Six South Street Hotel is a freshly reimagined boutique property in the heart of Hanover, steps from Dartmouth College and the energy of downtown. Their renewed look, updated social spaces, and upgraded guest experience positioned them well to capture demand from campus visitors, alumni, parents, and New England leisure travelers. Next, they needed to maximize their discoverability and direct bookings as demand fluctuates throughout the year.
Six South Street turned to O’Rourke during a transformative moment for the property. As a boutique hotel in a university-driven market, they face a unique demand cycle. Dartmouth’s academic calendar dictates when travelers flood Hanover, and hotel inventory near campus is limited. This creates intense competition for visibility, especially during weekends tied to move-in, family events, reunions, and athletics. The hotel needed a marketing partner who understands careful search management could build a strategy that capitalized on these critical windows.
Search activity around Dartmouth is both high-volume and high-intent. Queries for “hotels near Dartmouth,” “Hanover NH hotel,” and event-specific stays surge throughout the year. OTAs and nearby properties aggressively bid on these terms, making first-page placement expensive and competitive. To succeed, Six South Street needed stronger coverage on campus-related searches, firmer protection on branded queries, and a strategy that captured travelers who were ready to book directly.
O’Rourke developed a targeted Paid Search program that aligned spend with Hanover’s rhythm. The hotel gained high visibility on “near Dartmouth” focused keywords and other terms indicating high booking intent. We also reinforced brand search term coverage to keep OTAs from capturing high-value searches for Six South Street’s own brand name. Campaign budgets were paced around key academic events, ensuring the hotel appeared when demand—and booking intent—was highest.
As the academic year picked up in October, this strategy paid off. The hotel saw a dramatic lift in high-intent traffic, with clicks up 133% year over year and impressions surging 1,236%. More importantly, this translated into significant gains in direct revenue. The hotel achieved a 35.09X ROAS for the month and posted 113% year-over-year revenue growth, indicating that our search terms targeted people ready to book directly.
Ad copy highlighted what matters most to Dartmouth-area guests: walkability, upgraded rooms and social spaces, and effortless access to campus and downtown. The combination of precise targeting, event-aligned pacing, and compelling messaging meant a higher share of revenue for the hotel, rather than losing to OTAs.
Could a stronger paid search strategy yield dividends for your hotel? Talk to our team about ways we can help you capture more direct revenue and outperform other properties.
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