Marketing Insights
Three months into 2025, the travel industry as a whole continues to see a gradual decline in demand consistent with what we’ ve seen over the past two-plus years. Here on the Gulf Coast, we’ re seeing rising demand for shorter stays paired with lengthening booking windows. Perhaps not surprisingly, we’ re also seeing an increase in requests for discounts.
In response, we’ ve been working with our in-house Revenue team to align our marketing efforts with our recently reduced minimum length of stays( MLOS) requirement. In short, we’ ve been encouraging guests to book shorter stays or extend their visits to fill“ orphan nights.”
Another significant change has been the introduction of all-inclusive pricing on our website at both the search and property-page levels— a practice our local competitors have since adopted. Major OTAs, like Airbnb, have recently embraced the practice of providing guests with an upfront picture of true booking costs.
Gulf Coast Market
The shift of the Easter holiday from March to late April has significantly impacted Occupancy for March— and the first quarter as a whole. That said, this year’ s“ late Easter” has allowed us to extend our Spring marketing beyond the traditional Spring Break period in order to attract guests seeking a quieter visit to the Gulf Coast. This allows them to reconnect with those who may have visited in the past six months and are eager to return before the Summer season begins.
The enforcement of Spring Break community curfews, changes to beach access, and the effects of short-term rental ordinances continue to unfold across Gulf Coast communities. Despite this, we haven’ t seen a major shift in guest sentiment. Aside from experiencing a quieter Spring Break compared to previous years, guests have been fine with the changes— according to our in-house Guest Experience teams.
360 Blue Performance Metrics + Website Tech Updates
Q1 is historically one of the busiest seasons for the Gulf Coast from a marketing perspective, as potential guests are making plans for Spring Break and Summer. Website traffic and campaign metrics continue to reflect this elevated activity— despite the market saturation and economic uncertainty of the last few months. Data metrics show that our direct booking site, 360Blue. com, continues to perform as expected, with overall engagement per page up significantly compared to Q1 of last year, with spikes in traffic coinciding with drops in our MLOS requirement. Our audience reach on social media has also continued to grow at a steady pace. We’ ve seen an 11 % increase in new followers and a 26 % increase in engagement with content in Q1 compared to Q1 of last year.
06 360 BLUE • FORGOTTEN COAST • 2025 Q1 REVIEW