Peak Stay

Context

Peak Stay is a young property management company from Tyrol on a clear growth path. Founded in mid-2023, the team now operates 90 apartments across nine properties—from small buildings with three to eleven units to Puitalm in the Pitztal region with 25 apartments.

All properties are located in Tyrol, including in Seefeld, Leutasch, and the Pitztal valley. Peak Stay handles the full operational management on behalf of the property owners, from rentals to cleaning. What sets the company apart is its modern brand presence, with strong visual identity, a dedicated website, active social media, and in-house content production.

The goal is to position the brand in the premium segment through high-quality furnishings, wellness facilities, and a fully digital guest journey. Despite the tech-driven setup, the team values personal communication and tailors the experience to each location’s guest profile.

The challenge

At Peak Stay, everything revolves around guest experience and building a long-term direct booking strategy. When new properties are added to the portfolio, marketing starts intentionally via high-traffic portals like Booking.com and Airbnb, as well as local tourism associations, to maximise occupancy. But the goal is clearly defined: after the first year, 30 to 50 % of bookings should come via direct channels.

To make that happen, visibility alone isn’t enough. What’s needed is a system that actively builds relationships with the target audience and shifts bookings early on to the direct channel.

Much of the digital guest journey — from check-in to on-site communication — already runs smoothly via Like Magic. But the system has its limits. That’s exactly where the team wanted to improve: engaging guests before they arrive to enhance the experience and create new upselling opportunities.

The solution

After a successful rollout of Smartpricing in spring 2025, the Peak Stay team soon added Smartconnect, convinced by the seamless integration with their existing stack (Apaleo and Like Magic) and the ability to expand guest communication in a targeted way.

Smartconnect picks up where the previous systems hit their limits: with strategic direct booking campaigns and timely upselling.

Today, Peak Stay uses Smartconnect for:

• Newsletters and direct marketing: Monthly emails are written in-house, tailored to each property's audience.
• Automated on-site messaging: Timely reminders about extras like breakfast delivery, spa access, or local activities complement the digital guest directory.
• Streamlined workflows: Compared to other solutions they considered, Smartconnect stood out for its simplicity, enabling consistent communication with less effort and better results.

The results

With Smartconnect, Peak Stay hasn’t just stayed in touch with former guests, they’ve successfully created new booking opportunities. Just four newsletters sent across different properties brought in 25 bookings and over €34,700 in revenue.
The return on investment: €12 earned for every €1 spent — an ROI of 1,200 %.

What else worked well:

• Strong performance, even with small lists
  Campaigns performed well regardless of list size — from over 3,000 contacts down to 400 or 1,000. Average open rate: 49 %, average click rate: 16 %.
• Targeted communication, fewer unsubscribes
  Messages are personalized per property and guest profile, which reduces opt-outs.
• Simple interface, higher frequency
  Smartconnect’s streamlined interface makes sending easier, which led to higher send frequency and improved delivery rates.
• Automatic data sync with Apaleo
  Eliminates manual contact management and ensures lists are always up to date.
• Long-term impact, not pressure to convert immediately
  The goal isn’t instant bookings, but long-term visibility and brand recall.