In today’s highly competitive industry, having a strategic advantage can be the key to standing out. One of the most effective ways for hotels and holiday homes to attract more guests and increase visibility is by participating in Booking.com’s Genius Program. However, deciding whether a property qualifies for this program requires a data-driven approach that balances performance, customer engagement, and market positioning. This is where Strategy Cues comes into play.
This case study is about a particular partners’ channel mix:
Understanding the Booking.com Genius Program
The Booking.com Genius Program is designed to help properties gain exposure to a highly engaged customer base by offering special perks, discounts, and exclusive deals to loyal customers. Genius members, who are regular users of Booking.com, benefit from these exclusive offers when booking their stays. For properties, being featured in the Genius Program can result in increased visibility, higher bookings, and a more loyal customer base.
Along with the partner, Strategy Cues evaluated the contribution scenarios for their brand website versus Booking.com. Here’s what the analysis said:
• Incremental revenue from the online channels would improve the ADR
• Booking.com non preferred non genius contribution is already at 71%
• Brand contribution must improve to support the P&L – else the commission cost would impact the flow through.
• Increase in contribution from other OTAs would not help as the commissions will be proportionate
The Strategy Cues team then calculated a post Genius scenario, which looked like this table below:
Strategy Cues answered several questions following up on this comparison analysis, here are a few that we collectively worked on:
• Is Booking.com delivering 40% additional room nights to the properties post Genius enrolment?
• Is the brand website capable of delivering 1:5 ROI on marketing campaigns with present capabilities?
• What is the timeline required to develop marketing campaigns from scratch?
• What are some short-term and long-term actions required to make this shift?
• Does anyone in direct competition drive these numbers with a similar brand presence?
We then came up with a scorecard – called the “External Factor Scorecard” and “Internal Factor Scorecard”, curated specially for our partner:
These are the action points that we came up with:
• Detailed review of brand analytics + Structural change in the website design
• Genius + Preferred for the property to gain visibility
• Involve external agency + drive increasing visibility and conversions through revenue intelligence
• Target the ROI shift from 1:1.8 to 1:5
• Trial with Black out on Genius – review the initial brand matrix
• Create and mark the milestones, draft the further course of action
Additionally, our team at Strategy Cues also worked on these considerations keeping the wider scope in mind:
• Other segments: We also reviewed the other segments and aligned the strategy to facilitate this shift
• Loyalty program : There was no loyalty program in place as this was not a brand with the presence in multiple locations
• Meta search : No paid meta search activity was engaged by the property before the strategy shift, the budget allocation was reviewed accordingly
• Focus on driving consistent occupancy : The lack of occupancy v/s the competition and the scope to improve the market share was preemptively discussed
• System stack & data spooling : Data gathering, analyzing and communication was possible with the present system stack for both OTAs as well as brand
website
In the competitive landscape of online travel, standing out on platforms like Booking.com is crucial. By partnering with Strategy Cues, the hotel or holiday-home owner gained invaluable insights that not only helped them determine whether they should pursue the Genius Program but also provided them with a clear, actionable plan to improve their chances of success.
With the right performance metrics, competitive pricing, and strong customer engagement strategies, Strategy Cues made sure that the partner was equipped to make a confident, data-backed decision that would drive long-term success.
