Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni - A Success Story on Reaching Long-haul Travellers

About Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni

Conveniently located next to Cheongnyangni Station – a subway and KTX (South Korean High Speed Train) station inSeoul, South Korea– Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni houses 80 stylish rooms and puts guests close to the main attractions of the Korean capital.

This hotel used to be part of the Korean chain ‘The Designers’, which included 9 properties in total. However, this property is now individually owned and managed.

Presented below are some of the main challenges this hotel faced, and how HBX Group was key to its distribution strategy.

Scenario and challenges

As a result of its privileged location near the train station and the consequent high volume of transients, this hotel has been successful in attracting domestic travellers over the years.

However, as Mr. Pilho Kim, Senior Manager at Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni, points out, the team realised the importance of expanding their reach overseas and increasing the number of long-haul travellers.‘Although we worked with four major global OTAs, our business was highly concentrated on domestic markets,' stated Mr. Kim.

Considering their desire to expand the business, Mr. Kim reached out to HBX Group to diversify sales and explore new revenue streams.

Choosing HBX Group to achieve their goals

Among the main reasons Mr. Kim and his team approached HBX Group was the chance to expand their market exposure, attracting tourists from a wide range of different countries, including long-haul travel.

Having credit card payment at checkout also made HBX Group an attractive partner for the hotel, since it prevents payment delays.With this payment method, the property can cash the money as soon as the client checks out. As a result, your cash flow forecast will be protected, and you will be able to close the month with all bookings collected.

The strategy

With the help of our experts at HBX Group, we were able to develop a bespoke strategy based on the hotel's needs and potential.

One part of the Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni's strategy was to promote discounted long-stay products, which proved to be very successful.

Our team also provided valuable help with last-minute bookings, which helped greatly with occupancy levels. HBX Group suggested monitoring the hotel's last-minute production closely and adjust rates for last-minute days when the hotel needed to drive production.

Results

In just two months of our partnership with the property, some impressive results were achieved:

During this period, the hotel booked more than 150 room nights.
There was a 10-15% increase in sales every month for the Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni.
Sales became very stable, as they enjoyed many consecutive night stays, and price yielding made it easier due to increased longer lead time bookings.
In addition, Mr. Kim reports a significant increase in the number of last-minute sales. 'Previously, we used local platforms such as Yanolja or Good Choice (Korean-centric OTAs) to target last-minute bookings. However, when we did last-minute promotions with HBX Group, we found that sales increased with local Koreans and foreigners residing in Korea, which we really appreciated.', Mr. Kim said.

As well as this, Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni highlights working with HBX Group means they receive guests from all over the world.

With the exposure provided by HBX Group, their guests not only come from local and neighbouring countries, but also from long-haul markets, proving that HBX Group can expose the hotel to hard-to-reach markets.

According to Mr. Kim, ‘the diversification of our business partners contributes greatly to our sales improvement in securing quality customers.’

As for the future, Mr. Kim and his team express an interest in maintaining and possibly increasing their overseas business. Moreover, they are eager to strengthen their partnership and increase demand for offline travel agents and possibly small groups.

Why work with HBX Group?

If you are looking for similar results to Hotel The Designers Cheongnyangni and think our team at HBX Group can provide you with the help you need, it’s time to register your property and start your journey with us.

But what exactly can you expect? Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll get when partnering with us:

You'll have access to our portfolio of 60,000+ travel distributors. You’ll find over 50,000 travel agencies and 3,500 tour operators, plus 1,000 more partners, including airlines, affiliates, and other businesses.
You'll have global reach and be present in 170+ source markets. Whether you're interested in reaching long-haul travellers or a domestic audience, we assist you in gaining access to these markets.
We won't compete with your direct channel. HBX Group distribute directly to travel agencies and other wholesalers in the travel industry. We ensure that they get to know you and include you in their travel packages.

Don't worry about spending time and effort trying to gain visibility. We do it for you; simply tell us what markets you want to enter, and we'll connect you with agencies that operate in the market.

Sounds interesting? Become our partner today!