Marketing Case Studies

Explore some of our Homestay and Hotel internet marketing case studies below and contact us to receive a quote. We look forward to working with you to increase your revenue and occupancy!

Nandini Homestay Dehradun

The owner approached CCS Marketing Services as a first time Homestay owner! Having started his homestay in January 2019, Rajendra Singh had registered his homestay on Goibibo and Booking.com but was struggling to get bookings.

Through a contact, he approached CCS Marketing Services for help. He wanted someone who was familiar with the online booking process and the hospitality experience as this was a new career for him with no background in hospitality.

We started working with Nandini Homestay in April 2019 and started reviewing the information uploaded on Goibibo/MMT and Booking.com. We updated the content on both sites with more photographs as well as better content on the amenities and facilities available at the homestay. We also found the pricing and the meal plans to be wrongly updated on Booking.com and corrected the same. Since April 2019, Nandini Homestay has been averaging around 26 room nights a month. We also started listing the homestay on other OTA’s such as Homestay.com, Airbnb and Travelguru.com.

With the coronavirus affecting revenues and business for the first five months, we have been working with Rajendra to restart the homestay. In October 2020, Nandini Homestay recovered 76% of last year’s business and is expected to match last year’s bookings for November 2020.

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Nandini Homestay in Dehradun is a family-run budget homestay

The Neem Bed and Breakfast

The owner of The Neem Bed and Breakfast in New Delhi began the BnB in December 2017. Having retired from the hospitality industry after a long career, the owner decided to convert her family home into a Bed and Breakfast. She was very comfortable in terms of the operational aspects of running the property and the guest handling but did not have any understanding of how to market the property.

After running the Bed and Breakfast for a few months, she realized that word-of-mouth marketing and listing on OTA’s was not enough to grow the business. She contacted CCS Marketing Services to help with the marketing aspects of the Bed and Breakfast.

After reviewing the marketing and pricing strategies, we realized that she lacked a proper pricing strategy. While the Bed and Breakfast was being positioned as a luxury Bed and Breakfast, the online and offline rates did not reflect that. Prices would be dropped drastically during low occupancy and pushed up equally high during peak occupancies. This type of strategy confuses the target audience. The Bed and Breakfast had managed to attract a few regular guests who would stay regularly. They were given very low rates initially and they came to expect the same rate even after six months of operation. This is one of the drawbacks to not having a clear strategy.

We worked with The Neem for close to 9 months during which we were able to not just increase the room nights and revenues but increase the ARR as well. In the peak season from October to March, the BnB was able to sell rooms for as high as Rs. 7000 per night. CCS Marketing Services was also able to partner with Corporates for long stay bookings as well as Travel Agents for leisure business. In the first year of operations, The Neem achieved an occupancy of 62% with an ARR of over Rs. 3000.

After nearly a year of working with The Neem, the owner felt more confident about taking things forward on her own and appreciated the hand holding that we had done for her in the initial period.

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The Neem Bed and Breakfast in South Delhi is a luxury Bed and Breakfast accommodation

Hotel Pacific Dehradun

Hotel Pacific Dehradun is one of the oldest hotels in Dehradun. Having become operational in 2004, the location of the property ensured a steady stream of business for over 10 years. With no other major brand in the market, Pacific Dehradun enjoyed a near monopoly on the business and conferencing segments in the city.

The situation began to change from 2013 onwards. The opening of branded hotels like Lemon Tree, Four Points by Sheraton and Sarovar Portico quickly changed the market scenario. Branded hotels started shifting corporate business to their properties through better rates and services. While Pacific Dehradun had a presence on OTA’s, they did not understand the importance of the channel nor did they have a strategy.

In 2015, CCS Marketing Services approached Pacific Dehradun with a proposal to manage their online marketing functions. Having already lost more than 50% of the business to other hotels, Pacific Dehradun was willing to try out anything that would get their business back. They had hired a hotel marketing company from Delhi to target corporate business and they turned to CCS Marketing Services for online business through the OTA’s.

Pacific Dehradun was not listed on international sites such as Booking.com and Expedia. The pricing on the domestic OTA’s was also not correct as they were selling on rack rate, making it almost impossible to get bookings. The content on the OTA’s was outdated as was the hotel website.

As a first step, CCS Marketing Services updated the content on all OTA’s. New photographs were requested from the hotel and the same were uploaded on all OTA’s. Registration on other OTA’s and review sites was also carried out to ensure proper visibility for the property. A rate strategy was devised and implemented for the property.

It did not take long for the results to start showing. In just six months, there was an 80% growth in online bookings. The owners of Pacific Dehradun now understood the importance of the online segment for their growth. In the first full year of operations, online bookings grew by 55% over the previous year. The steady growth in bookings continued till 2019.

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Hotel Pacific Mussoorie

Hotel Pacific Mussoorie was launched in June 2016. Having been involved in the marketing of the property from the beginning, CCS Marketing Services undertook the exercise of listing the property on all OTA's along with the pricing strategy.

As the hotel opened towards the end of the peak summer season, we used this opportunity to generate visibility for the hotel and prepare for the upcoming season.

The business in the first year was low since we had missed out on the summer season. From the second year onwards, business picked up very well, with online bookings making up from 5-15% of the total room business. Till Covid-19 hit last year, the hotel was one of the top selling properties on MakeMyTrip.

Covid-19 has badly impacted the hotel business but we expect to return to the 2019 levels by next year.

Hotel Pacific in Mussoorie on Camel's Back Road

Nishantam by Tranquille Experiential Living Mussoorie

Nishantam Mussoorie is a heritage property which was renovated in 2021 and converted into a homestay. Tranquille Experiential Living, a homestay management company, took on the management of the homestay and partnered with CCS Marketing Services to handle the OTA Management functions.

After listing the property on all OTA's, we planned out the pricing strategy. Over the course of the year, we were able to grow the online business substantially through proper pricing strategies and promotions.

The location of the property near the Mall Road made it an attractive destination for the guests.

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