Metz, The Social Concept

Pay To Play? HotelsCombined Attempts to Raise Buzz With Donations-For-Word-of-Mouth

December 23, 2008

HotelsCombined, a hotel price comparison engine, has taken a radically different tack to generate buzz on the social web. They’re making charitable donations in users names in exchange for a mention of the brand on the blog. Alternately, if a user becomes a Facebook fan, the brand is willing to make a small donation in their name to one of three charities of the user’s choice.

As a result, they’ve seen gradual growth in their word of mouth, since September 2008. The program currently has over 200 Facebook page fans.

“Having someone talk honestly about you is more effective than any sort of advertising,” Vicki Byrne, the site’s Director of Business Development,said. “Why use a marketing agency to tell your customers what they think? Why not let your customers tell you and other customers what they think of you?”

“[We] asked a few seed users to help spread it around to their friends and fellow bloggers,” Byrne said, “it has then spread on its own from there.”

HotelsCombined’s program has now grown to donating roughly $10 a day. They receive about 5 blog posts (all positive feedback) and 50 new Facebook fans per month. Today, they have over 200 Facebook fans.

They do not use any tracking for the charitable donations that lead to bookings on the site, and Byrne stated the brand did not create the charity program to increase their click-thru rate or conversions.

Over the course of the program, site traffic initially increased, but later declined in November to a level that was lower than the start of the engagement. That said, visitor time-on-site is at an all time high, and the decrease in traffic was small (about 5%).

As evidenced by the favorable sentiments expressed through word-of-mouth, Byrne believes the site is setting itself up to be viewed positively in the minds of its customers. She also mentions that the charity program motivates the site’s staff and that “HotelsCombined.com does not take any fees for administration, salaries or any other form of cost so that 100% of every single cent raised goes to the charity chosen.”

HotelsCombined.com is a free service headquartered in Sydney, Australia that features over 900,000 hotel deals and allows visitors to search major travel sites to find the cheapest hotel prices. Visitors can also read independent hotel reviews by fellow guests then buy directly from the hotel or favorite travel site. Some of the charities they have donated to include World Vision , WWF , and Make-A-Wish Foundation . They also make outright donations to organizations they feel strongly about, including CarbonFund.org .

If your company is interested in creating an innovative social web engagement like HotelsCombined, let us know, by leaving a comment or sending us an email.

Melissa Chen is a Strategy Associate at METZ. She is a Media Studies major at UC Berkeley and is the President of Public Relations @ Cal.

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