Castellucci Hospitality Group, a family owned and operated restaurant group known for its unique and inventive dining concepts, wanted to drive sales, reach more guests, and capture more market share. Two years ago, they started to make strategic investments of their marketing dollars with OpenTable in order to drive more bookings—and they immediately saw results. Now, as they look for ways to navigate the pandemic, they realize more than ever the value OpenTable provides in helping them achieve their goals.

Being in the driver’s seat with OpenTable marketing

Through the OpenTable partnership, Castellucci leans heavily into all of the pricing and platform tools available. With boost campaigns, they were able to reach undecided guests to their restaurants by controlling their visibility in search during slow times.

Today as they manage through the pandemic, marketing is more important than ever to stay relevant in the eyes of their customers. While using a variety of marketing tactics, including social media, email, text, print and digital, OpenTable marketing was an effective solution in driving guests to the restaurant once dining rooms were open again. “Controlling how, when, and where our restaurants appear in OpenTable search to guests who directly book has been very powerful for us,” says Lauren Castellucci, Director of Sales and Marketing.

Driving sales with more marketing exposure

Castellucci runs boost campaigns, specifically Promoted Results, to get in front of more guests on OpenTable. They decide the days and shifts when they want to promote their restaurants and can dial up their exposure to drive more bookings. “Boost campaigns are really cool marketing tools that ensure guests are going to see us and book. They help us capture more diners who are searching for places nearby or for specific times,” says Castellucci.

Through these campaigns, they also see high-quality guests book reservations. Guests who find their restaurants and book on OpenTable typically spend 2% more than guests who reach them otherwise—and they come back often. Castellucci tracks their return on investment through free POS integration and OpenTable’s reporting suite where they can see total spend per guest and the channel through which each guest booked their reservation.

Benefiting from a true partnership

More than anything, Castellucci says they value the relationship with OpenTable as being a real partner in the sales and marketing equation. They view the partnership as a benefit to their overall business, particularly as it pertains to OpenTable’s staff.

“My OpenTable account manager and OpenTable marketing consultant are the best of the best customer service partners. The number of times they reach out with ideas or recommendations supported by numbers that show how we can optimize our approach to drive more sales and reach more diners is tremendous and always mutually beneficial.”