Mobile hospitality booking platform HotelTonight is leveraging location data to hone in on ideal customers that will share specific-discounts to those in a certain area.

The campaign is hosted through a partnership with British soccer team Chelsea FC and is the first mobile application partnership for the team. Chelsea fans can book last-minute hotels near the stadium and receive geo-targeted discounts during the match when they book a hotel from their smartphone.

“Chelsea FC is an iconic global brand with incredibly loyal supporters who come from far and wide, and attending matches can often spontaneously turn from a day into a night or weekend,” said Ray Elias, chief marketing officer at HotelTonight. “HotelTonight aims to enhance that experience by providing the best way to book extraordinary hotels, at amazing values, at a moment’s notice.”

Geo-targeting
While here in America, the enthusiastic sports fan is not an unfamiliar sight, British soccer has always inspired an impressive level of devotion in its fans.

When fans are as fervent as those of the British Premier League, one can expect them to follow their teams wherever they go. And when they do, a hotel is a requirement.

That is why HotelTonight, a mobile app that specializes in quick, last-minute booking, is partnering with Chelsea to give fans a geo-targeted discount on a nearby hotel room, if they book from their phones during or after the match.

The idea makes use of HotelTonight’s targeted GeoRates. These GeoRates use a customer’s location from their smartphone to offer them exclusive deals on rooms if they are currently within a certain area.

For this GeoRate, HotelTonight is focusing on Chelsea fans, offering them discount rooms at hotels nearby Stamford Bridge, the area where Chelsea plays its home games.

The partnership also includes in-field and digital advertising, with social media campaigns including Chelsea players. HotelTonight is also offering giveaways and exclusive perks for its loyalty users if Chelsea scores in the last seven minutes of a game.

Exclusive booking
HotelTonight has always specialized in last-minute bookings (hence the name).

GeoRates are an excellent way to target consumers who the app knows are nearby a hotel that is offering a discount.

These users are more likely to make an impulse buy and book a room than those that are out of the area. In this way, GeoRates offer a way for both HotelTonight and the partnering hotels to ensure that the customers they target are the ones that are most likely to actually book a room and not waste their ad money.

While this partnership is a first for Chelsea, many American sports teams and leagues have been making mobile a priority in the last few months.

The NBA recently launched its own mobile app that provided a single-game, fantasy-league-like experience where fans could pick players and earn points as they played (see story).

These kinds of partnerships provide an extra way for fans to engage with their favorite teams as well as offering great branding opportunities for both the team and the apps that sponsor them.

HotelTonight is scoring a major win by simultaneously earning the brand awareness from being a partner with a popular soccer team and boosting the efficiency of its GeoRates program by targeting consumers who are most likely to spend.

“Chelsea Football Club is thrilled to name HotelTonight as our first mobile app partner and is delighted by the opportunity this brings our supporters at our matches,” said Christian Purslow, managing director of Chelsea FC. “We’re pleased to connect them with the perfect solution to turn a match into a night at a great hotel.”