Resting by an idyllic, lakeside setting with a cozy, authentic feel, it’s no wonder that The Lake Hotel Killarney has been welcoming guests with a flourish since the 1820s. Described as “bucolic”, “rejuvenating” and an “Irish paradise” by those who have visited, the third generation of the Huggard family are certainly fulfilling the original legacy of true Irish hospitality, left by Ms Hilda Huggard.
In May 2017 Net Affinity were engaged to develop a new bespoke website for this beautifully located four-star hotel; the owners wanted to showcase its offering in a more visually appealing way and show the clients its features such as its stunning location, wild deer and amazing family heritage. The hotel team also wanted a more streamlined user-friendly booking process and an enhanced “book direct” marketing strategy.
“Give them quality. That is the best kind of advertising.” –Milton Hershey, entrepreneur. Quality is certainly what we had in mind when we began to tackle the hotel’s website and booking engine. In close consultation with the hotel team we developed a fully responsive website and a new booking engine and these two together allowed potential guests to experience a better booking process and enhance the overall user experience on the website. It was also our goal to optimise the display of the property online thus attracting new customers to the property via mobile specifically.
We developed an optimised marketing strategy to engage with the hotels existing clients and attract new personas to the hotel. We used a combination of Google Ads, Facebook campaigns and Google Hotel Ads, all of which see strong CPAs and are resulting in more direct revenue.
Since moving across to Net Affinity, The Lake Hotel Killarney has seen an increase in direct bookings. Their website’s traffic has increased by 10.9% with a 4.3% decrease in bounce rate. The new and improved booking engine and marketing strategy have thrived, resulting in a Revenue increase of 21%.
Niall Huggard, General Manager of the Lake Hotel Killarney has said “The whole team are delighted with the great performance of our hotel that Net Affinity has helped us to achieve. Our direct bookings and revenue have seen a significant increase and we couldn’t be happier with the look and feel of our new, upscale website! It portrays the hotel perfectly and is much easier to navigate.”
