An ROI of 96 with Oaky: How Cameron House on Loch Lomond maximizes its enormous upsell potential

Cameron House on Loch Lomond is a luxurious five-star hotel nestled on the banks of Scotland’s most famous loch. Combining breathtaking natural beauty with world-class facilities, Cameron House offers an unparalleled guest experience. The resort features elegant accommodation, plenty of dining options, an indulgent spa, saunas, and spas. There’s also a range of outdoor adventures, including a private marina, Loch Lomond seaplane tours, and golf courses.

With such a wide variety of exclusive amenities and facilities, Cameron House boasts immense upsell potential. Dasline Muvwanga, the hotel’s revenue manager, had worked with Oaky before at another hotel and knew it would help Cameron House to maximize the hotel’s upselling potential.

We sat down with Dasline to hear why she chose Oaky’s pre-arrival upselling again. Here’s an overview of how it has enabled Cameron House to align their team commercially and automate the upselling process, resulting in remarkable upsell revenue achievements.

Challenges: Manual upselling process and reliance on spreadsheets led to inefficiency and missed opportunities

1. Operational inefficiency of manual upselling

Before Dasline implemented Oaky, upselling occurred only at check-in or when the reservation team would make proactive calls to guests prior to arrival. It was a challenging process and couldn't be done at scale, as their team had no access to a quick overview of deal availability and pricing at a glance.

2. Inability to maximize the hotel’s range of upselling opportunities

Although Cameron House has a variety of services and experiences to offer its guests, this upsell opportunity went largely untapped without software.

For Dasline, upselling is one of the most important steps of an effective revenue management strategy. She explains, “Upselling is one of the activities that are at the forefront of what I do. It’s important for me to make sure that the team is aligned commercially and we’re maximizing revenue from all outlets across the resort.”

Objectives:

1. Maximize revenue from room upgrades

The first opportunity that Dasline spotted was to drive more revenue through room upgrades pre-arrival. On top of that, the hotel uses Duetto and the fact that Oaky integrates with Duetto was also viewed as another opportunity to boost revenue in Dasline’s eyes.

2. Monetize ancillary services

The choice to implement Oaky didn’t require much thought. Having Oaky meant that they could create more opportunities for the hotel to make more money through upselling.

For a hotel with such a selection of established amenities, investing in an upselling software solution was a logical step. For Dasline, it was crucial to leverage all the services and experiences the hotel offers and make the most of the hotel’s ancillary inventory. The manual upselling process allowed mostly for room upgrade sales, leaving service deals underutilized.

3. Have an organized and simple upselling process for the team

Dasline also aimed to improve the upselling process for the team. Understanding the importance of efficiency, she wanted to establish an organized and simple process that would generate tangible results without overwhelming the team.

Becoming one of Oaky’s top revenue performers with an organized and flexible upselling process

1. Reaching an ROI of 156 in August 2024, thanks to automated and easily managed upsells

Cameron House on Loch Lomond became one of the top revenue performers, consistently reaching impressive upselling results with Oaky. Thanks to the variety of deals the hotel sells and Dasline and her team’s direct involvement, the deals sold via Oaky are regularly optimized and updated.

Oaky’s self-serve and reporting capabilities have also made it much easier for Dasline to track the results allowing her to make swift changes should the needle move in the wrong direction.

Their return on investment (ROI) reached 96 in 2024 on average. August was an exceptionally profitable month for their hotel when their average ROI was a massive 1.5 times higher, measuring at 158.

The high engagement of guests with pre-arrival upselling offerings is reflected in the high email open rate (86.68% on average) and conversion rates (10% on average).

Like with their ROI, their highest conversion rate was also 1.5 times the average when they recorded 15% in November 2024. The conversion rate for services was also slightly higher (12%), evidence of the emphasis that Cameron House places on the guest experience.

As for room upgrades, the integration with Duetto has proven to be beneficial. The team applies dynamic rates to room upgrades to boost their revenue results. Dasline is looking forward to exploring even more opportunities with the integration.

2. Making the upselling process easier and more efficient for the team

Cameron House’s team was very receptive to adopting Oaky. As Dasline was already familiar with Oaky’s capabilities, she could oversee the implementation process without needing to involve the team. Once it was up and running, she rolled out a training plan to the supervisors after which they could roll out the training to the rest of the team.

She highlights that the training that the supervisors received from an Oaky representative has helped her team to get onboard easily. She praises Oaky’s support team for their knowledge and response times.

Combine the high level of support with the time-saving benefits and the result was positive from the start. While their team still makes proactive calls for room upgrades as part of the hotel’s strategy, Dasline notes that fewer calls are now needed to sell room upgrades proactively. She’s happy with the time-saving benefits and efficiency achieved even though the sky's the limit.

3. Having more control over upsell revenue thanks to Oaky’s self-serve capabilities and reporting

As mentioned above, Oaky’s self-serve capabilities and system flexibility empower Dasline to take full ownership of the hotel’s upsell strategy. With real-time visibility into upsell results, she can make data-driven adjustments to the offerings.

“I personally monitor it on a weekly basis. We review the services we offer and refresh them every month. If a service or item isn’t meeting expectations or helping us achieve our targets, we simply remove it and replace it with something else,” she explains.

Dasline also highlights the user-friendliness of the Oaky dashboard.

Final thoughts

With Oaky’s powerful self-serve features and flexibility in setting up pre-arrival deals, Dasline and her team crafted an effective and profitable upselling strategy they can easily tweak as needed. This approach not only supports the hotel’s revenue goals but also maximizes upselling potential and ensures a smooth, organized process for pre-arrival ancillary sales.