How Brooklyn’s Original Boutique Hotel Uses Curacity to Amplify Its Marketing
With a marketing background at venerable media companies, including Dotdash Meredith, Hearst, and Time, Claire Rock brings an editorial lens to her position as marketing director at Wythe Hotel, the original boutique hotel in Brooklyn's famous Williamsburg neighborhood.
"Awareness with a small marketing budget is always a challenge," says Rock. "Even with a great PR agency, we're always looking for ways to align ourselves with reputable media brands and increase awareness and consideration for the hotel and Brooklyn."
Nurturing Potential Guests Towards Bookings
While Wythe Hotel has enjoyed robust media attention since opening in 2012 as a driving force in Brooklyn's ongoing transformation from an outer borough to a global destination, Rock knows the property needs frequent media coverage to succeed.
"It takes anywhere from eight to 12 impressions to convert a customer these days," notes Rock. "Even when our traditional PR efforts result in an article about Wythe Hotel in Travel + Leisure, for example, someone would need to read about the property several more times before they take action. One article isn't enough to compel them to book. Curacity's newsletters are an important means to get our name in front of that engaged audience, using channels we otherwise couldn't access."
Developing Robust Target Guest Profiles
Beyond valuable content placements, Curacity's proprietary insights into the behavior of media brand subscribers have illuminated new paths for Wythe Hotel.
"It's been interesting to see which newsletters have performed best for Wythe Hotel," Rock shares. "We were surprised to see how many clicks we got from Golfweek. It made us think about our audience and what else we could do to reach affluent customers who enjoy golfing."
Putting Data into Action
Most hotels are familiar with their lead time: the time between a customer booking their stay and arriving at the property. However, understanding the initial inspiration date is challenging, leaving a hotel's lead time data incomplete and only reflecting part of the journey.
Curacity's proprietary lead time data includes the initial content exposure date, helping hoteliers like Rock to illuminate the entire traveler journey: from inspiration to booking to check-in. This complete dataset is crucial to optimizing marketing and revenue management.
"We've noticed that the median time from engagement to reservation is less than 30 days, which lets us know that folks are making last-minute travel decisions," said Rock. "That has influenced our marketing strategy for need dates."
Driving Revenue with Promotions
Taking things a step further, Rock utilizes Curacity's proprietary data to understand how far in advance she needs to get her promotions in front of Wythe Hotel's potential guests.
"We strategically get our seasonal offers in front of Curacity at least 90 days in advance," notes Rock. "This summer, during July and August, which is traditionally a low-demand time for Brooklyn, Curacity newsletters drove 16 bookings for our Summer Getaway offer, contributing significantly to the nearly $100,000 in revenue that we generated from that package."
How Rock Describes Curacity to Other Hoteliers
"Curacity is a no-brainer."
While a believer in the results of brand-building, content-driven marketing, Rock also notes that "from a business standpoint, it's a channel for us to acquire new guests and hopefully retain them as guests who book directly. With OTAs, we're paying a commission on each booking, whether it's their first or 50th."
The cherry on top? "Curacity's customer success team understands our business and is super helpful in getting content in front of its media brand partners," Rock notes.
"I can't think of another solution that allows hotels to attract new first-time guests with a one-time commission. The Curacity platform helps us acquire the guests. Then it's up to us to deliver an exceptional experience and keep them returning."
