Mobile Marking Campaign Investment Pays Off for Days Inn

The national hotel chain, Days Inn, invests in Ping Mobile's mobile marketing strategy to enabled 50 hotels across the Days Inn Business Alliance Group to communicate with their guests via their mobile phones. Utilizing Ping's PingWizard platform, Days Inn will be able to deliver customized messages that are personalized to the needs of each individual guest who has opted in to receive SMS messages from Days Inn. Such messages can include daily specials, hotel information, and exciting coupons and discounts, as well as the opportunity to win prizes.

The PingWizard enables the hotel chain itself to create segmented groups of guests by entering the guest's mobile phone number directly into the platform, and set up both push and pull SMS campaigns on their own in less than 5 minutes. This enables the hotels to react on the fly and promote rooms that have not been reserved, available tables at restaurants, and discounts reserved for their mobile loyalty club members. The real time reporting tool and redemption solutions of the PingWizard enable the hotels to track and monitor response rates of each campaign. The advantage of having a standalone online platform was crucial for the Days Inn, as their main challenge was integration with their POS systems, as each hotel utilizes a different system.

Days Inn Boston
The PingWizard platform was recently put into action the Days Inn in Boston. The hotels challenge was that their on-property Chinese restaurant was not attracting many breakfast guests, as most were unaware it served a daily buffet each morning. The Days Inn Boston set up a mobile campaign and offered a $3 off breakfast coupon to guests who texted the word "BOSBACON" to Ping's short-code. The coupon was sent directly to the respondents' phones, eliminating the cost of printing coupons and unnecessary distribution to guests who didn't want them. The owner of the Boston hotel claimed that the first morning of the campaign, they had more guests purchasing the breakfast buffet than ever before and was thrilled with the immediate response.

At the corporate level, Days Inn is working with Ping Mobile to create the Days Inn Mobile Club, by running a mobile sweepstakes as the call to action advertised on all key card across the 50 hotels, on the daysbiz web site and in their e-mail blasts. Days Inn is also taking advantage of Ping's IVR platform by pushing out a recorded message to their guests, allowing guests to "Press 1" to be connected to Days Inn reservations center and receive an additional 30% Wyndham Rewards points.

This year Ping plans on introducing its Bluetooth solution to the hotel chain as well, reaching potential guests at the airports and when they are in the vicinity of the hotels.