Why Community Events Matter
Community events, especially multi-day ones, are often among the biggest demand drivers for your destination. These events draw travelers eager to attend, but all too often, those travelers lack a straightforward way to book accommodations through event websites. Instead, they turn to generic booking sites—or worse, they become frustrated with the lack of clarity and decide not to attend at all.
How Your Ripe Engine Can Help
As a DMO partner with a Ripe booking engine, you have the tools to simplify this process. Ripe clients can create affiliate engines—co-branded, trackable, customizable versions of your booking engine—paired with event-branded landing pages that include relevant information and the opportunity to create exclusive value-add offers when they book through your engine. These booking instances provide a streamlined solution for travelers and can be seamlessly integrated into event organizers’ websites through:
- A hyperlink CTA linked to the event’s landing page on your DMO subdomain.
- A Ripe Search Widget embedded directly on the event site, leading travelers to lodging results.
- A hyperlink CTA linking straight to lodging search results.
This collaboration ensures travelers have an easy, direct path to book their stays, reducing friction and keeping the focus on the event.
Benefits for Travelers and DMOs
For travelers, the process becomes simple and stress-free. They can quickly book accommodations and focus on enjoying the event. If you’re running a special value-add offer, you also increase their likelihood of committing to the trip through the exclusivity component. Plus, by using your booking engine, you gain first-party data—a valuable touchpoint for sharing information, content, and updates that encourage visitors to explore beyond the event and into the community, boosting economic impact and increasing their length of stay.
Keeping Revenue Local
With Ripe, you have control over commissions and the ability to keep revenue local. Our affiliate tool allows you to:
- Share commissions with demand-driving events, creating a collaborative revenue stream.
- Retain commissions to reinvest in your marketing efforts.
Either way, you eliminate the high commissions often lost to generic booking sites, giving you the flexibility to direct funds where they benefit your community most.
Success Stories with Events of All Sizes
Ripe helps DMOs collaborate with events of any scale. Large events, e.g. Polar Express Train Ride (Visit Rowan County) and the California International Marathon (Visit Folsom), drive significant demand and revenue and should be a priority.But don’t overlook the impact of smaller events! Collaborating with events like the Folsom Pro Rodeo (Visit Folsom) or the Chico Wildflower Century Ride (Explore Butte County) are more frequent and encouraging travelers to extend their stay for a day or two can have a huge impact. Plus, smaller events build trust and lay the foundation for future partnerships with organizers, creating compounded benefits for your community over time.
A Win for Everyone
Partnering with community events is vital for DMOs. It strengthens your presence in the community, builds relationships with demand drivers, and supports local economic growth. By leveraging your Ripe booking engine, you make it easy for event organizers to embed a lodging booking resource directly on their websites, bypassing generic booking platforms and keeping commissions low.
The result? A streamlined, trackable process that benefits your DMO, the event, travelers, lodging partners, and the community at large. It’s not just a win-win—it’s a win that keeps on winning!
If you’re a Ripe client, contact your Client Success Manager to explore affiliate opportunities. If you’re new to Ripe, book a demo today and discover how we can help you partner with community events to drive growth and impact.
