Red Roof bookings up 13% with Athena by Zeta

Red Roof has been a familiar name to travelers for more than 50 years. Its guests range from families on summer road trips to traveling nurses and construction crews settling in for extended stays.

The team had valuable guest information across its property-management system, website, reviews, call center, and other sources. The challenge was bringing those signals together quickly enough to understand who its customers were, what they needed, and where Red Roof had an opportunity to reach them.

“The challenge that we had was really trying to understand who our customer was and where they were coming from,” said Julie Sukosd, Head of Marketing, Red Roof.

Piecing that picture together could require weeks of analysis across separate data sources. Zeta brought those sources together and added context to what the team already knew, giving Red Roof a more complete view of its guests and prospective travelers.

Rather than spending that time managing data, the team could focus on the decisions that follow: which travelers to prioritize, where to find an opportunity, and what message or creative to test next.

“I love that it just streamlines our workload. It allows my team and myself to focus on other things,” said Sukosd.

With that clearer view of its customers, Red Roof could develop more detailed traveler personas—and put them to work with Athena.

The team already knew road-trip families, budget travelers, traveling nurses, and construction workers were important audiences. Athena helped Red Roof understand the signals and behaviors that distinguished those travelers, so they could build and refine audiences around the people most likely to need a stay.

When Red Roof wanted to boost occupancy in a specific market, Katie Horner, Loyalty and CRM Senior Manager, Red Roof, used Athena to identify travelers showing relevant interest and intent. Rather than simply targeting people interested in a destination, she could account for signals such as hotel and vacation content consumption, recent travel transactions, activity across travel sites, and likelihood to travel. She could then focus that audience on the specific market where Red Roof wanted to drive bookings and the period when that demand mattered most.

For example, Horner can ask Athena to identify travelers most likely to visit Chicago in March, then refine the audience based on the needs of that market and campaign.

“With Athena, I was able to pull a more detailed audience with those who had an interest and intent signal to travel,” said Horner. “Athena really helped create for me a more personalized, detailed audience with those most likely to book.”

Red Roof put its traveler personas into action through its summer “Finding Your Roots” campaign, which centered on families spending time together on the road. The team used its understanding of road-trip families and budget travelers to guide the audiences it reached, the messages it delivered, and the creative it developed—connecting that insight to Red Roof’s role as a reliable stop along the journey.

The campaign drove a 13% year-over-year increase in bookings and a 10% improvement in ROAS. Social bookings increased 31%, showing that more relevant audience targeting and creative helped translate engagement into business growth.

“With the help of Zeta and Athena, bookings were up thirteen percent and ROAS was up ten percent year over year,” said Horner.

Red Roof now sees an opportunity to get even more local.

For a franchise business, demand varies by market and property. The team’s vision is to build on its audience work to better identify travelers who may need a room in a specific market and help individual properties capture that demand.

Over time, Sukosd also sees potential for guest intelligence to inform where Red Roof grows—helping its development team identify markets with strong potential and avoid those that don’t.

It’s the next step in the same strategy that has already helped Red Roof increase bookings: understand the traveler, recognize the opportunity, and make the next interaction more relevant.