1. QUALITY HOTEL
PARNELL
A BookingSuite Partner Story | Copyright BookingSuite 2015
DESTINATION:
15K
54
7
REVENUE IN THE FIRST MONTH
OF GOING LIVE
DIRECT BOOKINGS IN THE FIRST
MONTH OF GOING LIVE
DAYS TO RECOUP THE TOTAL
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION COST

2. www.booking.com/suite | suite@booking.com
THE ULTIMATE
COMEBACK FOR
QUALITY HOTEL
PARNELL
S
ituated at the gateway to
New Zealand amid
Auckland’s most desirable
attractions, Quality Hotel Parnell has
always been poised for success.
Cricket Word Cup fans are regulars,
along with a steady stream of
concertgoers at nearby Vector
Arena, host to artists ranging from
Billy Idol to Katy Perry.
With sold out crowds and cricket
much for occupancy, though its
digital marketing was another story.
Being in the center of it all, it’s
crucial for General Manager Wayne
Darbyshire and his staff to be able
to change content on their website
quickly and easily.
Wayne understands that every
property, chain or not, has a
unique story to tell, and says
there was never a time when
he considered not having a
property website.
“Personally, I’ve always felt that
even if you’re part of a large chain
like Choice, you still have your own
uniqueness. We’re under contract
with Choice for a certain period,
but if for some reason we decided
to go with someone else, we would
be able to take our own identity
with us,” said Wayne.
But if knowing you need a
property-level website is half the
battle, the other half is choosing
the right provider. This is where
the “comeback” portion of our
story begins.

3. P
reviously, Quality Hotel Parnell used an agency that managed all of its
content. Wayne, like many hoteliers, faced the issue of the agency’s
pace and fee when it came to making even the simplest changes. It
could take weeks, not to mention a hefty hole in the pocket.
Even worse, the agency controlled all of the hotel’s accounts, passwords, and
optimization, which led Hotel Parnell to a search engine optimized (SEO) crisis.
Whether they knew it or not, the agency’s SEO provider was using SEO tactics
recently banned by Google without Wayne’s knowledge.
Once Google caught wind of this, the hotel was penalized and ultimately
disappeared from Google altogether.
Wayne knew it was time for a change.
When Quality Hotel Parnell came on board in October of 2014, they were in dire
need of a digital marketing makeover along with high quality content to help
boost conversion and rank higher on Google—the right way.
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4. With our product, Hotel Parnell has
more than doubled those numbers.
In the past month alone the hotel has
received 131 direct bookings with
revenue of $35,420+.
Hotel Parnell recouped their total
annual subscription fee in
seven days!
Since joining, Hotel Parnell’s
total revenue has skyrocketed to
over $146,000.
Quality Hotel Parnell’s improvement
has been unbelievable, especially
taking into account the slow start
due to the SEO crisis.
MAKING BANK
AND SHARING IT

5. “IF YOU COMPARE
QUARTER TO
QUARTER, [OUR
REVENUE IS]
NEARLY THREE
TIMES MORE.”
Wayne Darbyshire, General Manager

6. www.booking.com/suite | suite@booking.com
Trevenue through the
quarter to quarter, it’s nearly three
times more,” Wayne said.
Parnell—the hotel is very unique
organization, donating all of its
earnings to various charities, from
medical research groups to the coast
guard. Parnell keeps just enough to
make renovations.
The foundation’s goal is to contribute
to advancing medical research in
New Zealand, and to have ongoing
scholarships available to graduates
pursuing careers in the sciences.
“

7. S
ince his last performance review, Wayne was happy to report that his
direct bookings were running above average compared to other hotels
on the platform.
Wayne estimated that currently 10% of his bookings are direct, compared to a
One of the many aspects that convinced Wayne to sign up, was the product’s
copious design options.
team over there is really good about guiding us and from our perspective they’re
“If you want to stay ahead of the game with digital marketing then you need to
sign up.”
www.booking.com/suite | suite@booking.com
MORE DIRECT
BOOKINGS THAN
EVER BEFORE

8. Traffic from smartphones topped
2,200 visits over the past three
months, plus 1,300 visits via tablet.
In the past month alone, Hotel
Parnell has seen 756 visits from
smartphones and 417 visits from
tablets, totaling 1,173.
That’s 2.5 times more mobile
traffic than the website saw in its
first month!
SMOOTH
OPERATIONS
Digital Marketing Consultant, Damien
Spurdle, takes care of most of the
content updates online, plus the
hotel’s social media presence. He
said the cloud-based software tools
were one of his favorite things about
the platform.
“I’m not restricted to staying in the
said. “I can take it home. I can do
it straight away. I don’t have to go
through another authority to change
something, which is great. I can make
changes instantly.”
Before discovering our product,
Hotel Parnell had to manually input
all of their bookings, so the
innovation and cutting-edge tech-
nology has been a good learning
curve for Wayne.
“I’m kind of an old school hotel
manager, but I recognize that
this is the way of the future,” said
Wayne, a 30-year veteran of the
hospitality industry.
For being old school, Wayne is
catching on fast, as one of his
favorite features of the site is its
mobile optimization.
“That was another feature of the
product—the ability to adapt to
any sort of device whether it be
desktop or mobile, Apple or
Android. Our previous website was
looking into that capability, but
wasn’t nearly as advanced,”
Wayne said.
And mobile looks good on Quality
Hotel Parnell ...

9. W
ayne and Damien also love their new website’s capacity for
reaching global visitors in their own languages and tracking where
majority of Parnell’s international guests hail from China, Australia, Germany,
and France.
“I think that’s outstanding that we can see who’s been looking at our website and
from where. It’s important for us to have this information because we always feel
we don’t do as well in the Australian market as we should be. So, it’s helpful to
see which parts of Australia are looking at us,” Wayne said.
Wayne is surprised that some properties don’t have their own websites. Even
though he’s a franchisee, not having a property-level website never occurred
to him.
www.booking.com/suite | suite@booking.com
VISIT THE WEBSITE

10. W
e actually consider
this a partnership
more than just using
your website,” Wayne said.
Parnell is still working on telling
their unique story online and has
-
Wayne not only appreciated the
provide, but also giving them guide-
content themselves.
at doing that. We believe we can
make our story bigger and bigger.”
“

11. www.booking.com/suite | suite@booking.com
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