Sarovar sees 500% growth in revenue from direct bookings

Inde Hotels & Resorts leverages Simplotel to hit 11% of its total occupancy in direct bookings

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Direct Website Bookings Now Account for 13% of Total Room Revenue, Reflecting a Higher ADR for Such Bookings.

Most of us do not take the road less traveled. But then you have Sarovar Hotels and Resorts who did, and they became trailblazers in the Indian hospitality industry.

Sarovar operates 96 hotels across 55 destinations worldwide. One of the leading hotel chains in India, Sarovar was founded by Anil Madhok (Executive Chairman) and Ajay Bakaya (Managing Director) nearly a quarter of a century ago. Sarovar Hotels was the first mover in India to adopt the asset-light model, where it manages and services other hotel properties through strategic alliances with other chains.

Sarovar started operations when it took franchises of Park Plaza and Park Inn brands for India. A decade later (circa 2005), Sarovar began promoting its own brands: Portico, Hometel and Premiere. Fast-forward to another decade and the Louvre Hotels Group, one of Europe’s leading hospitality brands, purchased a stake in Sarovar in 2017. Another milestone in this impressive growth story.

Inde Hotels & Resorts is a hospitality chain spread across the Indian states of Haryana and Rajasthan. Its portfolio consists of independent, boutique, and heritage hotels.

Challenges:
The hospitality chain was founded in 2018. They currently operate 10 hotels across Gurugram, Jodhpur, Jaipur and Udaipur. Although Inde Hotels & Resorts generated 65% of their occupancy through various online channels, their direct website bookings were minuscule. They were looking to generate substantial room nights and revenue through their brand website.

Main concerns:

Bookings from the brand website were negligible
The booking engine was not conversion-focussed

Simplotel Hotel E-commerce Solution:
Inde Hotels & Resorts onboarded Simplotel Hotel E-commerce (Simplotel Hotel Website Builder & Simplotel Booking Engine). Within three months, their direct bookings across all properties hit 11% of their total occupancy.

The view of a room at Inde Hotel Golf Course Extension

Meggh Vinayak, Director of Revenue at Inde Hotels & Resorts, said, “Some of our team members have worked with Simplotel before. We knew Simplotel was the right solution to drive direct bookings for a hotel chain like us. For me personally, two features stand out. One is the scorecard that Simplotel provides. The data is insightful and helps us to devise rate-plan strategies for each property, get insights on length of stay & advance purchase patterns, et al. The second feature is the booking engine which is powerful and user-friendly. We are able to create bespoke offers on the go.

Shatabdi Dutta, General Manager (Marketing) at Sarovar, believes that Simplotel’s USP is its digital marketing service. “Simplotel helped us rank in terms of traffic generation across online channels and drive conversions. We received great technical support from the team, which we lacked earlier. The website design is great and user friendly. We have received positive feedback from guests that the booking journey does not take much time, is hassle free, and most importantly, the mobile site is responsive!”

Other benefits after onboarding Simplotel:
Direct bookings have a higher average daily rate (ADR). With Simplotel, direct bookings now account for 13% of total room revenue. Overall website traffic has also jumped by 50% within three months of onboarding. Simplotel’s option to integrate with the best-in-class third-party channel managers helped Inde Hotels & Resorts implement dynamic pricing strategies across all channels and boost their overall online revenue.

"We love working with Simplotel as they always highlight opportunities on how we can drive more direct business. All our queries, for instance, curation of promotions on the website or updation of content, are resolved within the given deadlines. They are like a partner and handle all our e-commerce requirements. We feel empowered with Simplotel’s direct-booking technology and see potential in growing our direct room nights with them,” said Vinayak.

Within a year of onboarding Simplotel, Sarovar had hit over 3x growth in revenue from direct bookings. In another year, this growth doubled to 6x since it went live with Simplotel. “We were able to use Simplotel’s technology to begin promotions and campaigns that gave us a major boost”, says Khan. The average monthly organic traffic also nearly doubled for The Louvre Hotels-backed hospitality chain. However, this was only possible as Sarovar had managed to put their vision into action and achieve the almost impossible in such a short span of time.

On personal learnings from the COVID-19 pandemic, both Khan and Dutta agree that they have learned to live life more passionately and prioritize family. On the professional front, they have learned to think out of the box to jumpstart Sarovar’s operations and forge deeper connections with their partners.