Hotel’s treasure hunt campaign targets local tourists amidst COVID-19

The New Zealand-based chain QT gave Kiwis the chance to win a stay through via a five-day treasure hunt around Auckland

Spotted: What do you do if you are a hotel chain that spent years planning a highly-anticipated opening for 2020, only to find the day arrived and there are no international customers? This is the situation that New Zealand-based chain QT faced at the planned opening of the new QT Auckland hotel. To attract local customers, QT had to get creative.

The hotel chain decided to encourage local customers with an innovative campaign that gave Kiwis the chance to win a hotel stay through participating in a five-day treasure hunt. In fact, the hotel decided to give away free stays in all 150 of its rooms. Each day, 30 room keys were hidden in lockboxes in different locations around the city, designated by a door-shaped poster. 

At the same time, new codes were posted on QTs website. Treasure hunters had to find a lockbox and crack the code to open it and reveal a key. Each key opened a different room at the hotel, meaning the first 150 people to crack the codes and find a key would win a free, one-night stay at the luxury property.

QT Auckland General Manager, Doran Whaite said that the treasure hunt campaign was intended to emphasise the brand’s local focus and encourage staycations. “QT is all about loving local. With a focus on our community, we wanted to surprise Aucklanders with a chance to be among the first to experience what QT’s ‘far from ordinary’ philosophy is all about. We’re spending more time in our own backyard with weekend travel and staycations becoming the norm. What better way to treat our locals than to a luxuriously quirky stay with us.” 

As the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the hospitality industry, hotels are needing to come up with creative ideas to drive new customers through their doors. Encouraging staycations is one such idea. Others that we have seen at Springwise include turning hotel rooms into pop-up restaurants, or repurposing them as private workspaces.

Explore more: Travel & Tourism Innovations | COVID-19 Innovations