Brian McClary
Vice President of Revenue Strategy
About Coho Services
Coho Services is a leading hospitality management company that excels in delivering impressive growth for their diverse portfolio of hotels. Always looking for ways to optimize the digital marketing strategy of the hotels they work with, Coho Services recently moved some of their key properties from a different metasearch provider to Triptease. We spoke with Brian McClary, Vice President of Revenue Strategy, to learn more about the switch and the performance they’ve seen since.
Background
While Coho Services’ previous metasearch solution was driving some direct bookings, Brian wanted a platform that could adjust in real time to market conditions, guest behavior, and competitive pricing. It was also important for him to be able to continue to run metasearch on a commission model. When he discovered back in May 2024 that Coho Services’ current provider wouldn’t be able to continue to offer the flexible CPA model that they wanted after Google’s deprecation of commission-based models, it was the final push he needed to find a new metasearch partner.
Switching to Triptease for a commission-based metasearch solution
In early 2024, Coho Services switched to Triptease’s metasearch solution. Unlike traditional metasearch models, Triptease’s metasearch dynamically optimizes bidding in real-time based on key factors such as:
- Parity against OTAs
- Guest likelihood to book
- Market demand fluctuations
The Results
Switching to Triptease’s commission-based metasearch has led to major improvements year-over-year, including:
- Growth in metasearch booking volumes: We were able to directly compare bookings year-on-year for 4 properties in Coho Services’ portfolio. Collectively, those hotels saw 4.9x growth in metasearch bookings from making the change to Triptease.
- Growth in metasearch revenue: Those hotels also saw a collective 5.6x growth in metasearch revenue over the same timeline.
- Continued flexibility with CPA: Coho Services were able to continue running metasearch on a commission basis for the hotels they work with, with no disruption or change to their billing model.
Running Metasearch on CPA
For Brian, running metasearch on a commission basis is a no-brainer. It helps to easily showcase the high ROI of metasearch as a channel, and avoids friction when trying to implement metasearch for a new property.
“The hard part with paying upfront is sometimes trying to make it clear that the amount isn’t an expense - it’s an investment. When you’re doing a CPA model, it’s easier because everyone can see the commission paid out against the revenue coming in.”
– Brian McClary
Running Paid Search and Retargeting on CPA
In addition to running metasearch on CPA with Triptease, Coho Services has also had success with moving clients onto Triptease’s CPA-based retargeting and paid search campaigns.
Paid Search
Coho Services chose to work with Triptease for Paid Search on a commission basis in order to save time for their team and reduce upfront costs for their hotels, while continuing to see great results.
“We know that to get the results we’ve seen with Triptease, we'd have to spend thousands of dollars every month upfront.”
– Brian McClary
The 5 hotels that Coho Services are running on Triptease Paid Search have seen strong results, with Paid Search contributing an average of 10% of their direct website revenue (and up to 31% for one hotel!)
Retargeting
Coho Services also moved six hotels onto retargeting, some of which weren’t running retargeting at all. Retargeting is now contributing an average of 5.51% of those hotels’ website revenue, and up to 8% for one hotel.
Conclusion
Coho Services’ success with Triptease highlights the power of a dynamic, real-time approach to commission-based metasearch. By shifting to Triptease’s intelligent bidding they’ve significantly increased direct bookings and revenue from this channel. Their Paid Search and Retargeting channels saw similarly positive outcomes. We’re looking forward to continuing to provide Coho Services with the best tools for growth and optimization.
“I always want the best product, at the best price with the best service...with Triptease, I almost feel like I’m getting all three.”
