Ballyliffin Lodge

Ballyliffin Lodge and Spa is a 4 Star hotel in Donegal, Ireland. Opened in 2005, the 40 bedroom hotel houses an award winning restaurant and luxury Spa and Leisure facilities in a scenic setting. Located in the heart of Ballyliffin village, it has easy access to a number of excellent golf courses. It has just received a “Certificate of Excellence 2012” by Tripadvisor so unsurprisingly is also a popular wedding venue.

The Challenge

It’s beautiful location and scenic views alongside a number of golf courses has made Ballyliffin Lodge a very popular choice for weekend breaks on peak season holidays. However, due to its remote location, the hotel can be very quiet during the week and at off-season times, so it was looking to find a way to increase visitor numbers during these periods.

The Result

In early 2012, Ballyliffin Lodge started speaking to Groupon to see whether a strategy of promotions would work to increase footfall to the hotel. Jo Doherty, Reservations Manager at Ballyliffin Lodge, explains: “Before Groupon approached us we had not really considered offering promotions of this kind, however, account managers Mark and John took us through the whole process and we soon realised that it would be well worth a try. They were both fantastic at really putting themselves into our shoes to find out exactly how Groupon could help us and carefully worked out the types and volumes of deals that would work. This meant we were only selling a limited amount of vouchers per night to cope with demand. This was a great help as we had no prior experience with offering these kinds of deals on such a scale.”

After careful planning, the team decided to run accommodation as well as off-peak wedding deals aimed at filling rooms during quieter periods. “Our first deals were an instant success – for the accommodation deal we sold out by 12noon on the day it went live! While the accommodation package includes bed and breakfast, we also offer them spa deals during their stay, which is a good up-sell. From our experience so far everyone is using additional services during their stay and are spending at least €80 extra per visit.”

Since the first deals went live in May, Ballyliffin Lodge sold 894 accommodation deals of which 460 have been redeemed so far. The wedding promotion has also been very popular, having sold 34 with 30 redeemed.

“The deals we have run to date have been a great success. They have been a fantastic way of getting more people booked in at tricky mid-week times, which are much quieter. The amazing thing is that the promotions have not just helped our hotel; it has also given a boost to local tourism and the village community as a whole with more visitors coming to the area. It is great to see the village strive and following our success, other hotels in the area have also turned to Groupon.” .

Ballyliffin Lodge is already planning the next round of Groupon promotions. The latest deals went live in November and will be running until January 2013. These include a two night break for two with breakfast for £99 (a 77% saving) and a wedding reception package for 80 guests with four course dinner and overnight bridal suite for £1,599 (a 50% saving).