En español, en français, em português.
Changing a hotel’s website or engine is a momentous decision that goes beyond simply choosing a new technology or establishing a new partnership. It means renewing the main sales tool and your calling card to clients. That is why this decision must be taken carefully and taking into consideration both current needs, as well as our medium- and long-term goals.
Ten years ago, the Mac Hotels chain, with its flagship Club Mac, took the bold decision to embark on this path and in turn gain profitability and independence, by seeking to expand the scope of its direct sales in a sector dominated by tour operators.
It was time to improve its distribution in order to move forward in a constantly evolving and increasingly competitive market.
Challenging myths, redefining the rules
Club Mac is not just any hotel. With 1024 rooms dedicated to family tourism, it has always stood out for its uniqueness, its customer-centric approach, its loyalty-developing capacities and its ability to challenge industry standards. Even so, it has had to overcome many challenges to forge its own legend in the family segment, among them:
- Its location, 45 minutes from the airport.
- Its large size, with more than a thousand rooms.
- Not being backed by a major international brand.
- Being located in a highly seasonal destination with a high dependence on tour operators.
After lengthy negotiations, Club Mac found in Mirai more than a supplier: it found a strategic ally with which to take this big step forward. From the first conversations, it was clear that the focus would not only be on traditional metrics (such as conversion or traffic), but on the Channel Mix and how to maximise direct sales. By developing a medium and long-term strategy, we set a roadmap and offered our constant support in achieving tangible results, understanding that success is measured not only in numbers, but in the quality of the relationship and joint growth.
The challenges faced by Club Mac are as daunting as the hotel itself, which continued to break down more of the industry’s entrenched myths along the way:
- They challenged the claim of having to be on Booking.com in order to sell by ceasing to collaborate with them in 2018, which positively impacted their direct sales.
- They simplified their distribution by moving away from the idea of “the more channels, the more sales”, concentrating only on those channels that truly add value, thus strengthening the agreements with their main partners and favouring the growth of direct sales.
- They disproved the belief that tour operating leaves no room for growth on the web, finding a balanced channel mix in which direct sales have continued to grow. Just like the hotel’s income statement.
- In addition, they tackled head-on the concept that direct sales are more expensive than OTAs, while maintaining a supported cost well below that of intermediaries.
Club Mac proved that, with the right strategy, these assumptions can be overcome.
Leaders in innovation and strategy
Beginning with an intuitive web design and an efficient booking engine, the relationship between the two companies evolved to include: metasearch integration and management, digital marketing management and, ultimately, the adoption of innovative tools that continued to drive Club Mac’s growth. The tiered loyalty club, the upselling module and the booking retriever are just a few examples of the arsenal that Mirai has provided to support the hotel’s evolution and independence, culminating in the launch of the new website this summer.
Throughout this partnership, Club Mac has consolidated its trajectory towards direct sales with extraordinary results:
- In 2013, the first year of the partnership, Club Mac’s direct sales accounted for 6% of its total sales. This represented a 100% growth in RNs accommodated compared to the previous year.
- By the end of 2023, the % of direct sales accounted for 36% of turnover, making the web the hotel’s main sales channel.
- Investment in visibility has increased year on year, covering almost the entire brand and lowering the commission borne to 3.6%.
- It has opted for marketing actions that are further away from conversion, which have allowed the brand to grow by 60%.
- It has simplified and optimised its distribution, focusing efforts on the channels that provide the most value, improving its bottom line.
- Its bold pricing and inventory management has led it to always have the most competitive price available on its website.
In addition, the Mac chain has also been a pioneer in the adoption of innovative solutions such as our latest engine, “Book, Think & Pay” payments or Mirai Pro, underlining the hotel group’s position as a benchmark for innovation in the industry.
These ten years of collaboration have undoubtedly also marked Mirai as a company, because thanks to their contributions and suggestions, they have allowed us to improve and evolve our services and products. The biggest joint challenge came with the COVID-19 pandemic, when both companies faced months of uncertainty. But even then, our partnership remained strong and we adapted technologies and terms to ensure a smooth and secure hotel operation, supporting them at all times.
It has been in the face of such challenges that the value of the people behind the project has become more important and has been a turning point in our collaboration. “Without doubt, during all these years of collaboration, Mirai has helped us to be courageous in our decision making when it came to changing our distribution model. For us, it has become a close relationship of total mutual trust, a real win-win situation. Special thanks for the long hours of one-on-one conversations with Pablo Delgado”, said Miguel Amengual, Commercial Director, acknowledging the strength of a genuine collaboration.
This decade-long journey has truly been an adventure. Club Mac and Mirai have shown that with the right technology, strategy and team unity, retail myths can be challenged and turned into success stories. Looking ahead, we know that the best is yet to come and that this decade of transformation, innovation and mutual growth is just the beginning.
You can read the Club Mac success story here.
