Eldan Hotel

The Challenge

Travelers who fork out to stay at a four star hotel nowadays expect a free WiFi connection, regardless of whether they are staying for business or pleasure. The owners of the Eldan Hotel were aware of this and knew they needed to start offering a connectivity solution without charges, however, they also wanted to see some sort of return from their investment.

Above all, the hotel was keen to explore methods of increasing the amount of reviews they receive from paying guests. Review sites like TripAdvisor are highly influential in terms of attracting new guests and the hotelier wanted to engage with customers both during and post stay. Encouraging people to leave reviews via email wasn’t a possibility due to staff time constraints, size of the hotel estate and lack of client data.

Installation

Boot Net Ltd, specialists in IT, communications and AV solutions for the hospitality industry, already had an existing relationship with the owners of the Eldan Hotel and recommended that they explore the capabilities of Purple’s cloud based product. A detailed proposition was developed by Boot Net Ltd, which evidenced how the hotel could see a return on investment by selecting Purple’s WiFi and analytics, compared to a standard connectivity package.

Through the use of Purple, they would not only be able to offer an in-demand, seamless WiFi service to guests, but they would also be able to collect data about every individual that accesses the WiFi via a short form or social media. Although these benefits were of interest to the hotelier, the real deal breaker was the newly introduced TripAdvisor connector.

Purple’s solution went live in mid-January and enables guests to login to the WiFi via a fully branded splash page, both in public areas of the hotel and across all 76 rooms.

Key Results

Free guest WiFi is now a service that Eldan hotel openly promotes on their company website and travel sites, adding to the list of key features and amenities already available to guests.

In just the first month, the hotel has had almost 1000 people log into the WiFi, with the number of users increasing by up to 50% week on week. The average guest accesses the WiFi for over 5 hours per a day, highlighting that people are using their mobile devices or laptops for 22% of their stay.

So far, the feedback from guests has been positive and thanks to the TripAdvisor connector, which went live in February 2017, they are now leaving more reviews than ever before. When you compare the number of reviews collected in January to February there is a 218% increase. Every review which is collected via the TripAdvisor connector can be easily identified on the site as they are clearly labeled with ‘Review collected in partnership with this hotel’.

Marketing

When a visitor logins into the WiFi, their details are captured in the Purple Portal and exported into the hotel’s existing customer database. The business is looking to distribute e-shots to try and encourage repeat bookings. Securing more direct bookings is something that the firm is focusing on as they currently receive a high percentage of bookings through external OTAs.

By using Purple, the Eldan Hotel can now identify where more of their guests are from. Visitors in the last month include Israel, Argentina, Vietnam, America and the UK. By having this type of information, they can now develop targeted messaging to suit different audiences and languages.

Finally, the firm plans to become more digitally active and is in the process of creating a new Facebook page for the hotel. Once this has been launched, the ‘Ask for a Facebook like’ functionality will be launched to increase interaction with the hotel brand on social media.

Robby Leon, CEO & Founder of Boot Net Ltd, said: “Boutique hotels are a great market for Purple as they often have minimal overheads and limited time to collate customer data and distribute emails to guests. With Purple, businesses like the Eldan Hotel can get data collected automatically from those accessing the WiFi and messages are automatically sent to ask for reviews. I know that the TripAdvisor connector was the key feature that won the deal with Eldan Hotel and it will be a big hit with other clients in the hospitality sector.”