Every season brings a different challenge
As one of Michigan's leading destination resorts, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa sees demand shift considerably throughout the year. Summer draws leisure travelers and golfers, weekends are filled with weddings, and autumn brings visitors for the region's famous fall colors. Every season creates new opportunities, but it also requires a different marketing approach.
Alongside those seasonal shifts were three longer-term objectives: increasing direct bookings, reducing reliance on OTAs (online travel agencies), and making every marketing dollar work harder by staying agile enough to respond as demand changed.
Capturing demand and converting more guests
Grand Traverse Resort and Spa built its strategy over time with Triptease, focusing on key goals one by one, bringing each product in at the right moment, and proving out value before moving on to the next. The starting point was capturing more high-intent traffic, which meant Triptease Metasearch first; once fewer clicks were leaking to OTAs, improving conversion was the most important topic, supported by Triptease Messages. Then the Grand Traverse team homed in on how to recapture missed opportunities via Triptease Retargeting.
This played out with strong results: Metasearch consistently maintained impression share above 80% while delivering on-target return on ad spend of around 10x, giving the team confidence to continue investing during key trading periods, knowing they were reaching high-intent guests at exactly the right moment.
Once visitors arrived on the website, Triptease Messages became one of the team's most valuable website personalization tools. Seasonal campaigns, flash sales, golf packages, and booking incentives could all be launched quickly, allowing the marketing team to respond as business priorities changed throughout the year.
Recovering bookings that might otherwise have been lost
Not every guest is ready to book right away. Some leave to compare options, others simply get distracted before completing their reservation, and Display Retargeting alongside Cart Abandonment emails gave Grand Traverse Resort and Spa another opportunity to bring those guests back.
During 2025, Retargeting delivered a 12x return on ad spend and, combined with Cart Abandonment emails, recovered bookings that would otherwise have been lost.
Seeing the bigger picture
As the strategy grew, understanding performance became just as important as running campaigns. Triptease's Data Marketing Platform brought performance from across every channel into one place, giving the team a clearer picture of what was working, where investment was paying off, and where to focus next.
"I can see the black and white data that I don't see from other partners."
Steve Timmer, Director of Marketing, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa
The results
By the end of 2025, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa's direct booking strategy had delivered over $1 million in booking value and 23% of website revenue.
The numbers tell an impressive story, but more importantly, they reflect how the partnership evolved. Rather than looking for a single solution, Grand Traverse Resort and Spa built its direct booking strategy one step at a time, and as each channel proved its value, the team had more opportunities to attract guests, convert bookings, recover lost revenue, and reduce reliance on third-party channels.
