Premier Inn has revealed it achieved record incremental sales towards the end of last year, following a focused search strategy being implemented with digital performance marketing specialists Found (previously known as Artemis8).
In November alone, the UK’s largest hotel chain saw £1m in additional bookings generated by the new premierinnhotels.co.uk hotel finder site, which was launched to complement Premier Inn’s own site and give users another option for locating and booking their hotel choice.
Martin Smith, e-commerce manager for Premier Inn, says: “We operate in a very competitive, crowded market so the aim was to not only protect the brand online, but also provide visitors with a unique booking experience. Tapping into the innovation and technological delivery of the Found team, the strategy centred around building a site which offered something a little different, answering a specific need for quick and easy information on our hotels, with route information to them. The result has been record incremental sales, but also multi-messaging opportunities for the Premier Inn brand during a key booking period.”
The site was developed by Found, as part of Premier Inn’s ongoing relationship with Starcom MediaVest Group and buy.at. Tina Judic, managing director of Found, adds: “There is always the risk of simply taking sales that would have gone to the brand direct, but the strategy was built to ensure we actually contributed to revenue as well as protected the brand online. With the site now firmly established, we are looking at how we can broaden the strategy to encompass more generic activity.”
Premierinnhotels.co.uk offers travellers easy access to location and route information for all of the 580 plus Premier Inn hotels across the UK. Built around a simple map and route concept, it is aimed at assisting business travellers and those planning a long journey with details about the possible Premier Inn hotels they could use along their journey. Information is then provided for each hotel selected, including price of accommodation, address details, directions as well as a booking link through to the main Premier Inn site.
