Challenges that Stifled The Capital Hotels, Apartments, and Resorts’ Path to Success
The Capital Hotels, Apartments, and Resorts stands as South Africa’s fastest-growing ownermanaged fully serviced apartments and hotel rooms provider. With 12 properties spread across 6 locations in South Africa, The Capital Hotels, Apartments, and Resorts offers a selection of hybrid hotels, including studios, suites and flexible one, two and three-bedroom apartments. Catering to both business and leisure travelers, their properties provide all the essentials for long or short stays.
Despite its rapid growth, The Capital Hotels, Apartments, and Resorts faced several challenges that hindered its ability to reach its full potential:
- Short Lead Time: The lead time for The Capital group was exceptionally short, with a Year-to-Date (YTD) average of just 11 days. This made it challenging to meet target budgets, particularly since both corporate and leisure bookings tended to be last-minute.
- Market Expansion: The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts aimed to increase its market share from other regions, including SADC, as well as attract more guests from the US and UK markets.
- Reducing OTA Dependency: The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts sought to increase direct revenue through its own Booking Engine (BE) and reclaim business from Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), aiming for a more equitable split of revenue, ideally a 50/50% split.
Ambitious Targets to Propel Growth
To address these challenges, The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts set ambitious goals:
- Revenue Growth: Targeting a 15% increase in Booking Engine (BE) revenue from 2023 levels.
- Online Presence: Enhancing its online presence through a robust digital strategy.
- ROI on Google Ads: Aiming for a minimum of 1:10 Return on Investment (ROI) on Google Ads spend.
To overcome these challenges and achieve its goals, The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts turned to SHR and leveraged their Booking Engine tool and Digital Services.
Transformative Impact: How SHR’s Tools Revolutionized The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts’ Performanc
The implementation of SHR's applications yielded significant results for The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts:
- Direct Revenue Boost: The introduction of the member loyalty rate as the main driver for direct bookings, offering a discount of up to 20% off the Best Available Rate (BAR), proved highly effective in driving direct revenue.
- Improved ROI on Google Ads: Through strategic budget allocation and the use of First Party data to optimise targeting for Google Ads, The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts achieved an impressive 18:1 ROI on Google Ads spend, surpassing their initial target of 10:1, with up to 20% off
- Overall Revenue Growth: The Capital Hotels, Apartment, and Resorts experienced a remarkable 36% Year-over-Year (YOY) increase in group revenue, showcasing the efficacy of the implemented strategies and tools.
"We have been incredibly impressed with the results achieved through our partnership with SHR. As South Africa’s fastest growing provider of fully serviced apartments and hotel rooms, The Capital faced several significant challenges that hindered our growth potential. With SHR’s comprehensive digital marketing strategies and Booking Engine tool, we have seen transformative results that far exceeded our expectations.
We aimed to increase our market share in new regions and reduce our dependency on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs). SHR helped us address these issues head-on with their targeted solutions and expertise.”
Gillian Kombora, Head of Digital Marketing
