Gilmar resort Data-Driven Marketing

Project Overview

Gilmar is a resort offering hospitality services in a scenic nature-based setting. The marketing challenge lay in the absence of structured digital data and the seasonal nature of its business. I led a data-driven marketing initiative by extracting, cleaning, and analysing offline customer and booking data using Excel and Tableau. This formed the foundation for setting measurable KPIs and developing a tailored marketing strategy to improve occupancy and increase revenue from upselling premium services.

Challenge

Gilmar’s business model, while successful in attracting nature-seeking guests, lacked digital infrastructure and real-time tracking tools, such as Google Analytics. As a result, the team had no reliable data on customer behaviour, seasonal demand, or marketing effectiveness. Most business data existed in scattered offline sources without any central system for tracking or analysis.

This made it difficult to:

Identify low and high-demand periods (seasonality)
Detect marketing performance gaps
Set measurable marketing KPIs
Design targeted strategies to optimise occupancy and upsell premium services

Approach & Execution

Data Consolidation & Cleaning
Collected customer and booking data from various internal sources and manually cleaned it using Excel functions and pivot tables to prepare for analysis.
Data Visualisation & Pattern Recognition
Built dashboards in Tableau to visualise key metrics like occupancy rate, average length of stay, and upsell conversions. Identified seasonality patterns and demand gaps across different months.
Insight-Driven KPI Development
Used data insights to define realistic, measurable KPIs — including Occupancy Rate, Upsell Rate (for premium services), and Average Stay Duration — to guide marketing efforts.
Tactical Marketing Execution
- Content Marketing: Created seasonal campaigns focused on highlighting unique stay experiences.
- Influencer Marketing: Collaborated with local lifestyle influencers to showcase the lodge as an ideal getaway.
- Promotional Campaigns: Designed limited-time offers during low seasons to drive bookings.
- Event Sponsorships: Partnered with event organisers to host retreats, increasing brand visibility and revenue.

Results & Impact

Enabled data-driven decisions by identifying key booking trends and gaps across 24 months of customer data.
Defined clear KPIs such as occupancy rate and upsell conversion to track marketing performance.
Achieved +35% increase in low-season bookings via targeted influencer campaigns and promotions.
Boosted premium service sales by +28%, increasing average revenue per customer.
Reduced manual data silos and improved marketing decision speed and accuracy across teams.

Skills I Applied
Business Data Analysis

Excel (Advanced functions, Pivot Tables)

Tableau Dashboard Design & Data Visualization

KPI Design & SMART Goal Setting

Social Media Strategy

Influencer Marketing & Campaign Planning

Promotion Strategy for Low-Season

Sponsorship Negotiation

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