IHG maximizes revenue and guest satisfaction with OpenTable

For years, Quinn Logan, Director of Restaurant and Bar Marketing, has been the driving force behind the marketing strategies that make this happen. With a deep understanding of the industry, she’s been instrumental in helping IHG’s “locally-loved brands” thrive. By prioritizing marketing tactics with measurable ROI, she ensures that their restaurants aren’t just a choice for hotel guests—they’re a top choice for all diners.

We recently spoke with Quinn to tap into her expertise and learn how she uses OpenTable tools to keep each unique restaurant thriving.

Driving revenue with targeted marketing

Quinn’s primary focus is increasing revenue across IHG’s diverse collection of restaurants and bars. According to her, every restaurant has times when it needs more traffic—and she believes OpenTable plays a vital role in ensuring their concepts have maximum visibility with diners.

“OpenTable is where our restaurants start for marketing,” Quinn says. “They know the ROI will be there since you only pay for guests who dine at your restaurant.” In particular, they use Boost marketing campaigns to increase visibility for their restaurants in OpenTable search results and fill seats during slower shifts. She says the results speak for themselves—some IHG restaurants have seen up to 15x ROI from their OpenTable marketing campaigns.

The partnership extends beyond campaigns, though. The team leverages OpenTable Experiences to set their restaurants apart from the competition by offering events like chef tastings and bottomless brunches. They previously pushed these events on social media, but it often felt like they were speaking into a void. With Experiences, they get in front of people actively searching for unique dining experiences, driving additional visibility and revenue.

Surprising and delighting guests with POS integration

At IHG, going above and beyond for guests isn’t just a goal—it’s the standard. The key to making that happen is having real-time insights from an integrated point-of-sale system (POS). OpenTable worked directly with IHG and their POS, Agilysys, to set up the integration quickly.

With their systems centralized in a single place, they can easily track what guests are ordering, how much they’re spending, and who their top spenders are during each shift. Armed with this information, the staff can do what they do best: deliver personalized service and recognize high-value guests, making them feel like VIPs.

But the benefits of integrating their POS don’t stop there. Now, IHG’s operators have a clear view of how their marketing efforts are paying off. Quinn shares, “We’re better able to tell the ROI story to each restaurant, showing them that their spend is directly driving guests to their restaurants.” By connecting the dots between marketing spend and revenue, operators feel more confident in their decision-making.

Insights that drive success across the portfolio

With 75+ unique brands under her care, Quinn relies on a combination of granular insights and big-picture visibility to keep each restaurant at the top of its game. “Being able to see portfolio-wide insights and spot venue-specific nuances is invaluable,” she says. “OpenTable makes it really easy to toggle between restaurants to see what levers a venue can pull to drive more covers and optimize.”

Reporting has been particularly useful to get a high-level view of performance at each property quickly. She’s able to spot trends easily and make data-driven recommendations to restaurants based on their individual needs. The report also saves her time because she can look at one report instead of 50 to get the most critical data points to the business. Ultimately, Quinn slices and dices the data as needed, rolling up everything in digestible and impactful ways for leadership.

Dedicated support whenever they need it

According to Quinn, one of the best features of OpenTable is Barbiliz Nash, IHG’s dedicated account manager. With monthly calls and unmatched responsiveness, Barbiliz helps the team navigate the platform, customize reports, enhance their integrations, and more.

“Every time I throw an idea her way, she responds with, ‘I’ll see what I can do,’” says Quinn. For example, when they had a specific tracking need, Barbiliz developed a creative workaround that got them closer to their goal. “It’s been fantastic to have someone who truly understands our needs and wants to help us achieve results.”

According to Quinn, IHG has a partner in OpenTable that shares its vision for hospitality and provides the data and tools it needs to make that vision a reality.