Bahama Bay Resort and Spa

Background:

The Bahama Bay Resort and Spa is a 500 room “condo-tel” property located within one of the most competitive hotel markets in the world – Disney West. The property features 500 two and three-bedroom luxury condominium villas, a restaurant, lounge and spa and a variety of family-oriented amenities. The Bahama Bay Resort is managed by Integra Resorts Management. The company manages other Orlando and Daytona Beach properties and is a part of a larger holding company that includes Elite Island Vacations, managers of several Caribbean luxury resorts.

Challenge:

Our challenge for Bahama Bay Resort and Spa was to help the property migrate demand from more expensive distribution channels (3rd party merchant sites, GDS, etc.) to their proprietary Internet web site and SynXis booking. The net result would be a sharp decline in reservations acquisition costs from 30+% to 5-8%. Additionally the resort needed to increase both marketshare penetration and saturation within an environment of slumping demand from the resorts top feeder markets (UK, Ireland, Northeast and Southeast USA).

Strategy:

Through our hospitality focused division, Hospitality Performance Group (HPG), we created a strategy that included a re-design of their website to include improved usability and “convertibility”, increased usage of "Calls to Action" and site visitor interactivity. The entire web site was developed with organic search at the top-of-mind and a “click-path” that provides more fluid reservations activity. A “holistic” digital marketing program that includes pay-per-click, various social networking tactics and international search (South America, Europe) and a more nimble rate and inventory management process were created with the Bahama Bay Resort’s executive and reservations management staff.

Results:

The Bahama Bay Resort now consistently beats the market in both occupancy and rate. Penetration and saturation indices are both well above 110% and acquisition costs per reservation have decreased by almost 20%. Decreased demand from Europe has been replaced in large measure by increased South and Central American demand (largely through search) and the resort is exceeding budget in the most vital sales measurements. 11:1 Return On Investment.