry; from March 2020 onwards, booking numbers plummeted dramatically and were reduced to a minimum. In March we paused all marketing campaigns, and as a gesture of goodwill we paused their entire contract from June 2020, to give the hotel some relief from fixed costs during this difficult time. The contract initially remained paused for a full 9 months, and due to the ongoing Corona pandemic the future looked uncertain.
On the 19th of March, 2021, the Fagradalsfjall volcano in Iceland erupted and this proved to be an absolute stroke of luck for the Northern Light Inn, as the active volcano became a massive tourism magnet. And not only is the Northern Light Inn close to the Blue Lagoon, it also happens to be the hotel in closest proximity to the volcano. The hotelier immediately communicated with us, and we reactivated all campaigns on the 24th of March. Demand was particularly high in the U.S. and in several European countries, so we activated meta-campaigns for all potentially relevant markets to ensure maximum visibility; we also focused heavily on Google Ads and took brand campaigns live. In close consultation with the hotelier, we also switched to generic Google Ads campaigns to reach users searching for hotels near the volcano. In addition, we ran generic Google Ads campaigns on the hotel and the region, as well as on tourist hotspots in the immediate vicinity of the hotel, e.g. the Blue Lagoon, Aurora Borealis/Northern Lights or even the airport. Due to the success of the campaigns, we brainstormed together with the hotel to gather more “experimental”, unusual keywords to generate even more visibility on Google. In addition, the hotel partnered with Sojern (a digital marketing platform for tour operators) to run campaigns on social media and the display network.
The website revenue had an insane growth rate of 217% from 2020 to 2021 and it was even 24% higher than in 2019. The overall marketing spend and myhotelshop management fee expense ratio was only 6.72%, much lower than the OTA commissions, resulting in the website being the most profitable sales channel. The share of the website on the overall online revenue in 2021 was 37.40%. Before our collaboration this number was only 18.22%. The hotel benefited from cost savings and greater profitability as a result of this shift. In addition, it turned out that the website’s cancellation rate was “only” 22%, compared to 47.50% of Booking.com, making direct bookings even more interesting for the hotel.
Although the volcano is now no longer active, the booking trend currently continues and Q1 2022 has also been very successful. The hotel is looking to double website revenue this year compared to last year, and we think combined with the current trend of Revenge Travel (making up for everything missed by Corona, i.e. traveling a lot) and the high demand for Iceland as a destination, this is realistic.
Marketing campaigns, now solidly in place, continue to be live, driving demand from the US and Europe to the website and converting it to direct bookings. In addition, we added Microsoft Ads campaigns live this year, which have contributed to the success. We have, of course, now paused the Google Ads campaigns on the “volcano” theme, but are still active with the brand campaigns and a wide range of generic campaigns. In addition, an analysis of the Google Analytics figures showed that the hotel also gets a lot of traffic directly from Iceland. Since then, we now also run Google Ads campaigns in Iceland directly, which turned out to be a big positive surprise as they convert extremely well. We couldn’t be happier about this successful collaboration with this beautiful boutique hotel, and remember, if you are in Iceland, check out Northern Light Inn!