How Basecamp Resorts Increased Direct Booking Revenue 24.52% in a Year

Basecamp Resorts increased direct booking revenue by 24.52% year over year by building an integrated hotel marketing system with House of Growth. The partnership combined SEO, paid media across Google, Meta, Expedia, and Tripadvisor, conversion rate optimization, and a fractional growth marketing model that embedded directly into Basecamp’s internal team. Organic traffic grew 96.2% over the same period, and ad spend scaled 30x while staying profitable.

Results at a Glance

• +24.52% direct booking revenue, year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023)

• +96.2% organic traffic, year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023)

• 30x ad spend increase in one year, profitably

• 9.48x average Facebook Ads ROAS (Oct 2022 to Oct 2023)

• 4.29x → 17.6x Google Ads ROAS improvement, year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023)

• +552% Google Ad revenue, year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023)

• +84% Expedia Ad revenue, year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023), maintaining a 44x ROAS

“Working with House of Growth, we’ve seen great success in our digital marketing campaigns, posting consistent month-over-month and year-over-year growth. The team is incredibly knowledgeable and at the forefront of marketing tech and trends and has proven to be a valued asset and an integral part of the Basecamp marketing team.”

Geoff McLean, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder, Basecamp Resorts

Who Is Basecamp Resorts

Founded in 2016, Basecamp Resorts is one of Canada’s fastest-growing hospitality brands, with 12+ properties across the country’s most iconic mountain destinations, from Kananaskis to Banff, Lake Louise to Revelstoke, and beyond. What started as a single property in Canmore, Alberta has grown into a collection of modern lodges, suites, and cabins that blend the freedom of vacation rentals with the consistency of boutique hotels. Geoff McLean, Chief Commercial Officer and Co-Founder, has led Basecamp’s marketing and brand strategy since the company’s inception.

The Challenge

At the beginning of 2022, Basecamp Resorts entered a phase of rapid growth. The desire and need for a more developed marketing strategy became pressing, but four constraints shaped the starting point:

• Limited budget to hire employees or contractors to do the work

• Limited bandwidth to do all the things that needed to be done

• Limited experience with the data side of digital marketing

• No historical performance data to back up the requested budget and resource needs

Our Approach

We started with a systems-level audit, then built a phased plan that balanced impact, cost, and speed. The goal: develop a strong foundation and deliver quick wins to justify increased budgets within a few months.

1. Audited their systems, historical campaign performance data, competitors, and opportunities.

2. Built a multi-month marketing plan that balanced potential impact, cost to implement, and time to implement, prioritizing a strong foundation with quick wins to justify increased budgets.

3. Spent several weeks optimizing conversion tracking and Google Analytics.

4. Launched test performance ad campaigns to validate profitability and scalability.

5. Developed an SEO strategy that fit the budget but made a significant impact on organic traffic.

6. Cleaned up and improved email marketing to engage past guests more consistently.

7. Built a digital ad strategy that allowed Basecamp to dramatically increase monthly ad spend while maintaining profitability.

8. Continuously collaborated with their internal marketing and revenue team on further improvements.

Services Deployed

The work organized into three pillars:

Fractional Growth Marketing

• Set up analytics and continuously optimized attribution tracking

• Assisted in developing the email marketing strategy

• Collaborated with the Chief Commercial Officer to develop marketing budget allocation

• Helped foster deeper cross-department collaboration

• Assisted in developing a project management system

SEO

• Built backlinks for the Canada and US markets

• Optimized website copy for target keywords

• Wrote SEO-optimized blog articles

Digital Advertising

• Audited existing ad account setups

• Optimized the setup and tracking of ad accounts

• Managed ad campaigns on Google, Facebook/Instagram, Expedia, Booking.com, and Tripadvisor

• Developed seasonally unique campaigns for each property, optimized for conversions (bookings)

• Collaborated with the internal creative team to develop visual assets

• Wrote multiple copy variations per platform for each property, each season

• Monitored campaign performance weekly and worked to further optimize results

• Reported monthly on ad performance and developed adjusted strategy and budget allocation

The Results

The combined system produced measurable gains across direct bookings, organic traffic, and paid advertising.

Direct booking revenue increased 24.52% year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023). Organic traffic grew 96.2% over the same period. Ad spend scaled 30x in one year while maintaining profitability.

On the paid media side: Facebook Ad campaigns averaged 9.48x ROAS between Oct 2022 and Oct 2023. Google Ads ROAS improved from 4.29x to 17.6x year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023), with Google Ad revenue increasing 552%. Expedia Ad revenue increased 84% year over year (Sep 2022 to Sep 2023) while maintaining the same 44x ROAS.