“Half of our direct bookings [about USD$10M] were heavily influenced by Asksuite’s tools. Asksuite was largely responsible for the growth we had this year, without a doubt, especially once we understood internally how to better align our reservation center and website teams to drive leads and traffic using the solutions Asksuite offers.” — Rodrigo Vaz, Director of Marketing and Sales at Hot Beach Group.
The Hot Beach story
Rodrigo Vaz leads one of the biggest success stories in the hospitality industry. The complex consists of four resorts with distinct value propositions and a water park, Hot Beach, which is the fourth most visited in Latin America. It also features Vila Guarani, an entertainment center that extends the guest experience after the park closes.
Born with a DNA focused on families, the group evolved to deliver a more premium experience, also attracting corporate and senior audiences.
What were Hot Beach’s challenges before Asksuite?
Before consolidating its channel strategy, Hot Beach Group faced common challenges found in high-performance operations:
- Channel conflict: There were conflicting interests between the E-commerce (website) team and the Reservation Center, as each channel’s goals were independent.
- Fragmented customer journey: At this resort, the customer rarely booked in the first interaction. They started on the website, asked questions on WhatsApp, called the reservation center, and then returned to the website to book, making measurement and service complex.
- Reservation team efficiency: There was a need to optimize agents’ time, allowing the human team to focus 100% on negotiations and sales, rather than answering FAQs.
- Lack of unified metrics: It was difficult to measure success, as good work done in e-commerce could generate a sale in the reservation center, and vice versa, but the goals didn’t reflect this cooperation.
How did Asksuite’s omnichannel platform help Hot Beach?
Hot Beach Group uses Asksuite to unify communication and optimize performance. The platform is crucial for integrating teams and channels:
- 24/7 Artificial Intelligence: The group adopted Asksuite’s AI, Sophia, to operate around the clock. The AI handles the initial service and qualifies the traveler, allowing the human team to intervene only when necessary.
- Omnichannel journey management: Asksuite allows the customer to move smoothly between channels. The tools are actively used to drive leads and traffic as well as warm up the customer base.
- Strategic OTA management: The group uses Asksuite to manage post-booking communication on channels like Booking.com. This is seen as fundamental, improving the guest experience, earning points in the OTAs algorithms, and ensuring better positioning.
Did you know? Hot Beach Group has deployed Sophia, Asksuite’s new generation AI, to flip the script on customer service. While AI was previously used only outside business hours, nowadays the group relies on Sophia to assist travelers 24/7, with human agents focusing 100% on selling and only intervening when needed.
What results were achieved?
With Asksuite as a technological partner and the restructuring of internal goals, Hot Beach reached record results:
- USD$10M in direct bookings: About 50% of the group’s total annual direct bookings (projected at + USD$20M) were directly influenced by Asksuite’s tools.
- 65% of direct bookings: The group reached the milestone of 65% market share in direct bookings.
- 144% growth in e-commerce: The website sales jumped from 8% to 22% of the total share, with peaks of 27% during campaigns.
- Internal conflict resolution: The group created a variable compensation policy focused on “direct bookings as a whole.” What’s more, if the website performs well and helps the overall goal, the reservation center benefits, and vice versa. This united the teams toward the same objective.
- Operational efficiency: With 24/7 AI, the service capacity increased, focusing agents on high-performance sales.
“Where we managed to deliver the most results is where we had the best teams. I think that’s the main point, because you can find everything else somehow, but this [the engaged team] is the great differentiator that makes the business move forward,” concludes Rodrigo Vaz.
The Hot Beach case proves that specialized tech, combined with a management strategy that unites marketing, e-commerce, and reservation teams, is the path to transforming the operation into a scalable and profitable conversion machine.
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