…and Breathe

Making an impact at the 2023 VRMA International Conference.

Context: The premiere vacation rental management conference

Every year, the Vacation Rental Management Association (VRMA) International Conference is the short-term rental (STR) industry’s event of the year. Whether you’re a service provider like Hospitable, a booking platform like Airbnb, or a vacation rental business owner, it’s the place to discover the best platforms and most exciting trends in the industry.

Business management and automation software providers pack the venue with attractive booths designed to draw in attendees and convert them into customers. But the VRMA International Conference isn’t just a trade show — with conferences, workshops, parties, and more on offer, it’s a comprehensive industry experience.

Challenge: How can Hospitable shine brighter than the competition?

Hospitable wanted to boost their presence, draw attention to their booth, and create a memorable brand experience for guests at the crowded VRMA event. The ultimate goal was brand awareness: ensuring as many attendees as possible were given the opportunity to discover and engage with Hospitable during the conference.

A comprehensive event plan needed to span multiple phases before, during, and after the conference:

• Pre-event engagement: generating excitement about Hospitable’s booth and event presence
• Booth concept: driving foot traffic and engaging guests in the display hall
• Evening party: delighting attendees, drawing their attention, and keeping them entertained
• Post-event engagement: maintaining guest interactions with the brand

Approach: Take a Breath with Hospitable

Hospitable’s mission is to take the stress and chaos out of STR management. By automating most of the management processes, Hospitable gives hosts their time back — time they can then use to support their business in other ways, or enjoy as they please.

To illustrate this concept, we created an event concept centred around relaxation. Hospitable allows hosts to take a step back and breathe — this became the core concept that would echo throughout every guest touchpoint at the VRMA conference.

• Pre-event engagement: Guests were invited to share amusing memes poking fun at stress-inducing issues related to short-term rental management — the exact sort of issues Hospitable eliminates. Three winners chosen at random received free passes to the event.
• Booth concept: The slogan Take a breath with Hospitable reminded guests that Hospitable is their partner in stress-free business management. To entice foot traffic, essential oil diffusers filled the air with a bespoke aroma called STR and Chill. Visitors to Hospitable’s booth were delighted to receive a bottle of the oil as a gift.
• Event management: From pre-event coordination with suppliers and conference organisers through onsite event management, our team ensured everything ran as smoothly as possible.

Savion Ray personnel attended the VRMA conference to oversee all aspects of event execution: booth setup, power supply, event branding, merch and collateral production — including the STR and Chill essential oils — evening party management, and social media content production.

• Evening party: Amidst a crowded beach setting, Hospitable’s party area drew in over 500 guests with the promise of a free massage — the perfect way to illustrate the relaxation they’ll enjoy as Hospitable users. Guests were eager to queue for the massages and also praised the complimentary branded sleep masks given away during the party.

• Post-event engagement: Guests were engaged in the aftermath of the conference via a series of themed newsletters and social media publication waves offering a 25% discount on their first three months as new Hospitable users.

Results: A memorable event reaching more people than ever before

The digital campaign as well as Hospitable’s VRMA presence itself combined to supercharge their brand awareness and reach.

Social media

On social media, Hospitable increased their following by 17% as compared to last year. And their followers boosted their engagement with Hospitable’s social content by 454% over the same time last year.

The VRMA campaign achieved an average of 110% more reach and 185% higher engagement than Hospitable’s other content.

Newsletters

Our email campaign for the 2023 VRMA conference performed just as well, with a sky-high 44% open rate and 9.8% click rate. These numbers represent an increase of approximately 2–3% and 6–7%, respectively, over Hospitable’s other newsletters.

Want to see similar results for your next event? We’re ready to work with you and make it happen. Contact us today.

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