Paulo Sousa
Marketing Director, The Views Hotels
About The Views Hotels
The Views Hotels is a premium hotel group based in Madeira, Portugal, comprising three distinct four-star properties: The Views Baía, The Views Oasis, and The Views Monumental. The group stands out for its boutique sensibility, and commitment to hospitality rooted in Madeira’s rich cultural heritage – as well as for its impressive Michelin-starred restaurant, Desarma.
Background
Madeira is no ordinary hotel market. As an island destination historically reliant on packaged tourism, the region has long been dominated by tour operators. But The Views had different ideas. Led by Marketing Director Paulo Sousa in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, the team saw an opportunity to capitalize on an increase in direct flights and post-Covid “revenge travel.” They radically transformed their digital strategy to focus more on direct bookings.
Before 2020, the group was only seeing 5–10% direct bookings, with a channel mix that was hugely dominated by OTAs within that scope. Now, about 50% of its business comes from online channels (which includes both direct and OTAs) - and it's grown its direct share to about 20%.
“Direct is now our second-largest online channel, just after Booking.com — and we’re still pushing to go further.”
Paulo Sousa
Optimizing performance by consolidating with Triptease
By 2023, The Views had been working hard to grow direct share for a couple years. But there was still something missing. Running metasearch and paid search through its booking engine, the team didn’t feel that spend was being optimized. So they decided to move both over to Triptease. They also opted to move retargeting to Triptease from a different provider, so that one partner would be handling all three of these key offsite marketing channels.
“Our previous provider wasn’t so efficient in the way they used our budget. With Triptease, I know they use smart bidding, prediction tools, bidding optimization and other tools –which helps me to not be concerned about anything regarding online advertisement because the results are very good, and always improving.”
–Paulo Sousa
The numbers speak for themselves: in The Views’ first quarter with Triptease it saw significant jumps in performance compared to its previous providers. With no change in spend, The Views Baia saw:
- Metasearch ROAS increase from 10x to 27x (+170%)
- Paid Search ROAS increase from 8x to 20x (+150%)
- Retargeting ROAS increase from 8x to 23x (+187%)
And that was just the starting point. Fast forward to 2024 – with Triptease’s continuous optimization, The Views Baia now achieves a metasearch ROAS of 54x, paid search ROAS of 25x, and retargeting ROAS of 89x.
They’ve also started running onsite personalization through Triptease, which had an ROI of 94x last quarter – and generated an impressive 4% conversion rate.
Currently, Triptease metasearch, messages, paid search, and retargeting together make up around 45% of The Views' direct website revenue, driving close to €500k in revenue last year.
“If we changed our booking engine or other parts of our tech stack, we’d still continue to work with Triptease. Because Triptease is delivering great results.”
– Paulo Sousa
A wide-reaching direct booking strategy
In addition to working with Triptease’s tools, Paulo enacted other changes that helped to shift more of the Views’ bookings direct.
- Tackling wholesaler-leaked rates and OTA parity issues: The Views struggled with rate leakage, especially with wholesalers selling its B2B rates direct to consumers. In order to regain control it raised wholesaler rates and added contractual clauses to prohibit online reselling. It also uses Triptease’s Price Match capabilities to catch smaller rate discrepancies promoted by OTAs.
- Getting noticed through Brand Repositioning & Property Differentiation: Previously, The Views struggled to have a brand “identity” in Madeira’s busy hospitality space. Paulo along with his Marketing Team led a full rebranding of the group, giving each hotel a distinct identity and target market: this allows them to more clearly market their value proposition and to offer target marketing to the right guests. A strategy that was fully endorsed by the hotels' top managers and executive board.
- Using its restaurant Desarma as a differentiator and an “anchor”: On the rooftop of The Views Baia sits Desarma, a Michelin-starred restaurant also owned by The Views. Paulo ensures that Desarma has its own voice, style and brand – which can in turn lead to brand authority for The Views. The restaurant’s storytelling, media exposure, and connection to Madeira’s heritage create an emotional and experiential pull — key for inspiring direct loyalty.
- Encouraging direct bookings through direct-only benefits: The Views implemented a 10% discount for website bookings to create a clear value proposition for online booking – a small investment when compared to OTA commissions and the value of a first-party guest relationship. Paulo is also currently building The Views’ first loyalty program to encourage repeat bookers.
The power of the direct guest
What makes a direct booking so valuable? Paulo would agree with all the normal points about profit margin, first-party data and owning the guest relationship. But for him, it’s also the mindset.
“Life at the hotel takes on a special dynamic with direct guests. When people book directly with us, they often arrive feeling a stronger connection to the hotel—almost like part of the family. In Madeira, we take great pride in offering warm, personal hospitality, and this close approach resonates naturally with direct guests. A direct guest typically tends to engage more openly with the team, which makes it even easier for us to share that genuine Madeiran warmth and care.”
–Paulo Sousa
Guests who book through tour operators or OTAs often travel in groups or rely on intermediaries, resulting in a more transactional stay. Direct guests, by contrast, bring higher satisfaction and a more personal connection to the hotel — all of which can lead to true value when it comes to reviews and to potential returning customers, as well as to the overall energy onsite.
The Views and Triptease
When asked why he enjoys working with Triptease, Paulo told us:
“It’s the ease of use. The comfort of knowing that I don’t have to worry about anything–and, even if I don’t check results for a couple of days, I know we’re doing well.”
–Paulo Sousa
By using Triptease’s tools, Paulo can make sure he’s optimizing performance on metasearch, retargeting, paid search, and messages – which gives him and his team more time and energy to focus on driving even more success for The Views.
