Expand, Optimise and Yield - Maximising Online Distribution and Profitability
Coco Mooloolaba is a boutique holiday apartment complex located in the Sunshine Coast destination of Mooloolaba. Featuring 1 and 2 bedroom fully self contained apartments, the property is well suited to both couples and families and is just minutes walk from The Esplanade and surf beach. Many of the apartments offer stunning views over the Coral Sea making it ideal for a coastal getaway.
Pinnacle Tourism Marketing began working with Coco Mooloolaba in June 2021 and immediately noticed an opportunity with the property’s narrow online distribution. Aside from selling directly via their own website, the only Online Travel Agents (OTAs) the property was featured on were booking.com and Expedia.
Expand
Our first step was to expand Coco Mooloolaba’s online distribution. As we were in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic we started with OTAs we knew could supply the property with domestic business straightaway. For Coco Mooloolaba, many of these online agents offered the opportunity of new business to the property due to the brand loyalty that they have with their customers (ie repeat purchasers). Once the property was live on these websites we then set about connecting up additional smaller producing channels. Overall we listed the property onto 12 new OTA websites and as a result since the start of June 2021 until 31 May 2022, 23% of total booking revenue came from new channels the property was not working with previously.
Optimise
Once Coco Mooloolaba was visible across the major OTAs we needed to ensure that the property was optimised on each individual channel. What works on one OTA does not necessarily work on another, as each have their own nuances, back end systems, marketing and loyalty programs. We worked closely with the account managers of each OTA to ensure that Coco Mooloolaba was optimised on each individual channel with some of the key areas including:
- Campaigns
- Tacticals
- Content
- Pricing
- Restrictions
- Competitor Set Analysis
On one of the OTAs that we listed Coco Mooloolaba, we have seen the property go from being positioned on the last page of the “Sunshine Coast” Search to consistently being featured in the Top 5 properties for the region.
Yield
With distribution now widened across the online marketplace the focus turned to yield and profitability. Coco Mooloolaba was now experiencing a higher volume of bookings which allowed us to strategically yield rates and manipulate restrictions in periods of high demand. This ensured that the property was making the most out of each room night sold. To that end from June 2021 to May 2022 we have seen the average daily rate of the property increase by 11.81% and the overall revenue by 39.81%.
