Latest news with #SheilaJohnson
Hospitality Net
13-05-2025
- Business
- Hospitality Net
Personalized excellence: How Salamander Collection achieved $45M in direct revenue
The brand Founded by entrepreneur Sheila Johnson, Salamander Collection has a luxury portfolio with many awe-inspiring hotels: the Forbes Triple Five-Star Salamander Middleburg, an equestrian-themed property in the Virginia countryside; Salamander Washington DC, an elegant hotel located along the capital's vibrant Southwest waterfront; Half Moon, the storied resort in Montego Bay, Jamaica; Aspen Meadows Resort, with its sweeping 40 beautiful acres in Aspen, CO's west end; Hotel Bennett, a spectacular grand hotel overlooking the city's historic Marion Square in Charleston, South Carolina; and Innisbrook Resort in the St. Petersburg/Clearwater area, which hosts the PGA TOUR's Valspar Championship each year on its famed Copperhead Course. The challenge The Salamander Collection had plenty of guest data — but it was siloed in different software solutions with different functions across their portfolio. Without a centralized guest database and accessible reporting, teams couldn't make use of their data to improve the guest experience, drive revenue, or even analyze the effectiveness of their marketing efforts. They sought a comprehensive solution to streamline operations, drive revenue growth, improve reporting, and elevate guest satisfaction across all touchpoints. In particular, the reservation teams needed a platform to help with agent training, improve productivity, and track success. Alexandra Jonker, Director of Reservations at Salamander Middleburg, explains, 'We needed a solution that would let us record and access calls for training to improve quality and a better way to report revenue generated by the reservations department.' The marketing team also needed a solution for creating personalized email campaigns. Vice President of Marketing, Liz Longo Martin, summarized Salamander Collection's challenge succinctly, saying, 'It felt like you needed a degree from MIT to build a list or an email with our previous email solution. It was old and clunky.' Their former CRM posed a steep learning curve and lacked essential features that were vital for the team's operations, including streamlined parent-child account setup, robust segmentation tools, and precise revenue reporting. The solution Salamander Collection already used Revinate Guest Feedback and were happy with the service, solution, and innovation. They saw that staying with the Revinate brand would have benefits from a usability and data standpoint. They added Reservation Sales and Revinate Marketing to their tech stack, excited by the prospect of having a single view of guest data to use both on the phones and for marketing campaigns. And with the help of RezForce, Salamander Collection took its call center operations to the next level, allowing RezForce agents to manage overflow and after-hour reservations. The reservations team is finding much success with Reservation Sales. Agents are experiencing unprecedented productivity, empowered by features that help them efficiently follow up on abandoned bookings, initiate outbound calls to previous visitors, and more. With the solution, the team can easily access guest profiles when on the phone to personalize their conversations or add notes that will be helpful for other teams when the guest is on property. Lexi Rumley, Reservations Supervisor at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, says, 'Reservation Sales allows us to set goals for our agents and easily access reports to track their success. Training can then be tailored based on the results.' Liz explains, 'Having that single guest profile is incredibly powerful. Our Reservations team uses it on their calls to ensure they provide a personalized touch. It fuels all our guest engagement. The fact that all systems talk to each other means our data is always clean, up to date, and actionable.' And this data is powerful for both the Reservations team and Marketing team. When it comes to guest engagement through email marketing, both the corporate office and the individual properties leverage Revinate Marketing. The reservations team uses it to send automated transactional emails, and Corporate Marketing Specialist Annie Heffernan uses the solution for lifecycle campaigns and corporate emails. Thanks to the effortless creation of on-brand templates, every email crafted reflects the distinct personality of each property while resonating with the corporate brand. Revinate Marketing's segmentation capabilities power personalized email campaigns. For example, a Family/Spring Break campaign (featured right) was created exclusively for past guests, and cross-promoted the email had a 39% open rate and drove 969 room nights and $570K in direct room revenue. Automation features in Revinate Marketing allow Salamander Collection to scale its marketing efforts. 'We Miss You' campaigns sent to lapsed guests are effective at getting guests to return. To date, the campaign has driven more than $100K with a 63% open rate and 4% click-through rate. And an automated qualification email for Half Moon Resort's E-club has driven $225K in direct room revenue, with a 75% open rate and 21% click-through rate. 'With Revinate, we finally have a single, full-service, enterprise-class solution that drives real results" - Liz Longo Martin, Vice President of Marketing, Salamander Collection The results With Revinate Marketing, the team finally has the easy-to-use marketing platform they longed for. With real-time reporting that's both easy to access and interpret, Liz ensures email performance reports are shared to drive a continuous improvement and learning culture. And with Reservation Sales, the reservations team has grown revenue month over month. With reporting now easily accessible, there's a friendly competition among the agents to exceed goals. Lexi explains, 'We have a competitive team and love to do monthly competitions to see who can book the most outbound revenue. With Reservation Sales, agents can see how much outbound revenue they have booked and compare and talk with other agents to see what they may be doing differently to improve.' Performance highlights include: Lifetime room revenue: $45M via the email channel Average room revenue: $34K per campaign Outbound revenue growth: 270% improvement from March to April 2024 About Revinate Revinate is a direct booking platform that leads the hospitality industry in driving direct revenue and increased profitability. Our products and our people combine to give hoteliers the superpowers they need to crush their goals. With Revinate, hoteliers shift share away from OTAs and drive tangible results across an individual property or a portfolio. Our industry-leading, AI-powered customer data platform collects, unifies, and synthesizes data to give hoteliers a foundational advantage. Hoteliers gain critical intelligence — guest lifetime spend, stay preferences, ancillary revenue, and more. With Revinate's Rich Guest Profiles™ data, hoteliers don't need to guess who their most profitable guests are or struggle to drive conversions across email, voice, messaging, and digital channels. Revinate's direct booking platform and omnichannel communication technology powers 950+ million Rich Guest Profiles across 12,500+ hotels to drive over $17.2 billion in direct revenue. View source
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How To Get R&R in D.C.
These days (and, to some extent, always), D.C. is a hotbed of political machinations. For the rest of the country, it's possible to take breaks from the relentless news cycle, avoiding social media and various TV outlets. But here, Washingtonians are in the thick of it all the time. That's part of what makes the new Salamander Hotel such a welcome reprieve. Since first opening its doors in the city's lesser-known Southwest waterfront neighborhood in September 2022, within strolling distance via a special path to the new elaborate Wharf development, this 373-room property has become an upscale escape from the everyday. Housed in what was once a Mandarin Oriental property, the Salamander has been gradually face-lifted to refresh, but also shift, the vibe and aesthetic to something warmer and more inviting. 'It was important that guests felt like they were walking into someone's home rather than just a hotel,' says Manuel Martinez, the hotel's managing director. 'So, we went for a brighter, more residential-like design and moved away from the dark tones [and] dim lighting.' Some travelers may be better acquainted with the original Salamander property, also owned by Sheila Johnson, a DMV (or D.C., Maryland and Virginia area) fixture and businesswoman who co-founded TV network BET. Located in Middleburg, Virginia, that five-star resort has a more bucolic feel, unique for its 25 acres dedicated to equestrian activities. In contrast, this newer hotel is decidedly citified. And yet the overall feel is meant to evoke a similar homeyness. 'We started by transforming the lobby into an inviting living room, adding soothing hues of whites and soft blues…creating a place for guests to gather around,' describes Martinez. A similar color scheme abounds in the hotel's new suites with details like giant tubs, twin sinks and products by boutique Provençal brand, Mistral. Though perhaps subtle, the nods to horses still abound, from a bas-relief artwork behind the front desk to a horse-shoe-shaped bar in the reimagined lounge (where an elaborate afternoon high tea has become a major draw). Also new, West African restaurant, Dōgon, just opened in September 2024. Helmed by chef Kwame Onwuachi, the eatery has quickly become one of the most elusive reservations in the city. In addition, the hotel is about to unveil their brand new Monument Club, an amenity-packed exclusive offering in a swanky but comfortable two-story space, decked out in tranquil creams and blues. But it's the brand new spa—the only dual-level one in the district—that pulls the most focus. Since opening its doors in November 2024, locals and visitors have been flocking here for services that aren't offered elsewhere in town. Guests are welcomed into a stark white space with a thoughtfully curated shop, offering up products from Ignae's plant-based complexes to Knesko's detox kits. Next, they're escorted downstairs to a changing area and relaxation lounge, where a sauna, steam and hot tub await. The hotel has considered all the details here: robes are extra plush and refreshments include requisite spa water, naturally, but also individual packets of dried tropical fruits and cookies. The treatment menu includes local specialities like a Cherry Blossom Ritual, new-fangled wellness offerings like Sound Bowl Therapy and zeitgeist-y options like the Sweet Dreams CBD Massage. But, truly, a simple Signature Massage is also heaven here (especially if you request Stella!). Here, on a heavenly heated massage table, you can truly escape the stresses of the world—if only for a moment.
