73% to 43%.
A different booking mix.
How a 27-room hotel in Sri Lanka rebuilt its email strategy over six months, with no paid advertising reported in the engagement.
- PROPERTY
- 27 rooms Boutique wellness retreat
- LOCATION
- Sri Lanka Property anonymised
- TIMEFRAME
- 6 months Before and after comparison
- OTA SHARE CHANGE
- −30pp Percentage points
THE STARTING POINT
The audience
was already there.
A strong guest experience and an engaged Instagram audience weren’t translating into a consistent direct relationship. The hotel had 3,400 email subscribers, but the list needed a clearer purpose.
At the start of the engagement, 73% of bookings came through OTAs. The reported email open rate was 13.5%, with a click rate of 7%.
THE WORK
What changed during the programme
- 01
Rebuilt the welcome sequence
A five-part flow introduced the hotel, set expectations and explained a direct-booking guest benefit.
- 02
Connected Instagram to the email list
A wellness guide gave interested followers a reason to become subscribers.
- 03
Segmented the existing audience
Past guests, warm enquiries and less-engaged subscribers received more relevant messages.
- 04
Made the writing more specific
The emails began to reflect the property and the Sri Lankan experience, instead of sounding like a generic brochure.
- 05
Created a seasonal booking window
Subscribers received priority access to peak-season availability, making the email relationship useful in its own right.
REPORTED RESULTS
Six months later.
| Metric | Before | After six months |
|---|---|---|
| OTA share of bookings | 73% | 43% |
| Email open rate | 13.5% | 39.3% |
| Reported click rate | 7.0% | 17.3% |
| Email subscribers | 3,400 | 8,300 |
Source: Social Spoon’s wellness-hotel case study. Results are reported before-and-after observations, not a controlled attribution study. Open-rate measurements can be affected by privacy features. The source does not define the click-rate denominator or provide date-stamped platform exports.
A guest relationship
is worth staying in touch for.
The takeaway: give your email list a purpose, a relevant message and a reason to book direct.
LET’S TALK ABOUT YOUR HOTEL
Give your guests a reason
to come back.
Let’s look at what happens between stays, and where email could make a difference.
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