Background: A beautiful property with a broken revenue model
The Planet Munnar Resort is a boutique hill resort nestled in the tea estates of Munnar, Kerala — one of the most scenic properties in the region. Beautiful rooms. Stunning views. An owner, Renji Paul, who is genuinely passionate about hospitality.
But when we first spoke, the property was running at 40% occupancy — with 100% of bookings coming through OTAs like MakeMyTrip and Booking.com, each taking 18–25% commission on every room sold.
- →No direct booking capability — no website, no booking engine
- →No social media presence worth mentioning (813 followers)
- →Zero visibility in Google search for destination keywords
- →OTA rankings were low due to few reviews and no listing optimisation
- →Off-season occupancy dropping to near zero — no retargeting, no guest database
At ₹4,500 ADR and 40% occupancy across 12 rooms, the property was generating roughly ₹7.8L/month in revenue — and losing ₹1.6–2L of that to OTA commissions alone. Revenue the property could have kept was being handed to platforms.
Our diagnosis: USP buried, channels absent, funnel broken
Before touching a single ad account, we ran our discovery process. We visited the property, interviewed the owner, and spoke to recent guests. The insights reshaped everything.
The property's real USP wasn't what Renji was selling. He was positioning it as a "standard hill resort" — but guests were actually booking it for something specific: the immersive tea estate access, the off-grid feel, and genuinely personal service that larger resorts couldn't match.
This USP — "Munnar the way it used to be" — became the creative spine of everything we built.
The 6-step strategy we executed
01. USP Discovery & Brand Positioning
Ran structured discovery to identify what guests actually loved vs. what was being marketed. Repositioned from "hill resort" to an immersive, off-the-beaten-track experience — authentic Munnar before it was commercialised. This became the hook across every channel.
02. Direct Booking Infrastructure
Built a conversion-optimised landing page with direct booking integration. Added a WhatsApp booking button (historically 40%+ conversion rate for India hospitality), and an email capture with an exclusive direct booking discount to incentivise off-OTA behaviour.
03. Meta Ads — Full Funnel Campaign
Built a three-stage Meta funnel: awareness (Reels targeting travel intent audiences in metro cities), consideration (retargeting page visitors + lookalikes from past bookings), and conversion (WhatsApp lead gen + direct booking offer). Creative focus: raw, immersive footage of the tea estate, sunrise views, and personal owner moments — not polished stock imagery.
04. Instagram Growth & Content Engine
Built a content system around 3 pillars: Experience (what it feels like to be there), Story (the history of the estate, the owner's journey), and Social proof (guest moments + reviews). Posted 5x/week, with Reels driving reach and carousel posts driving saves. Grew from under 800 to 30,000+ followers in 10 months.
05. Local SEO & Google Business Optimisation
Rebuilt the Google Business Profile: uploaded 80+ high-resolution category photos, implemented a review collection trigger sent to guests post-checkout, and optimised for "resorts near Munnar" and "Suryanelli tea estate stay." Moved into top 3 map pack positions within 4 months.
06. OTA Channel Yield Optimisation
Optimised MMT, Goibibo, and Booking.com listings — new photography sequence, rewritten room descriptions, dynamic rate parity management. Higher OTA conversion rate fed positive ranking signals to algorithms, driving higher organic OTA volume while direct channels scaled.
The Results After 10 Months
- →15x ROAS on Meta & Google paid campaigns
- →Occupancy grew from 40% → 85% in peak seasons
- →Direct booking share rose from <20% → 65%
- →Overall monthly revenue grew +50%
- →Instagram following grew from 813 → 30,000+
"Before we met Inn Trust Media we were completely dependent on OTA and travel agent bookings — losing 20–25% commission and most of the time 60% of our rooms were vacant. After working with them we see a massive transformation. We are now one of the top 5 resorts in Munnar with 30,000 followers, and we have guests who return again and again."
— *Renji Paul, Owner — The Planet Munnar Resort*