Customer spotlight: Balboa Bay Resort
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Balboa Bay Resort increased direct conversions and revenue with AI-driven personalization.
Key Results:
Converted low-intent users into incremental revenue
Increased Average Booking Value among high-intent visitors
Reduced unnecessary promotional costs
Strengthened overall direct channel performance
About Balboa Bay Resort
Balboa Bay Resort is a luxury waterfront retreat located in Newport Beach, California, offering guests an unparalleled blend of coastal elegance and California casual charm.
With 159 guest rooms and suites, the resort features spacious accommodations, most with private balconies to take in stunning harbor views. Every aspect of the resort is designed to ensure both relaxation and adventure for its guests.
Balboa Bay Resort has been collaborating with Lighthouse since 2020 to enhance their online guest experience.
In June 2023, their team decided to expand their use of the Lighthouse Direct solution, exploring AI-powered predictive personalization on their direct channel.
Impressed by the successful results, the brand decided to fully implement the upgrade across their direct channel in July 2023. This machine learning-powered strategy further solidified the brand’s commitment to optimizing the direct booking journey.
"Balboa Bay Resort has been using the Lighthouse Direct's predictive personalization solution with great success. It has effectively captured both low-intent and high-intent travelers, allowing us to tailor our approach and increase engagement."
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Converting low-intent visitors
Challenge
Many website visitors with low booking probability would typically abandon the site without completing a reservation. Broad discounts risked eroding margins by incentivizing users who would have booked anyway.
Solution:
Balboa Bay Resort deployed a hyper-targeted 10% discount exclusively for users identified as low intent. The strategy focused on, driving incremental bookings, preserving revenue from high-intent visitors, and avoiding blanket promotional spend.
Results:
$39,628 in revenue was driven by low-intent bookings completed using the promo code.
$30,750 was saved in promotional spend, as users identified with a high likelihood of booking were not offered a discount.
40+ bookings were completed with the promo code after viewing the low-intent campaign offer.
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Increasing average booking value
Challenge:
High-intent users were likely to book, but not necessarily at the highest room category. The opportunity lay in increasing Average Booking Value (ABV) rather than simply driving conversion.
Solution:
High-intent users were offered a 10% discount combined with valet parking, strategically designed to encourage upgrades to Suite reservations.
Results:
$39,628 in revenue was driven by high-intent bookings completed using the promo code.
$7,497 in addition revenue was gained from upselling suites to visitors that were identified to have a high likelihood of booking.
30+ bookings were completed with the promo code after viewing the high-intent campaign offer.
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"Since implementing the tool, we've seen a notable boost in our booking engine production, which has contributed to an overall improvement in conversion rate. We are excited to continue to leverage this tool and drive further growth of direct booking production."
Final reflections: AI-driven personalization
By integrating AI-driven segmentation into its digital ecosystem with Lighthouse Direct, Balboa Bay Resort segmented users dynamically based on real-time booking probability, allowing them to deploy highly targeted strategies aligned with each visitor’s intent level. This approach protects margin where demand is strong and stimulates incremental demand where conversion risk is higher, creating a more intelligent direct channel strategy.
