How Zoku's high level of guest engagement throughout the year translates to direct bookings

Hospitality Net

07-05-2025

The brand
With properties in Amsterdam, Vienna, Copenhagen, and Paris, Zoku is redefining the business hotel experience by offering a unique, home-like environment for long-stay travelers, who typically stay at least 14 nights. Zoku offers a relaxed place to live, co-work, meet, and socialize, making guests feel part of the local scene.
The challenge
Three years ago, the Zoku Marketing team recognized the need for a more effective guest email marketing solution to combat OTAs' stronghold on travelers. To drive more direct bookings, they needed to create meaningful touchpoints with guests before, during, and after their stay. However, their current tool fell short, hindering the small marketing team's ability to scale marketing efforts as the portfolio grew from one property to four. They understood that automation, guest segmentation, and campaign reporting were crucial to transitioning from ad-hoc campaigns to a strategic approach. Additionally, with stringent brand guidelines, they required a solution that would enable them to execute campaigns effectively while ensuring brand compliance.
The solution
Zoku selected to partner with Revinate, and three years later, the team is still thrilled with the decision. The team had used Revinate in the past. Still, after working with another CRM vendor that didn't specialize in hospitality, they came back, realizing just how critical specialization is, primarily to ensure integration with hotel systems. With the PMS integrated with Revinate Marketing, the team can target specific guest segments for promotional offers and create automated campaigns that trigger immediately. For example, before guests check in, a pre-arrival upsells campaign, or a post-check-in email by room type, lays out some of the rooftop amenities and community events, ensuring that guests know what to expect when they arrive.
Zoku's automated guest campaigns see open rates of 59%, on par with the region's averages for automated campaigns sent through Revinate Marketing. The group has more than six automated campaigns that are always running and generating revenue, but two campaign types really stand out: the pre-arrival and 'we miss you' emails.
The pre-arrival email is sent automatically prior to check-in, and at the recommendation of Zoku's Customer Success Manager at Revinate, the campaign has two touchpoints and includes a room upgrade and an upsell offer for daily breakfast. Because the campaign is sent at just the right time in the traveler's journey, it is a significant revenue driver for the brand. 'We miss you' campaigns, which drive past guests to book directly with the hotel, are automated to send two days after check-out and again 365 days post-check-out. These campaign types have driven additional direct revenue that might otherwise have gone to OTAs and filled more than 2,500 room nights across the properties. These campaigns have proved essential, ensuring that past guests book direct on their next stay.
Automated and one-time campaigns are easy to create and send, which is important since the marketing team is lean, just three people. On-brand templates can be quickly customized for each campaign type, which allows the team to adhere to their custom and unique branding guidelines.
Revinate Marketing's detailed campaign reporting has also been instrumental in helping the Zoku team understand not only its campaign results and what drives revenue, but also its guests. Click tracking in Revinate Marketing allows the marketing team to see what guests care about in their emails and where they should focus their efforts.
The group uses Revinate Guest Feedback across the portfolio, which allows them to manage online reviews from within the solution and send out in-stay and post-stay surveys to collect guest feedback. Zoku proactively responds to all reviews, following Revinate's best practices, and outperforms its competitors in the number of reviews collected. This solution arms the Concept & Brand Director with data to inform her strategy for the coming months and years. Guest feedback collected has influenced decisions around guest experience, long-stay benefits, and restaurant menu changes.
The results
With Revinate Marketing's automated campaigns, upsell revenue across the group is up over 300% year-over-year. In addition, the hotels are able to gain market share from OTAs by maintaining a high level of guest engagement, even when guests are not on property, which translates to direct bookings.
'Despite having a small marketing team, we are able to make a big impact on revenue thanks to Revinate's incredible automation features.' - Poly Bhatt, Marketing & Communications Lead
Performance highlights include:
300% growth in upsell revenue year-over-year
Average revenue per one-time campaign: €7,595
Average revenue per automated campaign: €11,500
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