A Destination Platform: How a collaboration 5 years in the making helped Condo-World and Visit Myrtle Beach put up big wins

One of the important aspects of collaboration is that—beyond being a sustainable strategy for growth—it grows to become a long term competitive edge.

We’ve seen this proven in Myrtle Beach. Now in a record-performant year after one of the fastest rebounds in the country, early collaboration was the foundation for their recovery.

We’re now 5 years in to the partnership. In lockstep with Alex Husner, CMO of Condo-World and newly elected Chair of the Board of Visit Myrtle Beach, we’ve seen the community soar.

We sat down with Alex to talk about the big wins both organizations have seen, including how the platform is driving their decision-making, a better path to conversion, and tackling their big rocks.

Early adopters

Condo-World and Visit Myrtle Beach agreed that having better conversations and more authentic relationships with travelers would naturally lead to better conversion. That led them to become early adopters of the platform.


Video 1: Visit Myrtle Beach + Condo-World: Early Adopters

“We all knew that there was a better way; a more personalized way to get guests along the funnel.”

Collaborative insights drives decision making

The insights gained from across the community l have helped everyone understand what’s making the most impact down to dollars. That has shaped marketing efforts in real time, and has led to exponential growth in audience and revenue.


Video 2: Flip.to for Visit Myrtle Beach: Collaborative Insights

“Through Flip.to we’ve been able to build one of the most sophisticated data structures of any DMO in the country.”

Winning over travelers

Whether in the dreaming phase, planning phase or booking phase, Flip.to helps Condo-World and Visit Myrtle Beach reach a high-quality audience, inspiring them with the right message at the right time in their traveler journey.


Video 3: Flip.to and the Traveler Journey: winning over dreamers, planners and bookers

“We’ve been able to use Flip.to to make more informed decisions on our advertising.”

Better conversations with travelers

A reimagined booking path, Discovery sparks conversations with planners on both sites in a more authentic way, building an audience, learning their intent, and winning them over. This, of course, leads to increased revenue.


Video 4: Discovery: Unveil & re-engage planners on your site, tracked to revenue

“We’ve really flipped the script on how abandonment works. We know there’s a lot of nurturing that needs to happen along the way, and through Flip.to we’re able to do that.”

Impact

The Flip.to platform is helping Condo-World and Visit Myrtle Beach grow an owned audience of travelers, enabling them to have better conversations with that audience, and following the impact of those relationships all the way down to dollars.


Video 5: Alex on the Flip.to team

“Working with the Flip.to team could not be better. They’re passionate about what they do. They’re passionate about technology, but they’re also passionate about travel.”

And it’s working better than we could have dreamed. So far this year, we’ve helped earn and track $37 million across all of Myrtle Beach.

That’s on top of the high quality audience growth, and all of the other benefits of the platform— including a mission that’s been a sustaining factor for their travel industry: collaboration.

Wrappy Hour: The Latest Release Notes Wrap-up from 2020

Cheers for stopping in on another wrappy hour! Follow along for some big updates, new features and round it out with a bug smackdown.


Big Ticket Items

Spaces
We’ve streamlined your account with new navigation that makes it easier to flip between the hotels, groups or destinations that you’re helping to reach and inspire travelers. These new spaces also set the stage for some entirely new products.

Screencapture of Flip.to's new Audience Onboarding process

Audience Onboarding & Invitations
Got an existing audience of past guests? Our new onboarding assistant can help you add them onto the platform with a few clicks. That tees up the next feature.

Your past guests are ready to become storytellers. The storyteller invitations feature helps target this audience, and sets them on personalized storytelling journeys that inspire future travelers, build brand loyalty, and strengthen your relationship with them.

Improved Attribution Tracking
Understanding the traveler journey is as important as ever. We’ve improved (and are on a never-ending quest to improve) the way our platform is helping the industry learn how to best win over audiences, and which paths are the most profitable.

Feature Updates + Light Enhancements

Screenshot of Flip.to account's new announcement feed

Announcement Feed
You deserve to know the latest and greatest about our products as soon as new features drop. We built an announcement feed into your account, so the news meets you where you are the most.

Sign-in Flow
Your new sign-in experience replaces cumbersome temporary passwords with a reset link, and displays password requirements so you’re logged in and back to work without raising your anxiety.

Account Permissions
We’ve added fine-grained permissions, so you can customize other users’ access to each area of our platform. Some of your team may need review-only status, while others need full access for modifications.

Azure Flattening & Angular Migration
Through a bit of backend string pulling, Azure flattening sets the stage for unaffiliated organizations to share content with each other. That allows DMO’s, brands and management groups to share content with their members more efficiently.

Our ongoing migration to Angular continues, which just means we’re able to build better and faster.

The Great Bug Smackdown 🐛

A recent Flip.to Story River on Margaritaville Hotels

Story River
Our Story River should float guest stories downstream in every browser, but it didn’t for Internet Explorer. Now IE users can navigate the River as true explorers should.

Dark Mode
The dark side of Dark Mode left important parts of our emails in the shadows. We hacked a fix, and now they look great, even in the dark.

Duplicating Efforts
Duplicate emails are so annoying. Duplicate emails are so annoying. We fixed that.

Guest Certificates
Some logos were broken on guest certificate pages. That’s taken care of, and while we were at it, we made sure a certificate’s expiration date can be edited properly.


Thanks for joining our wrappy hour! If you’d like to know more about any of our new features, or you’d like a sneak peek, we’d be happy to take you for a test drive. Give me a shout at zstovall@flip.to.

Wrappy Hour: Your Release Wrap-up from 2019

As you’ve probably seen, we may have dropped the ball on our blog. Excuses aside, we have at least one good reason: we spend a lot of time building product that’s damn good. Product that’s helping travel marketers of all sorts win over new audiences, and knock down their goals.

And we’re getting better all the time, too. We haven’t brought to light these updates nearly enough, but hey, much like our blog—new year, new us! 🎉

To kick-off, we’re recapping all the enhancements we made last year. Plus, be on the look out here for more updates to come—it’s one resolution we’re here to keep.


Our ‘Big Rocks’

We’ve broken out the pneumatic equipment to improve our platform—meant to fundamentally change our business—and yours.

We’re counting your dollars—even better
We set up new plumbing to more accurately attribute referral links down to revenue. It sounds like a basic update, but it’s truly game-changing.

We’re migrating to an all new Angular
We’re updating the infrastructure of our account (and eventually to our wider platform) to the newest version of Angular. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not alone. Google’s development framework simplifies our coding process, letting us build infrastructure faster and with fewer obstacles. And it’s kind of a big deal.

Feature updates & light enhancements

We’re also finding ways to make the features you know and use even better. When your life is easier, ours is too.

Even faster onboarding
As a new customer, you can get running at full speed now in a matter of days thanks to some process updates that lessen the workload for our account managers.

Data parse improvements
It’s now easier and more comprehensive to get import data into our platform. Hooray for data parse, as they say.

Better reporting
When you want to dig into the details, reports are the place to go. In this update, they got some much-needed house cleaning. Names, definitions, and data calculations are now more consistent, giving you more precise data.

(Even more!) Better reporting
We restructured our reports to provide a better look at audience segments on our platform. So it’s faster and easier to get to what (and who) you need.

URLs that say what you mean
The ten-character limit for shortened URLs has been increased to fifty. Now we can set up a link like http://go.flip.to/you-can-name-it-this-long-but-use-some-restraint. Go ahead and channel your excitement in URL form.

Put your stories to work, even easier (and see their impact, too)
See every bit of impact from every story, with a new look that’s even more insightful. Put your stories to use in a big way by broadcasting them in a snap.

💡 Recommendations from your neighborhood AM
Be on the lookout for recommendations hand-selected just for you by your friendly, recommendation-wielding account manager.

Stories, queued up
We made it easier to access the queue of stories that need curating. Just click the button called “Start curating” in the Library.

Bugs squashed 🐛

Based in Florida, we’re used to dealing with some pretty horrifying bugs. While we can’t always keep them out, we’re quick to swat them down. Here are a few we put the kibosh on in 2019.

Letting Angular young-and-old play nice
Some <a>s were updated to <button>s so our version of Angular plays nice with others.

Bubbling up your best stories
Sometimes our logic was butting heads, causing story randomization to be not so random. Story River, Explorer, Invitation page, and Confirmation Experience now show a better mix of stories.

Social channels are (constantly) changing—so we are, too
What can we say? Our travelers like sharing to all of their audiences, and we plug into the major platforms to make that possible. As those platforms make structural changes and release updates, it’s easy for bugs to creep in. When they do, we stay on top of it to make sure they don’t hang out for long.


Wrappy hour is officially a wrap! Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to follow our continued updates. Next time you find yourself in Florida we’d love to grab a coffee IRL. Cheers to 2020!

Introducing Invitations: Grow your largest team of storytellers yet

Advocates are powerful. They’re helping destinations, hotels, and rental properties compete from the point of inspiration—connecting with new & future travelers in a more meaningful way to win them over from the start.

(And we’ve shown you the impact: it’s that big.)

So how do you get even more? More advocates sharing their travel stories… more introductions… more wins!

Introducing: Invitations.

In just a matter of clicks, earn incredible impact when you widen your scope to even bigger audiences. Invite past travelers, their friends and family, your own audiences, and anyone else to share their experiences with your travel brand at the center.

And thanks to your growing team of travelers-turned-storytellers, you’ll spark new conversations with the warmest, most receptive audience yet—at a scale like never before.

Take a peek:

 

If you’re ready to put Invitations to work for your travel brand, reach out. We’ll share how you can power growth (plus warmer relationships and a whole lot more) with advocacy.

Infographic: Classic Resorts nets a new channel of travelers by launching advocacy

There are tons of reasons to switch on advocacy, and every story about getting started with Flip.to is unique. That’s because advocacy works for all types of hotels, and all types of travelers. By design, it helps your brand get introduced to the perfect audience in a big way.

We’re taking a peek at just what that looked like for Classic Resorts: two resorts out of the islands of Hawaii. Their team had their sights on achieving more in 2017, and paired up with Flip.to to help conquer their goals. The result? Big wins for their properties and their travelers!

Together with Flip.to, Classic Resorts is inspiring travelers around the world with authentic stories shared by their travelers. And while the ROI has proven to be off the charts, it adds up to something bigger than that:

Building relationships with their travelers with even more hospitality, widening their scope to their best audience yet, and diversifying their strategy to helping their resorts get better every day.

If you’re interested in how advocacy is changing the game for vacation rentals, hotels and destinations, let’s chat. We’ll share more on the impact, and make it a fun chat while we’re at it. (Not to mention, kicking off is incredibly easy.)

Just launched: Caribbean resorts shine on the advocacy platform

We ❤️ our customers, and we celebrate every new hotel kicking off with advocacy. Last month was especially fun as we’re turning a corner into summer thanks to a ton of new launches from our neighbors to the south—the Caribbean!

We’re taking a moment to share the love for these incredible properties. Feel free to put your sunglasses on as you browse through just a few highlights of these pristine resorts who’ve just tapped into advocacy. 😎 🌴


Jamaica Inn

Ochos Rios, Jamaica

Jamaica Inn in Ochos Rios is an intimate property where their guests can relax and unwind.

Going live just a month ago, they’re building a team of storytellers who are sharing their resort worldwide. One in particular stood out—Chris, who shared the dream-worthy moment below—not once but 5 times. His friends & family shared, too (to the tune 4 more times) reaching over 5,000 people so far.

There’s really no better way for Jamaica Inn to get introduced to a new audience of future travelers perfect for their timeless resort.

jamaicainn-advocacy

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort

St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

Bolongo Bay Beach Resort is an all-inclusive resort surrounded by the tastes, sights, and sounds of St Thomas. Since switching on, guests are reliving the favorite moments from their stay, and Bolongo Bay is becoming part of these rich, potent stories being shared—a win-win.

What’s more impressive? The incredible impact since launch! Collectively, travelers to Bolongo Bay have introduced the resort to over 127K folks around the world in less than one month.

Of this captive new audience, over 13,500 unique visitors came back to their site through a quality introduction, and more than 1,500 converted into warm leads to nurture into future guests.

bolongobay-advocacy

Somerset on Grace Bay

Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands

Somerset on Grace Bay of Turks and Caicos is the picture of the Caribbean. It’s been named a top area resort by both Travel + Leisure and Forbes.

But that’s not the only reason they’re going global. With their “Tote Your Treasured Times” campaign, they’re growing a team of advocates who are sharing Somerset on Grace Bay at every corner of the world!

Their travelers are helping tell the story of Somerset in the most authentic way, combining advocacy with an incredibly fun campaign for the hotel and guests alike.

somerset-advocacy


One of the best part of our jobs is seeing the incredible memories our hotels, resorts & destinations create every day for their travelers. Add to that the impact starting day 1 thanks to these travel stories being shared, and we can hardly contain our excitement for these new launches kicking-off with Flip.to.

Want to see what your destination or hotel could do with advocacy in the next 30 days? We’re happy to share—find out by getting in touch here.

Watch now: Introducing Photo River

Right now your site is designed to capture the 1% of travelers who are ready to book immediately. But what about the other 99%? They’re still in decision making mode.

That’s why we’ve introduced Photo River—a new experience designed to bring to light the stories your guests are sharing, right on your site. Infuse more personality, offer up new ways to start a conversation, and bring back some real hospitality into your marketing with Flip.to.

 

Sound interesting? Take a tour, or adventure on to see how easy it is to share guest stories with Flip.to:

Share authentic guest stories in a snap

Authentic stories shared by your guests first hand provide the most candid and genuine insights into your hotel. With Flip.to, we help you unlock these moments—experiences that resonate with travelers.

 

So what can you do you with it then? The boundaries are limitless, but first up—share it! This is real, relevant content that your followers want to see.

We’ve made this incredibly easy—it just takes a few clicks, all the while adding a bit of fun back in your day.

Plus, finding the perfect story to share is simple. Every story that your hotel receives is automatically fitted with descriptions and tagged during the curation process. Easily search, choose and share exactly what you want without the headache of manually organizing your guest-created content on your own.

Start inspiring travel by sharing your guests’ favorite moments. Future travelers learn more about your brand, and your hotel tells a richer story—without any heavy lifting needed.

Watch now: Impact of a story well told

We’ve shown you how to reach and inspire entirely new audiences of travelers worldwide with Flip.to. Now let’s see what happens when all that goodness comes together for Crystal Lodge, Adrift Hotel, Inn on Fifth and Turtle Bay Resort.

 

Sound interesting? Introduce your hotel to the world with Flip.to. Take a tour, or adventure on to see the impact of advocacy for more hotels below:

Watch now: Introduce your hotel to the people who matter most

Start delivering unique, personal experiences to everyone that visits your site, no matter who they are or where they’re from. You’ll reach a global audience of travelers that are a great fit for your hotel, while converting warm leads into your future guests—each and every day.

 

Sound interesting? Introduce your hotel to the world with Flip.to. Take a tour, or adventure on to see the power of a story well told below: