The pandemic brought the travel industry to a standstill and businesses scrambled to devise ideas to bring some revenue in while the doors were closed.
Step forward Hotel Treats, a company enabling consumers to purchase spa days and other hotel experiences as well well as vouchers.
Throughout the pandemic, the company helped hotel brands such as Hard Rock Hotels sell vouchers resulting in much needed revenue for properties.
How did you help Hard Rock (and others) in the pandemic
At the onset of the pandemic, Hard Rock Hotels, Fairmont and Kimpton realized they needed a completely new approach to save the year.
They used three different strategies to achieve this using the full power of ecommerce.
Hard Rock Hotels
in the Caribbean quickly understood that though tourists were too anxious to travel, they were not too anxious to prepay for stays. The marketing team approached
Hotel Treats
to have a branded ecommerce platform and online shop created for four of their properties.
The purpose was to sell open-dated accommodation packages with an extended 12 month validity. This reassured buyers and generated cash flow for the hotel when it was needed the most.
Fairmont
decided to shift attention from international tourists to local residents. Using an online shop created by Hotel Treats years ago, it started selling pool day passes, inviting locals to enjoy the grounds for a day. They turned out in force: over 2000 people paid to access the pool in the first 10 weeks of the summer.
Kimpton decided to capitalize on co-working spaces. It turned some of its rooms and shared spaces into quiet workspaces local residents were able to use, when struggling to focus while working from home. Again, access to those was sold via a branded online shop created by Hotel Treats.
What were the results?
The four Hard Rock properties in the Caribbean generated more than $1.5 million just in the first four months of opening the shop. Quite a cashflow boost at a time when very few regular bookings were coming in!
Fairmont sold 2,000 pool day passes in just 10 weeks, netting $60,000 immediately. But these customers went on to spend much, much more on drinks, lunches and massages while onsite.
What are the next steps?
We were in an extremely privileged position to offer hoteliers a ready-made yet highly customizable solution to a novel challenge no one was expecting.
Fuelled by their successes we are continuously investing in adding new functionalities to the platform to ensure it's perfectly aligned with the challenges ahead. And we are expanding to new territories.
What have been the learnings from the partnership?
Right from inception, Hotel Treats has been developed by working very closely with hoteliers. This was the only way to ensure the platform solves real-life problems and is as intuitive and flexible as possible. Learning opportunities abound!
The successes of the past year would not have been possible have we not had close relationships and the trust of our clients.
This included working through minute details of operations with F&B, revenue, front-of-house and other teams within hotels to learn all about their challenges and work out how to ultimately make their lives easier.
How can Hotel Treats cement what it achieved during the pandemic going forward?
It quickly became clear that while these strategies were emergency measures introduced to counteract COVID, they worked so well, they are here to stay.
Quite simply, once you realize the potential unleashed by selling hotel experiences, vouchers and merchandize online, you know the instant cash flow generated is too vast to pass up.
Our goal is to ensure the platform benefits as many hoteliers as quickly as possible. In March alone we have established presence in Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Singapore.