Real-Time Monitoring & Unique Codes: Travelodge's Success Story

Here's the brief

In the competitive hospitality market, discount codes attract and engage customers – but misuse can drain resources and revenue. Travelodge faced this challenge, and Uniqodo helped them regain control.

You may also suffer from this issue, but we're here to help. Read on to find out more about preventing code misuse and how we helped the UK's largest independent hotel brand protect its unique codes.

The Problem: Code Misuse & Lost Revenue

Travelodge is a long-term user of discount voucher codes in the competitive hotel accommodation market.

Travelodge discount codes are available for customers and potential new guests in multiple online locations, including several online voucher code provider affiliates, along with the Travelodge website, multiple social media platforms, and through Travelodge’s email marketing.

However, it was too easy for other affiliates, social media sites, and consumers to access discount codes online directly. The codes were being abused and forwarded without limits, and Travelodge was paying commissions and losing revenue from discounts.

Travelodge couldn’t track results for specific voucher campaigns because the data wasn’t linked between website landing pages or customer reservations. Travelodge Manager for Partnerships and Affiliates, Maryke Lotz, was introduced to Uniqodo to explore options for introducing unique discount codes for selective promotions and monitoring the results.

The Solution: Real-Time Monitoring with Unique Codes

In September 2016 the Uniqodo system went live to enable Travelodge to track every code and work with their partners to create exclusive offers.

The process to request batches of codes for campaigns is smooth – and Maryke said that Uniqodo responded proactively every time she had a query or new requirement.

The Travelodge team received daily reporting updates, showing how each promotion was performing through to booking. The data is more sophisticated than Google Analytics, showing exactly which promotions customers have viewed, the purchase path and the customer types who have redeemed the offer.

Uniqodo also improved the user experience – if the customer was not eligible to use the code for their stay with Travelodge, the system served an informative custom error message explaining why they couldn’t use it or prompted them to change dates or add breakfast to qualify for that specific offer.

The Results: Greater Engagement, Less Manual Effort

"When we originally met with Uniqodo, we really needed them to only do one thing: to allow us to prevent the misuse of codes, but they have given us the ability to go above and beyond, offering our customers and our partners so much more. From evergreen, always-on discount codes, and offers for free breakfast or Wi-Fi, to custom error messages and in-depth reporting. We now see more users signing up for emails to get discount codes now versus before just using the discount and not growing our email database.”

Maryke Lotz, Travelodge Manager for Partnerships and Affiliates

Increased Customer Engagement and Better Affiliate Relationships

With Uniqodo's services in place, Travelodge was able to do so much more with their campaigns, review performance in-depth, and tweak offers or test changes instantly.

Travelodge can share offers with varying combinations of benefits for their customers, based on their needs. Travellers using airports can access geolocation discounts, business guests can extend their stay, Travelodge’s email subscribers receive unique offers, and regular customers can receive a loyalty discount.

Uniqodo provided the team with a daily email summary, which automated many manual processes and provided a snapshot report of all the live promotions. It has enhanced capability, providing data on the kind of customers each offer attracts, tracking the bookings, average spend, extras and number of nights, revenue and total discount claimed.

Travelodge was better informed regarding who was using their voucher codes and estimated that it saved the team up to 3 hours per day on analysis and reporting. If a code was not performing well, Maryke could review whether to change the dates or the message accordingly and make the changes instantly.

As a result, Travelodge saw an increase in the number of customers signing up for email alerts, boosting their customer acquisition. In addition, Travelodge began building stronger relationships with its main affiliates, myvouchercodes.co.uk, vouchercodes.co.uk and Vouchercloud each of whom has a unique audience with its own profile.

Travelodge can offer truly exclusive discounts to these different audiences and provide accurate and useful feedback on the results. The affiliates feel more valuable and can offer something special for their users.

With Uniqodo, Travelodge:

• Offered unique codes tailored to meet specific customer needs.
• Reduced code misuse and associated revenue impacts.
• Increased the number of customers on marketing email lists.
• Significantly reduced the time spent on manual reporting by up to 15 hours per week.
• Accessed current, detailed analytics around customer booking behaviour to drive effective customer engagement.