We didn't run this engagement as a brand campaign. We ran it as the operator accountable for revenue across every property — the same way we run marketing for our own Crystal Ballroom portfolio.
We took on this engagement because the operator challenges were structurally identical to Crystal Ballroom: a portfolio spread across markets, inconsistent brand presence at the property level, every property fighting OTA dependency for the same guest segment, and a small corporate marketing team responsible for revenue across every property. The channels are different — Google Business Profile per property, paid social per market, TripAdvisor/Google/Booking.com reputation management, post-stay nurture for repeat guests — but the architectural decisions are the same. One system. Localized execution. Compounding over 12+ months.
Lukasz Rogowski has spent 25+ years running marketing P&L across 17+ venue locations. Hospitality is the adjacent vertical where the same playbook transfers with the highest fidelity — high-consideration purchases, local-search-led intent, reputation-driven conversion, and a long repeat-customer cycle. Our team ran this engagement end-to-end: paid media, SEO, reputation, email, and the reporting dashboard the owner used in their monthly ops review.
Same architecture as Crystal Ballroom — one system, consistent reporting, localized creative and targeting per property. What changed for hospitality: Google Business Profile is the primary local-search surface, TripAdvisor/Booking.com reputation ranking algorithms dominate OTA placement, and the repeat-guest cycle is the single highest-ROI channel in the portfolio.
Each of the 9 properties has a fully optimized GBP — consistent NAP, weekly photo cadence, managed Q&A, posted weekly, and review velocity monitored daily. The Magnolia House and Coastal Pearl ranked in the Google Maps pack for "boutique hotel [city]" within 90 days. By month 8, GBP-driven direct traffic accounted for 34% of total direct booking volume across the portfolio.
Meta and Google demand-capture campaigns per property, fueled by a portfolio-level creative library. Demand-gen campaigns in feeder markets (Atlanta->Savannah, Charlotte->Charleston, Jacksonville->St. Augustine) ran continuously. Each property had distinct creative within the shared brand frame — no single campaign ran across the whole collection. CPL ranged from $28 (Asheville, lower-competition market) to $94 (Charleston, leisure-oversaturated market).
TripAdvisor, Google, Booking.com, Expedia, and Yelp — review monitoring and response across every property on every platform. Sub-4-star reviews flagged to GMs within 15 minutes. Proactive review-request sequences at T+3 days post-stay lifted review velocity by 3.2× across the portfolio. All nine properties maintained 4.6+ star averages throughout the engagement — the single most important OTA ranking factor.
Every guest enrolled in a 12-month post-stay sequence within 24 hours of checkout. Anniversary outreach at the 6- and 12-month marks. Cross-property recommendations for guests who had stayed at one property in the collection. Loyalty offers that never appear on OTA — direct-book exclusive. The 28% repeat-stay rate was the single biggest driver of margin expansion across the portfolio.
The structural answer to OTA dependency. Direct booking landing pages per property, with pricing parity messaging, member-direct perks, and a frictionless checkout flow that competed on conversion rate — not rate discount. By month 14, the portfolio's direct booking mix crossed 50% for the first time. OTA commission dollars saved funded the next 9 months of paid media.
| Property | Pre-engagement direct mix | Month 14 direct mix | ROAS (paid) | Repeat-stay rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Pearl Inn — Savannah, GA | 28% | 54% | 5.1× | 34% |
| The Magnolia House — Charleston, SC | 22% | 49% | 4.2× | 29% |
| Wharfside Resort — St. Augustine, FL | 34% | 58% | 4.9× | 26% |
| The Cooper Hotel — Asheville, NC | 31% | 57% | 6.2× | 31% |
| Harborlight Inn — Fernandina Beach, FL | 39% | 61% | 5.4× | 32% |
| The Georgian Suites — Athens, GA | 26% | 46% | 4.8× | 24% |
| Riverstone Lodge — Helen, GA | 33% | 52% | 3.8× | 22% |
| The Cypress Hotel — Palmetto, FL | 30% | 51% | 4.3× | 27% |
| Lowcountry Manor — Beaufort, SC | 37% | 59% | 5.6× | 33% |
Direct mix = percentage of room nights booked through owned channels (brand.com, phone, email) vs. OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, Hotels.com). ROAS = blended paid media return at month 12. Repeat-stay = percentage of one-time guests with a second booking within 12 months of first stay.
| Property | Starting CPA | Finishing CPA | Dominant channel | Direct-mix lift | Attributed room revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coastal Pearl Inn — Savannah, GA | $140–$172 | $58–$74 | GBP + Meta retarget | +26pts | ~$1.84M |
| The Magnolia House — Charleston, SC | $168–$210 | $72–$98 | TripAdvisor + Google | +27pts | ~$2.16M |
| Wharfside Resort — St. Augustine, FL | $120–$148 | $48–$66 | Google direct booking | +24pts | ~$2.84M |
| The Cooper Hotel — Asheville, NC | $96–$128 | $38–$54 | Email repeat + GBP | +26pts | ~$1.42M |
| Harborlight Inn — Fernandina Beach, FL | $108–$138 | $44–$58 | Direct booking + email | +22pts | ~$0.94M |
| The Georgian Suites — Athens, GA | $132–$168 | $54–$72 | Google + football-weekend Meta | +20pts | ~$1.38M |
| Riverstone Lodge — Helen, GA | $118–$156 | $52–$70 | Weekend Meta + email | +19pts | ~$0.84M |
| The Cypress Hotel — Palmetto, FL | $128–$162 | $56–$74 | GBP seasonal cadence | +21pts | ~$1.62M |
| Lowcountry Manor — Beaufort, SC | $106–$144 | $42–$62 | Wedding GBP + reputation | +22pts | ~$0.92M |
The same five-channel system above — GBP per property, paid social per market, reputation management, email nurture, direct booking architecture — right-sized for your hospitality portfolio. We take on one new boutique hotel group client per month.
See the full vertical breakdown on our boutique hotel group marketing page →
25 years of real marketing P&L from 17+ venues — what we'd do if we were starting over today.
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GBP per property. Paid social per market. Reputation across every review platform. Email nurture for repeat stays. Direct booking architecture that recovers OTA margin.