Elevating Hotel Rumbao’s Appeal: How TrueTour™ Highlights Their Unique Location and Boost Conversions

Hotel Rumbao San Juan – a Tribute Portfolio Hotel, is located in the heart of historic old San Juan, just steps from the waterfront and cruise ship docking point. The hotel offers world-class shopping, dining, and entertainment nearby. Recently transformed through a multi-million-dollar investment, it features modern comforts alongside old-world charm. With over 9,800 square feet of flexible meeting space, including six meeting rooms and new dining options, Hotel Rumbao aims to provide an upscale experience for discerning travelers. The property boasts 245 rooms, including 48 suites.

The hotel clientele is diverse, primarily driven by transient travelers, with about 75% of guests falling into this category. Within the transient group, approximately 50% are leisure travelers, 15% are corporate, and the remaining comes from government and other sources. The last group of guests, accounting for 25%, consists of various meetings, events, and social corporate associations—also called MICE.

Situation

Armando Emanuelli, the Director of Sales and Marketing, confessed that when the management group Driftwood presented him to Visiting Media, he was hesitant to use this type of tool due to concerns about the product’s quality – prior to renovation – and the implementation process. However, he found the experience surprisingly positive due to the Visiting Media team’s responsiveness and efficiency, highlighting how quickly they delivered multiple shoots on short notice.

He knew that Visiting Media had been around for a while, but his goal at the time was to acquire business through alternative methods. Surprisingly, TrueTour has significantly helped them secure more business with a smaller team.

Process

He mentions how the team proactively offered a solution for an aerial video of his location. The production team created a CGI video from Google satellite images, solving a challenge posed by restrictions on drone footage in a historical area. The video effectively showcases the unique location, which is crucial for attracting clients, emphasizing that while many hotels exist in San Juan, their location sets them apart.

At the end of the day, meeting spaces, whatever you can mention, there’s a million options. But what makes us unique is, more than anything, our location. And within that one minute, they can visualize the video you created for us. It’s our best-seller asset!

Even with the rebranding to Hotel Rumbao eight months to a year after launching the program, he noted that the reshoot was completed swiftly, within just a few days. This seamless transition to the new brand did not compromise TrueTour’s functionality. All outdoor and indoor content was promptly replaced and updated on their end, simplifying future operations.

Solution and Results

Armando says that his team uses TrueTour at all touchpoints. Nowadays, time constraints challenge lean teams in the context of both hotels and event planning. He’s seen a trend of short-term bookings for larger events increasing. To address these challenges, they use TrueTour to streamline the planning process, allowing clients to explore properties efficiently through immersive tours instead of traditional site visits. This approach helps them save time and money, enabling their team to focus on meeting their event objectives.

We continue to observe this trend where there’s a lot of short-term bookings. I’m so surprised that in the group and events segment, planners are closing 50 to 200-person events or larger within 90 days. I’ve never seen it in the past; somehow, they managed to do it! We must implement tools that make it easier to do business with these people. With the tours, they can visualize their program. And that allows us to save time and money and the customers can concentrate on meeting their events objectives when we simplify their planning.

He highlights TrueTour’s ability to share various PDF files combined with immersive assets through a simple link, making it easier to provide corporate promotions and wedding details without the hassle of large email attachments. They utilize these links across multiple platforms like LinkedIn and Cvent, particularly in the prospecting phase and proposals to showcase specific meeting spaces with 360-degree visuals and alternative client options.

A Big Win

Just last week, Armando mentioned the difficulties some prospects faced when planning to visit the hotel due to the hurricane alerts and how Visiting Media’s platform was able to secure the programs, even with climate restraints.“It was last week. Here in Puerto Rico, unfortunately, we have the peak of hurricane season in September. I have a very important piece of business with a planner who was coming for a site inspection with us next week. And after the storm that came by near Puerto Rico last week, they were actually very concerned about the travel, but they also had to make a decision quickly. My sales manager sent them the link and helped them visualize everything. The contract went out, and they signed!”

Summary

Armando’s experience with Visiting Media and implementing TrueTour has been highly positive and effective. By leveraging innovative tools, his team has not only navigated challenges posed by time constraints and external factors, but has also enhanced their ability to secure business efficiently. The seamless integration of immersive tours into their sales has allowed them to stand out in a competitive market, ultimately contributing to increased bookings and consistently achieving their goals.

I have less team assigned to group sales than ever, and they certainly book and handle much more leads than before. And the conversation rate is up so, I’m very satisfied.

Hotel Rumbao San Juan – a Tribute Portfolio Hotel Quicklook

• Management Company: Driftwood Hospitality Management
• Brand: Marriott International
• Segment: Boutique
• Space: 245 rooms, including 48 suites | 9,800 sq. ft. meeting space
• TrueTour Facts: faster sale cycle and higher conversion rate, even for large group sales and events