The Ripe Software has always been a tool to drive off-season bookings, promote lodging partners, and measure economic impact. Unexpectedly, COVID created a new demand for our software – proactively and safely return overnight visitation to the community in a controlled and measurable fashion.
Our software’s customizable nature allows destinations to highlight hotels with COVID protocols in place, create flexible booking and cancellation policies, and bundle value-add items to actually stimulate demand. For those on our commission-free product, “Zero%_Rez,” which sends cost-free and commission-free bookings to hotel partners, our software’s alignment as a critical COVID recovery resource is even greater.
The bundling aspect has been enormously successful as it creates locally focused and enticing value a traveler would not find elsewhere, and actually stimulates travel demand. We’re seeing our partners redirect their marketing dollars towards bundling unique value, rather than spend on hard to measure branding efforts. For example, Vancouver is including Visa gift cards and access to local attractions with each lodging booking. In the first 30 days of their COVID recovery campaign, #VancouverComeBack, they sent 3,564 reservations totaling $1.25M in commission-free bookings to their hotel partners. Similarly, Visit Salt Lake includes free gas cards or free Connect Passes (which provides access to top local attractions) as the foundation of their “Salt Lake Bound = Freedom Found” campaign.
Little is more valuable to hoteliers than a Destination Marketing Organization that drives cost-free and commission-free bookings to their doors. This is more true than ever amid COVID.
As hotel occupancy fights to find it’s footing, it’s rewarding to see our software empower destinations with powerful tools towards recovery. We look forward to continuing to support our partners, and we look forward to when “COVID recovery” is a thing of the past. Learn more about our COVID recovery solutions.
