Revinate

Karen Stephens

Chief Marketing Officer

Karen Stephens drives long-term growth by building Revinate’s brand equity, product marketing, and customer acquisition strategies. With more than 25 years of expertise in global hospitality technology and online distribution, her deep connections with hospitality industry leaders play a key role in crafting strategic partnerships. She is also the host of The Hotel Moment Podcast, where she interviews top players in the hospitality industry.

It all starts with the end in mind. By identifying your goals for guest engagement and revenue, it becomes easier to map the journey that brings it to life.

If you could give one piece of advice to hoteliers looking to drive more direct bookings, what would it be?

Get all of your siloed guest data into one place! That means PMS data, ancillary data — all of it! Not only will that help you better personalize your marketing and guest communications today, but it will also future-proof you for AI applications in the future. AI doesn’t do silos!

What's the most creative way you've seen a hotel use guest messaging or email marketing?

Honestly it would be really, really hard for me to pick just one! Our customers are so creative and so thoughtful with the way they leverage our technology to drive great results. Luckily, our own marketing team does a fantastic job of showcasing several examples of inspirational campaigns on our website. You can find them all on our Inspirations page.

If you were a hotel amenity, what would you be and why?

If I were a hotel amenity, I would be a complimentary wine hour in the hotel lobby. Kimpton Hotels started this trend years ago, and it is such a great way to socialize, relax, and even meet fellow travelers. My “why” is easy: I’m social, love to travel, and never turn down a nice glass of red!

Featured articles

5 tips to drive direct bookings

Announcement: Revinate Ivy & Revinate Chat Ivy has a new job and is now the intelligence layer present across all Revinate products. Revinate Chat is our new product built on modern web-based technology. It’s fully integrated with the CDP for context-aware personalization. It replaces SMS/WhatsApp-based Ivy messaging. Driving direct booking is the name of the game.  But how do you circumvent those pesky OTA's and drive revenue directly to your hotel? We're going to look [...]

By |March 24, 2022|Categories: Blog|Tags: |

How hotels can succeed in the changing world of metasearch

Metasearch is a tool that many potential guests use to research their trips and most look at many sites before they book. It’s a way for potential guests to see your hotel compared to others and make an informed choice of where to book. It’s also a great way to attract first-time stays, bringing them into the CRM so you can market to them directly in the future. You can’t afford not to be represented. [...]