Case Study: Graduate Hotels drives 1 million new guests with SocialLadder

Graduate Hotels Student Ambassadors Helped Drive 1 Million New Guests Through the Doors of 13 New Properties

Graduate Hotels, a collection of 33 hyperlocal hotels in university towns, faced the challenge of pivoting its marketing strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic to attract new guests amidst travel restrictions. With a small team, they needed a scalable, time-saving solution to manage a network of student ambassadors across multiple new properties. They partnered with the vendor SocialLadder to implement its ambassador management platform.

The solution implemented by SocialLadder provided an all-in-one platform to organize, gamify, and segment ambassador tasks like promo code sharing and content creation. This strategic partnership helped Graduate Hotels efficiently open 13 new properties. The results were significant, including an ROI of 1087% in the first year, top ambassadors generating $5,500 in value each, and the program collectively helping to drive one million new guests.

Graduate Hotels

Thomas Ostrom

Chief of Staff