How Room Republic recovers up to 23% of guest details from OTAs and increases direct bookings

MARKETING

Room Republic was looking for ways to digitalise its hotel operations. After the implementation of Bookboost's Multi-Channel CRM, they were able to recover up to 23% of guest details from OTAs and create their own guest journeys. In addition, since they started operating, they have managed to increase 55% of their direct bookings.

Why it matters: Guest data is essential to personalise the guest journey. Room Republic is an ideal example of how to retrieve and utilise guest data to grow guest relationships and guest loyalty.

First, they enriched their guest profiles with OTA data, treating guests in a more personal way and make them happy to build stronger relationships. Second, they switched from different platforms to one unified solution to digitalise and personalise their guest journey. Using the Bookboost's platform they can now easily control the customer journey, the frequency of the messages, and plan what touchpoints guests will receive and deploy them on each property with little effort. Lastly, they automated their workflows to help their staff to be more efficient. With the communication campaign builder in the Bookboost CRM, they can drag and drop, and personalise templates that can be saved across properties.

Top 3 Core Objectives: The main challenge for team at Room Republic was to reduce their dependency on OTAs and digitalise their operations.

Increase Direct Bookings: They wanted to reduce their dependency on third parties and optimise the conversion rate through their own channels. They also wanted to connect with their guests directly and create their own guest journey.
Use a Multi-Property Solution: They were looking for a centralised solution that could be useful for a multi-property approach, that could help them to get an overview of the whole group but also to easily keep track of each property.
Digitalise Workflows & Operations: One of their main objectives was to become more digitalised and find efficient digital solutions to their processes. They wanted to enhance their knowledge and usage of digital tools for hotels.

Innovators Mentioned

Room Republic

Bookboost AB

Oliver Bermhagen

Marketing Manager

Room Republic

"Bookboost saves us a lot of time. It’s easy to use, easy to schedule and you can make email templates. So you can automate different workflows that in other ways you would spend more time on. Since we started, our direct bookings have grown by around 55% and we know Bookboost is one of the factors that have helped to achieve this result."

Oliver Bermhagen

Marketing Manager

👍 Marketing Manager Oliver Bermhagen said that The value of data is one of the main benefits of Bookboost.:

"Bookboost saves us a lot of time. It’s easy to use, easy to schedule and you can make email templates. So you can automate different workflows that in other ways you would spend more time on. Since we started, our direct bookings have grown by around 55% and we know Bookboost is one of the factors that have helped to achieve this result."

⚖️ The selection process: During their research process, Oliver Bermhagen evaluated Bookboost AB's product differentiators, customer support, and holistic value as a strategic partner and ultimately decided that Bookboost AB was the best fit solution:

Marketing Manager Oliver Bermhagen said, about their decision: "Now we have a way of connecting with our friends. Through the OTAs we can’t control the customer journey but now through Bookboost CRM we can build a relationship and control the guest journey in our own channels. We couldn’t find any other solution that was built like this."

📈 The results: Since implementing Bookboost, the brand has reached up to 23% conversion rate of OTA bookers and saw an increase of 55% in direct bookings.

Built their own database: Having a high OTA dependence, it was very difficult for the team to grow guest loyalty because they didn’t have access to the customer’s data. However, by working with Bookboost CRM and the OTA Data Enrichment, Room Republic has been able to address this issue and create its own database, gaining direct access to guests.
Build guest relationships: Once they retrieved their guests’ details, they were able to engage with them in a more personal and direct manner. This has helped them to provide better customer service and stay fresh in the mind of their guests.
Easy and consistent communication: They went from using several platforms (for contacts, design, emailing) to using only one: Bookboost. They save time by using templates that can be shared across properties and now they have higher email frequency. Always sharing relevant content by using the segmentation functionality.