At the Song Hotel Sydney, every stay does more than offer guests a great night’s sleep–it helps build a better future for women in Australia. As the country’s first Profit-for-Purpose hotel, this newly renovated hotel in the center of Sydney reinvests 25 cents from every dollar spent back into the work of YWCA Australia, a not-for-profit that’s been supporting women for over 140 years.
This means that for the Song Hotel, the money its aves on OTAs doesn’t just improve its profit margin–it goes directly towards its mission to help women in need.
Before working with Triptease, just 7% of the Song Hotel’s revenue came from its direct website (and 24% from all direct bookings including offline channels), with 76% of business routed through OTAs. The hotel also struggled with OTA undercutting–typically, the direct rates were only in parity or cheaper 20% of the time.
The Song Hotel knew that gaining more direct bookings was important, but lacked the resources–and key tools like metasearch and display retargeting–to build visibility. The hotel also struggled with communicating the benefits of booking direct on its website.
That all changed when Song Hotel Sydney was introduced to Triptease and was quickly onboarded onto Metasearch, Retargeting, and Messages. Later, it also chose to work with Triptease for Paid Search.
“Thanks to Triptease’s implementation team, getting started was quick and easy”.
-Razi Mohammed
The Song Hotel had never run metasearch ads before Triptease. Today, it’s a key revenue driver, making up 31% of the hotel’s direct website revenue in Q1 2025.
Song Hotel Sydney also uses Triptease’s Price Match on Metasearch to combat the challenging issue of constant OTA undercuts. Without Price Match, Song Hotel Sydney would only be cheaper direct or in parity on metasearch 12% of the time. By employing precision discounts to counteract these undercuts in real time, the hotel is now cheaper or in parity 91% of the time on metasearch–an effective way to drive more guests onto its direct website.
Before working with Triptease, Song Hotel Sydney wasn’t running retargeting ads–meaning that, when a guest left its website, that guest was often gone for good. Song Hotel wanted to recapture those guests using Triptease’s market-leading tactics. The team also appreciated the level of data available on Triptease’s platform.
“We were drawn to Triptease because of the retargeting strategies it gives access to, and the real-time performance data.”
-Razi Mohammed
Retargeting is now a key part of Song Hotel’s direct booking strategy and in Q1 2025 alone, generated over AUSD 10k in revenue that would have otherwise been lost to competitors or OTAs.
The Song Hotel uses website Personalization to target guests at different points within their customer journey. It’s been able to capture thousands of emails for direct marketing campaigns through a dedicated popup message, which has in turn led to hundreds of bookings. And its exit messaging - designed to re-engage guests who are about to leave the site without booking - drives a nearly 20% click-through rate thanks to a timely last-chance discount.
The Song Hotel was active on Paid Search via Google Ad Grants (search ads provided to nonprofits at no cost), but it wasn’t seeing significant results. When changes to Google’s grant program last year removed Song’s access, the hotel needed a new paid search strategy — and fast. Triptease stepped in with managed campaigns, optimized for performance and direct ROAS. After just a few months, paid search now contributes around 16% of all website revenue, and drives a 13x ROAS for the business, with scope for even more growth down the line.
For the Song Hotel, it’s not just the individual products that have made the difference–it’s been using them together to create a unified strategy across the guest journey.
Metasearch and Paid Search bring high-intent traffic to the site. Onsite Messages and Price Match keep those visitors from bouncing. Retargeting re-engages the ones who leave. Plus, Triptease’s tools are allowing the Song Hotel to make sure that guests can trust their direct prices.
“It’s incredible to see how these strategies work together to not only drive direct bookings but also address OTA rate disparity challenges. Additionally, they help strengthen customer trust in our brand”.
- Razi Mohammed
Up from 7% direct website bookings to 11% today (a more than 50% increase!), the Song Hotel has already come a long way. But it’s not done yet: the hotel continues to look for ways to boost direct bookings through 2025 and beyond, including a brand-new loyalty program and a continued focus on solving rate parity issues. Triptease is proud to have contributed to this success so far, and can’t wait to support as the Song Hotel Sydney becomes even more of a direct booking powerhouse.