Whale Cove Inn
The Client
Whale Cove Inn sits high atop the rocky Oregon coastline in beautiful Depoe Bay. A scenic summer escape, Depoe Bay is a small town with big character and plays host to a number of visitors from around the area. For those desiring a relaxing and luxurious getaway, Whale Cove Inn is their destination. With just eight suite accommodations and award-winning fine dining on-site, the exclusivity of this hotel that overlooks spectacular breaking waves and passing whales is easily felt.
How success was ensured
The Oregon Coast amazes any time of year, but the colder weather and stormy waters in the winter months can be a deterrent for guests. Considering the seasonality of their business and wanting to grow off-season bookings, the property recognized the importance of their online presence as part of this effort and approached RezStream for a new website and marketing assistance.
The ease of implementation and management of RezStream’s tCMS website product made it the perfect fit for Whale Cove Inn. Without any custom programming required, and a template that is built with conversions in mind, the tCMS was the perfect balance of function and personalization for the property. After initial discussions and project approval, it only took a matter of days to get the new site up and running. This was paired with the simple integration of RezStream’s booking engine and reservation management software.
Because Whale Cove Inn also purchased online marketing services, their account team was then able to assist with making optimizations to the new website specific to the property. Thoughtful arrangement of their navigation, content development, backend search engine optimization, and more was completed within a matter of weeks. Marketing services over the course of the next year also included ongoing SEO, paid search advertising, email campaigns, and social media management.
With the new modernized and mobile-optimized look of the website, its conversion rate grew steadily and for the first year reached a .91% (impressive for a luxury property). With targeted marketing and a new ease-of-use, the website’s bounce rate decreased to a 35% and in that first year, revenue collected through the website increased 55% over the previous. For the off season alone, an increase of 74% in revenue was seen as a result of the new website and marketing efforts.
We have been clients of RezStream for over 4 years. First, we began by using their reservation software and were so pleased with the product and the excellent support they provided. Then when we realized we needed an actual marketing team, we discovered that RezStream did it ALL! We switched our website to their tCMS and started working with a marketing team. The entire RezStream team is amazing, easy to work with, and have taken the stress of marketing off my shoulders. Promotions and specials are announced to our regular customers in a timely fashion that really brings in the bookings! The RezStream team is always helpful to our front desk staff and myself are quick to troubleshoot the occasional problem we may have. The monthly and quarterly reports provided present detailed information in a straightforward and understandable format. The results speak for themselves – our occupancy has increased every month since we started using the new website and marketing services. I have no regrets in making the decision to partner with RezStream!
Sarah Jincks, General Manager, Whale Cove Inn
