Following two days of industry-leading talks, interactive sessions, case studies, networking opportunities, and personalised coaching sessions - as well as the incredible Mardi Gras-themed party, it was an intense Direct Booking Summit.
That’s why we always like to finish the event with something fun and celebratory - the Direct Booking Summit Awards. These awards recognize the achievements of individuals and hotel groups from not only the past year but also from the two days of the summit. Winners took home two free tickets for next year’s Direct Booking Summit so they can do it all again in 2023.
The Targeted Messages Award
This award recognizes the most effective and creative Targeted Message campaign in 2022.
Winner: Warwick International Hotels
Warwick International Hotels has been a Triptease partner since 2016. Warwick’s partnership with Triptease began with Price Check, expanding into Convert and Metasearch today. Their most recent campaign promoted their Warwick Summer Sale with a Countdown Timer Message, which influenced almost $250,000 in revenue across 15 properties.
The Top Direct Booking Strategy 2022
This award recognizes the most impactful effort towards driving direct bookings.
Winner: Exploria Resorts.
Exploria Resorts is an established vacation ownership and hospitality brand, who began using Triptease tools as part of their direct booking strategy back in April 2021 with the goal of reducing OTA share and doubling rental business. Comparing June 2021 vs June 2022, Exploria’s direct bookings grew 70% YoY!
The Direct Booking MVP
This award is awarded to an individual or group who demonstrated excellent participation in the event overall.
Winner: Sanovnik Destang.
Not only did Sanovnik drive incredible discussions and collaborations on the tables that he was at during the event, but he also asked the presenters insightful and challenging questions throughout the course of the two-day event. Finally, he made it his mission to bring a number of other hoteliers from St Lucia that would benefit from the event - ensuring that they were able to learn, grow and develop their Direct Booking Strategy. Creating this community is the reason why we hold the Summit in the first place and we couldn't imagine anyone more deserving of the award than Sanovnik.
The Dream Team Award
This award recognizes outstanding collaboration within a hospitality group.
Winner: Marcus Hotels & Resorts.
Marcus Hotels & Resorts manages properties from Wisconsin to Las Vegas and despite the challenges of working across the country, they consistently work collaboratively across marketing and revenue teams. They are always willing to be the test subjects for beta messages, parity features, and just about anything else the Triptease team is developing, making them a key partner in both the development of Triptease features but also the development of a strong direct booking strategy.
The Direct Booking Summit Superstar
This award was created specifically for one particular hotelier who has been through an incredibly challenging few weeks following the loss of his hotel and home in Florida from Hurricane Ian.
Winner: Alex Cass
Many hoteliers working with Triptease have also been affected by this event. But Alex stood out for the fact that he not only came to the Summit regardless but also presented twice, shared his insights as a Hotel Hero with many of you here and via our Triptease blog. Alex continues to demonstrate out-of-this-world enthusiasm and support for the Direct Booking Summit and continues to be an inspiration for not only hoteliers but for the whole team here at Triptease. 
That’s it for this year’s Direct Booking Summit Americas awards. We hope all attendees enjoyed the Summit. If you weren’t able to make it, rest assured - we have packed all the key learnings and takeaways from the summit in our Direct Booking Summit report which is coming very soon. In the meantime, if you’re interested in joining us next year in Bangkok for another two days of direct booking strategy, networking and workshops on the 14th and 15th of March 2023 at the Siam Kempinski Hotel, you can still get your early bird tickets at the link: https://bit.ly/3U3cJBS