Crescent's Luxurious Horseshoe Bay Resort Experience

Highlights

• Digital advertising and similar audience prospecting through sophisticated segmentation using buying history, website behavior and data driven targeting.
• 13% longer time on site, 16% decrease in bounce rate and a 9% increase in page views in just under 5 months.
• 89% growth in Group RFP leads within 60 days after new site live.
• 172% increase in consumer interactions through local search including incoming phone calls and a 1000% increase in photo searches.
• A "Mobile on Steroids" website with app like design, Progressive Web App (PWA), and Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP).
• Extensive schemas and structured-data making the site voice search ready and optimized for next generation of SEO.

New York, NY | February 19 2018. At HSMAI's annual Digital Marketing Conference today, Milestone Inc. and Crescent Hotels & Resorts Inc. announced the launch of a new "Mobile on Steroids" website for the upscale Horseshoe Bay Resort near Austin, Texas. Situated on the shores of Lake LBJ, just 45 minutes from Austin, Horseshoe Bay Resort is an AAA four-diamond lake and golf resort offering luxurious accommodations, family friendly amenities and world-class golf in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. Horseshoe Bay Resort is also known for exceptional meeting and event venues and a private executive airport make ideal for both vacationers and business travelers alike.

Crescent Hotels & Resorts wanted to improve their paid media performance by leveraging data personalization and segmentation. The group also wanted a new website built with the latest technologies. "We were impressed by the level of sophistication of Milestone's programs as well as their exceptional design and technology portfolio," said Delana Meyer, VP of Ecommerce for Crescent Hotels. "Working with a world-class team like Crescent and a world-class resort like Horseshoe Bay was an honor for us," said Milestone CEO Anil Aggarwal. "We are thrilled with the outcome and with the results we have been able to deliver for Crescent and Horseshoe Bay," continued Mr. Aggarwal.

Advanced Paid Media Strategies with Personalization and Segmentation

The new website launched in late 2017 was backed by a Paid Media strategy that leveraged personalization and audience targeting through extensive analysis of previous consumer buying behavior and website browsing patterns. Audiences included in the campaign included "like" buyers that were patterned on previous Horseshoe Bay customers.

A "Mobile on Steroids" Website

The Horseshoe Bay Resort website provides an industry-first approach that combines three mobile-focused technologies into a one-of-a-kind experience. The Mobile-First design coupled with a Progressive Web App engine provides an app-like experience, while an AMP pages for key parts of the property's web presence allows for increased visibility for the hotel. The new website saw a dramatic decrease of 16% in bounce rate and an increase 13% in time on site. The new website also yielded an 89% jump in group leads in the first 60 days post site launch.

Deep Use and Integration of Content and Schemas

The support for voice-search friendly schemas in Milestone's CMS was also key in Crescent's decision. "The ability for Milestone CMS to create a website that was ready for voice search was critical," said Ms. Meyer. Milestone CMS provides Horseshoe Bay with support for over 120 schemas and allows them to wrap most of their content in SEO-friendly schema tags including rooms and amenities, greatly increasing the hotel's visibility to voice-powered search systems like Google, Bing and Apple Maps.

Large Growth in Local Search Visibility

Milestone also employed its award-winning Milestone Local platform to update and manage Horseshoe Bay's local search presence across the search ecosystem. This led to a 172% increase in consumer actions including inbound phone calls as well as a 1000% increase in users searching for Horseshoe Bay Resort using photo search.

Come see us at HSMAI's Digital Marketing Conference to learn more

Milestone will be exhibiting at HSMAI's Digital Marketing Conference at the Marriott Marquis hotel in New York, NY on Wed Feb 20 and Thursday Feb 21st. Hotels interested in how Milestone-only initiatives can help boost direct revenue are invited to come by. Milestone is also hosting a free 3-hour workshop on technology, paid media and analytics. Interested attendees can sign up free of charge.

About Crescent Hotels & Resorts

Crescent Hotels & Resorts is an award winning, nationally recognized, top-3 operator of hotels and resorts. Crescent currently operates over 100 hotels, resorts and conference centers in the US and Canada. Crescent is one of the few elite management companies approved to operate upper-upscale and luxury hotels under the brand families of Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and IHG. Crescent also operates a collection of legendary independent lifestyle hotels and resorts under Latitudes Collection, Lifestyle by Crescent. Crescent's clients are made up of hotel REITs, private equity firms and major developers. For more information, please visit www.crescenthotels.com, www.latitudesbycrescent.com or connect with Crescent on LinkedIn.

About Milestone Inc:

Milestone offers innovative digital marketing strategies for businesses and hotels around the world. Milestone drives revenue directly to businesses with innovative proprietary software and tailored support. Milestone focuses on increasing businesses' digital presence, growing your customer base by allowing searchers to easily find your business and book direct. Learn more about Milestone software and services by contacting Walter Paliska, [email protected], or visiting www.milestoneinternet.com.