For many years, New Orleans & Company has invited local hotels, inns, and B&Bs to share seasonal specials for the holidays, where they eagerly await the arrival of Cajun Santa Claus, “Papa Noël.” Traditionally, these offers lived on a static “Deals” page of NewOrleans.com. While helpful for travelers, this approach pushed users off the website to complete their booking, limiting visibility of the performance and revenue impact of this promotion.
In 2025, New Orleans & Company partnered with Ripe to reimagine Papa Noël as a collaborative, on-platform initiative—bringing lodging partners together in a shared booking experience while strengthening the DMO’s role as a connector and strategic driver for the community.
The Challenge
New Orleans’ long-standing process of sending lodging reservations away from their website made it difficult to connect the initiative back to partner participation or traveler engagement in a meaningful way. As such, they sought a solution to:
- Keep travelers within the NewOrleans.com ecosystem
- Gain directional insight into how the program supported lodging partners
- Simplify how lodging partners participated in Papa Noël
- Present holiday offers in a unified, traveler-friendly format
Solution & Implementation
Unified Supplier Communication
New Orleans & Company and Ripe collaborated on a clear, step-by-step outreach plan for lodging partners, outlining how to participate, submit offers, and align around a shared holiday promotion.
Dedicated Papa Noël Website Landing Page
A branded landing page was created to showcase participating properties and their holiday packages in one cohesive destination, reinforcing Papa Noël as a community-wide initiative rather than a collection of individual deals.
Value-Add Incentive: $50 Gift Card
To further support local businesses and encourage longer stays, the promotion included a $50 in-market Yiftee gift card for qualifying bookings—keeping traveler spend within the New Orleans community and adding value for both visitors and local partners.
Seamless On-Platform Booking
All offers were integrated directly into the Ripe booking engine, allowing travelers to browse, compare, and book without leaving the site—while giving the DMO new, high-level visibility into how the promotion was engaging travelers.
Positive Outcomes
New Orleans & Company and the participating lodging partners agree that the retooled Papa Noel promotion functioned as a collaborative success.
- The campaign drove meaningful traveler engagement throughout the December–January holiday period
- A majority of bookings included multi-night stays, aligning with campaign goals
- The value-add incentive saw strong adoption, reinforcing the appeal of pairing lodging with local experiences
- New Orleans & Company gained qualitative insight into traveler interest and partner participation that had not been possible in previous years
Partner Participation & Community Impact
- More than 30 lodging partners participated, representing a diverse mix of hotels and accommodations
- Suppliers expressed strong enthusiasm for being featured within an on-site booking experience
- Close collaboration between New Orleans & Company, lodging partners, and the Ripe Supplier Services team enabled efficient onboarding and a polished traveler experience
We’d love to show you how Ripe’s ITA platform can improve your role as a connector and strategic driver for the community. Book your demo today.
