Hakone Airu

Kanagawa, Japan

When we saw signs of recovery in spring 2022, we started to look at strengthening our inbound strategy and discovered TravelAds Sponsored Listings. With 200+ hotels in our market, TravelAds has helped us improve much-needed visibility and driven steady growth in bookings.
Mr. Ken Watanabe, General Manager Hakone Airu

Nearly 90%

Increase in Impressions YoY

140%+

YoY room night growth

130%+

YoY revenue growth

Overview

Hakone Airu is a Japanese resort honoring the wilderness of Hakone and focusing on providing a luxury stay steeped in harmony and serenity. The resort is known for its spacious guest rooms with attached open-air baths and sophisticated Japanese ambiance. Hakone Airu offers fresh local cuisine, a lounge and bar, relaxing baths in hot spring water sourced from Hakone Yumoto, and an onsite beauty salon.

The Opportunity

While Hakone Airu enjoyed a steady flow of travelers, it realized that it was missing opportunities to gain market share and could better maximize its visibility.

The Solution

Hakone Airu worked with one of our digital media experts to develop a customized TravelAds campaign to reach more travelers, especially international travelers. To achieve maximum exposure, the property activated its bids for all points of sale and booking paths to reach as many travelers as possible. After that, the resort utilized custom ad copy and imagery to promote one of the property’s biggest selling points: the open-air baths in each room.

The Results

After only three months, Hakone Airu has seen a threefold increase in visibility, leading to an uptick in bookings and a year-over-year increase in revenue of over 130%. The partnership between Hakone Airu and Expedia Group has been so successful, in fact, that Mr. Watanabe, Hakone Airu’s General Manager, talked about the use of TravelAds in a television program in Japan.