Crane's Beach House
messaging tourism during the COVID pandemic
At a time when most properties were providing “no comment” responses to inquiring journalists, we were proactively pitching this approach to both consumer and travel trade media, which resulted in nearly 500 million impressions in everything from USA Today to Travel Weekly, with feature story images of Crane’s property and safety measures, comprehensive interviews with Crane’s GM about the hotel’s safety program, and headlines touting our guest relations approach. Crane’s PR strategy was also recognized by Travel Weekly, which awarded the hotel with the first place (gold) honor in its esteemed annual Travel Weekly Magellan Awards in the category of Hospitality Marketing in Crisis Communications.
As a result of the positive, national media exposure, Crane’s immediately began to see an increase in reservations, primarily among guests booking for 30 days or more. The hotel even received inquiries from real estate agents who had heard about their special extended stay offer and needed temporary housing options for their clients. Because Crane’s was able to successfully promote its safety precautions and special offers during the pandemic, it not only was able to remain open and profitable, but to this day, it has not had to lay off a single employee during the worst year on record for South Florida’s tourism industry.
Solution
We immediately went to work to help the property create a precautionary strategy that addressed every aspect of the safety concerns of area visitors and stranded travelers. Understanding the property layout and design, we knew guests could stay at Crane’s and effectively never come into contact with another guest, staff member, or even a single soul beyond property walls. We created a plan that would help the property become a completely contactless- or “no contact”- environment.
We made the recommendation for them to install Ring technology, limit housekeeping to before check-in and after checkout, and create a contactless amenity drop and garbage pickup system for services requests. We helped develop “Stay Safely” Welcome Kits that contained disposable masks, gloves, and sanitary packs, which were provided complimentary to all guests upon arrival to their rooms. We positioned this safety-centric hospitality approach as the new red carpet roll-out in hospitality- putting sanitation, health and safety precautions above all else. Additionally, we recommended Crane’s implement a long-term/ extended stay program targeted at stranded visitors, weary travelers, and people stuck between home purchases because of the pandemic.
Results
At a time when most properties were providing “no comment” responses to inquiring journalists, we were proactively pitching this approach to both consumer and travel trade media, which resulted in nearly 500 million impressions in everything from USA Todayto Travel Weekly, with feature story images of Crane’s property and safety measures, comprehensive interviews with Crane’s GM about the hotel’s safety program, and headlines touting our guest relations approach. Crane’s PR strategy was also recognized by Travel Weekly, who awarded the hotel with the first place (gold) honor in its esteemed annual Travel Weekly Magellan Awards in the category of Hospitality Marketing in Crisis Communications.
As a result of the positive, national media exposure, Crane’s immediately began to see an increase in reservations, primarily among guests booking for 30 days or more. The hotel even received inquiries from real estate agents who had heard about their special extended stay offer and needed temporary housing options for their clients. Because Crane’s was able to successfully promote its safety precautions and special offers during the pandemic, it not only was able to remain open and profitable, but to this day, it has not had to lay off a single employee during the worst year on record for South Florida’s tourism industry.