Gift cards any hotel could take
A global collection of more than 500 independent luxury hotels, whose gift certificates were printed and posted.
/work/egiftingCame in new build
- System
- Gift certificates for 500+ independent hotels
- Ask
- An online eGift store to replace printed certificates
- Region
- Global. Euros, pounds and dollars.
The piece Three discs for three currencies, each ringed like a coin.
- 1 Nov 2017live as planned
- 200+hotelson the widget in five months
- USD 5.3Min five days
- ×12June 2020 on June 2019
The ask
An online eGift store to replace the paper certificates, starting with cash vouchers and growing into experiences, hotel deals and corporate gifting.
The real problem
Every card had to be honoured by an independent hotel running its own systems.
Five months after launch, more than half the hotels still hadn't installed a way to redeem a card.
From post to front desk
- Idle
- Live
- Strain
- Fail
PaperCertificates printed and posted. Hotels validated them on a separate website, posted the counterfoil to head office and waited to be paid.
eGiftThe eGift arrives by text and email on the chosen day. Any front desk redeems it and the hotel is paid.
What we built
A multi-currency gift platform in three parts: a store, a redemption widget for any hotel's front desk and an admin portal for head office. The widget needs no software, no hardware and no licence.
Buyers personalise the design, amount, message and delivery day with a live preview. Staff scan the code and can redeem part of a card. The settlement report shows head office what each hotel is owed.
How we made it hold
Training, SOPs, testing and finance reports were ready before launch. In 2020, with the hotels closed, the same platform carried an extra-value promotion.
Backstage The decisions behind the build, and the hardest problem
Decisions
A redemption widget with nothing to buy.
No software, no hardware and no licence, because every card had to be honoured by an independent hotel running its own systems.
Pay the hotel when a card is redeemed at its desk.
The collection holds the money, and the settlement report shows what each hotel is owed.
Put new uses on the same core.
Cards to put a bad stay right, co-branded corporate gifting and, in 2020, an extra-value promotion.
The hardest problem
Getting independent hotels onto the widget. Five months after launch more than half still hadn't installed a way to redeem a card, and the settlement report showed head office which ones still needed it.
The difference
- In 2020, with hotels closed, the promotion outsold all of 2019 online in seven weeks.
- June 2020 online eGift sales were about twelve times June 2019.
- A campaign run on the same platform took USD 5.3 million in five days.
