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CASE STUDY

SAS hotel bookings soar with loyalty-led marketing strategy

A strategic partnership empowered SAS to strengthen their EuroBonus loyalty offering and non-member customer offers with tailored campaigns.

105%

average pre-post YoY growth 
 during loyalty campaigns.¹

5

elevated earn campaigns per year, with 2x or 3x value, 
supplemented by limited-time offers.¹

Challenge: Growing beyond flights

Over ten years ago, Scandinavian Airlines Systems (SAS), one of Europe's leading carriers, saw an opportunity to deliver more value to their customers and EuroBonus loyalty members by expanding their travel offering beyond flights.

 

To drive customer satisfaction and hotel conversions at scale, SAS turned to Expedia Group for a collaborative partnership that combined global supply, loyalty integration, and innovative marketing:

 

  • A hotel platform with quality global supply and seamless integration of the EuroBonus loyalty program.
  • Collaborative marketing strategies to boost hotel bookings from existing members and attract new customers.
  • Access to Expedia Group’s promotional calendar for hotels to easily coordinate with SAS flight sales for maximum reach and conversion.
SAS campaign landing page

Solution: Impactful travel marketing support

Through our expertise and a strong partnership, our specialists and the dedicated SAS team built a powerful marketing strategy using White Label Template. We focused on three levers to support SAS’s hotel booking growth:

 

Building strong traveler awareness of the SAS hotel platform 
As a White Label Template partner, SAS has access to strategic marketing support and services from our growth marketing experts to reach new and existing audiences. Together, we:

 

  • Curated joint campaigns to align Expedia hotel promotions with key SAS seasonal sales, boosting each campaign’s value further by offering an increased amount of discount campaigns for customers and various double and triple points offers to EuroBonus members.
  • Maximized our ready-to-use campaign calendar, attracting new travelers with regular marketing of our standout deals.
  • Developed a multi-channel approach during all major campaigns, including use of SAS standalone hotel emails, social media assets, the SAS mobile app, advertising on in-flight entertainment systems, printed banners on menus, and airport lounge screens to reach an expanded audience of travelers.

Driving engagement for SAS travelers with the hotel product

White Label Template gives SAS travelers a premium hotel experience to find stays that match their exact needs and rewards them for their loyalty through:

 

  • Access to over 900,000 hotels, with options to suit every preference, including Member Only Deals offering great discounts for logged-in members.
  • Integration of SAS’ EuroBonus loyalty program, allowing EuroBonus members to earn points on every hotel stay.
  • Accelerated earn promotions which reward traveler bookings with double and triple EuroBonus points during campaigns to increase retention.

 

Optimizing conversion rates through reporting

Our partnership provides SAS with in-depth performance reports, enabling them to test, optimize, and improve their conversions for continued growth.

 

For example, repositioning the hotel attach module on SAS' Manage My Booking page during one of their loyalty campaigns substantially increased conversion rates. Also, SAS repositioned the hotel banner during a promotion on their homepage to a more prominent position, which resulted in a notable increase of sales.

Results: Record growth, powered by marketing

Our integrated partnership and the hotel platform delivered measurable results across hotel bookings, loyalty, and traveler engagement, notable in two campaigns:

Campaign 1

A two-week January campaign offered double EuroBonus loyalty points, resulting in:

  • 170% increase in hotel sales.¹
  • 43% increase in conversion rate, compared to the previous loyalty campaign.²
  • Final campaign day delivered highest single day for SAS hotel sales, following placements across app, social, the SAS homepage, in-lounge screens, 4x SAS flight sale email hotel banners, and a standalone hotel email.²
Campaign 2

A two-week Black Friday loyalty campaign offered EuroBonus members double loyalty points, with an increase to triple points in the last 72 hours of the sale, resulting in:

  • 140% increase in hotel booking sales.³
  • Strategic placements and rich 3x offer during the last 72 hours likely contributed to triple the number of visits to SAS’ White Label Template during the overall campaign, compared with the previous period.⁴
  • Multi-channel campaign exposure, delivered via multiple email sends, social media, app push notifications, and prominent SAS website placements.

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¹Based on data from past 12 months (August 2024 to August 2025).

²Expedia Group internal data based on a campaign that ran 3 - 17 January 2025. Result was calculated based on comparing the pre-campaign period versus the campaign period year on year to account for seasonality and organic growth.  Figures do not account for cancellations.

³Expedia Group internal data based on a campaign that ran from 21 November 2024 to 5 December 2024. Result was calculated based on comparing the pre-campaign period versus the campaign period year on year to account for seasonality and organic growth.​ Figures do not account for cancellations.

⁴Expedia Group internal data, November 21, 2024 – December 5, 2024 vs. prior period on SAS template level. Figures do not account for cancellations.