Revinate
Revinate
Customer stories

Unlocking guest loyalty: Daniel Thwaites’ data-driven marketing revolution

HOTEL TYPE: Group

SOLUTIONS USED: Revinate Marketing, Revinate Guest Feedback

REGION: EMEA

Goal

Drive guest loyalty.

Strategy

Leverage data to surprise and delight guests.

Results

£7M in lifetime revenue.

Lindsay Armstrong, CRM Manager, Daniel Thwaites

Meet the customer

“Revinate’s tools and support are brilliant. So many hotels use the platform globally, and Revinate does a great job sharing best practices. I’m always learning new ways to improve guest engagement.”

Lindsay Armstrong
CRM Manager, Daniel Thwaites

Email marketing campaign from Daniel ThwaitesThe brand

Daniel Thwaites is a UK hospitality company with hotels, conference venues, inns, spas, lodges, and pubs. For over 215 years, it has put customers at the heart of everything it does, recognizing that small details make a big difference to the guest experience. The company operates two distinct collectives: Thwaites Pubs and Brewery, which the company is most well known for, and luxury Hotels and Inns, composed of carefully selected properties across the United Kingdom from Penrith to Southampton, which are all dog-friendly, unique in style, and located in truly amazing locations.

The challenge

The senior leadership team at Daniel Thwaites recently doubled their commitment to improving their Net Promoter Score (NPS). They recognized that hospitality meant nothing if guests were not willing to recommend the brand to their families and friends. However, providing excellent customer experiences at scale required access to guest data. This posed a challenge to the marketing team and personnel across the 23 managed hotels and inns. While there was a data management system in place, staff were required to manually merge data from different systems, export lists, and manipulate data to get any use from it. This time-consuming and resource-intensive process made it difficult for staff to identify loyal guests or personalize communications effectively.

The solution

To tackle these challenges, Daniel Thwaites brought on Revinate Marketing and a CRM manager, Lindsay Armstrong, to oversee their email marketing campaigns. A newcomer to hotel marketing, she wasn’t familiar with Revinate as a hospitality-specific solution, but when she asked other hoteliers about it, the feedback was universally positive. She quickly understood how Revinate could help execute the brand’s priorities, which include driving guest loyalty and promoting cross-property bookings.

With Revinate Marketing at her disposal, Lindsay now executes targeted campaigns with precision and efficiency. Rather than relying on generic blanket campaigns, she carefully personalizes messages for each guest, fostering a more meaningful and impactful engagement strategy that drives loyalty.

Using the solutions segmentation tools, Lindsay targets specific groups of guests. She promotes local events and spa specials to local guests who live within driving distance. Meanwhile, guests traveling from afar are offered seasonal promotions to encourage them to book a stay. For example, a spring break drip campaign (featured right) for The Beverley Arms drove 169 room nights (£25K in revenue) with a 54% open rate and 4% click-through rate.

In addition to one-time promotions, the team leverages powerful features in Revinate Marketing to execute automated lifecycle marketing campaigns. These recurring campaigns include:

  • Pre-arrival emails to provide details about the stay and suggest potential upgrades at just the right moment.
  • Automated OTA winback campaigns to encourage OTA bookers to share their contact information with Daniel Thwaites so the properties can market to guests directly to capture a direct booking on their next stay.
  • We miss you campaigns, segmented by geo location and NPS, to cross-promote properties to encourage exploration across the portfolio.
  • Cancellation recovery campaigns to encourage guests with canceled bookings to rebook their stay at another time.
  • Double opt-in emails to increase guest interest and comply with regulation.

Given the high engagement rate of automated campaigns, which occur at just the right moment in the traveler’s journey, these emails are highly effective. For example, an automated double opt-in email campaign for Solent Hotel & Spa drove £29.6K in direct revenue thanks to an incredible 71% open rate and 31% click-through rate.

The team is thrilled with the revenue-driving capabilities of Revinate Marketing, and they are equally excited about how it powers the brand’s loyalty program. With Revinate’s loyalty tiers and arrivals reporting, repeat guests are easily identified up to five days before arrival. Staff can quickly see how often they have stayed with the brand and are empowered to “surprise and delight” guests upon check-in with in-hotel perks chosen by the property based on their loyalty tier.

The “surprise and delight” program is far more flexible compared to a traditional points-based loyalty program. It does not require the same level of management, since guests don’t need to sign up for a cumbersome points-based membership. Instead, their stay history is visible to staff in Revinate Marketing. Best of all, guests aren’t even aware that there’s a loyalty program so they are truly surprised and delighted, which drives goodwill and loyalty.

Ultimately, the program aims to cultivate exceptional guest experiences, fostering positive reviews and feedback on social media platforms. This virtuous cycle then attracts new guests, driving visitation and further enhancing the establishment’s reputation. And it works. A March 2024 TripAdvisor review for one of the properties reads, “Perfect stay – Excellent service, quality and location. Had a room upgrade, which was a lovely surprise. Left a great feeling of a perfect night away. Some excellent, nice touches. Cozy, quiet and relaxing. Parking easy and breakfast, included, was first class.”

The results

Before Revinate Marketing, there was no means to link marketing initiatives directly to revenue or gauge the influence of loyal patrons. However, with Revinate, teams can seamlessly assess the efficacy of their efforts, refine strategies for optimal performance, and acknowledge and incentivize loyalty among guests. Lindsay says, “Revinate is so much more than a marketing tool. It helps us leverage data to make strategic business decisions.”

With Revinate, Daniel Thwaites has achieved:

  • Lifetime revenue: £7M
  • Email health: 63%
  • Average open rate on email campaigns: 43%
  • Average click-through rate on email campaigns: 4%
  • Net Promoter Score: 5.8% increase YoY
  • A well-built “surprise and delight” loyalty program

More customer stories

Insights that drive results. Subscribe now to get all the latest content.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. View our Terms & Conditions here. *Required fields.

Name(Required)
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.