Greenville’s Iconic Home Alone Experience Closes the Occupancy Gap

Destination Profile

Greenville, SC is a mid-size city on the rise, located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the Upstate region of South Carolina. Well-known for its outdoor and food scene, Greenville offers up a range of urban beauty and natural attractions and is cultural hub in the southeast United States.  

The Project

To help drive interest in Greenville, SC, during the holidays, we created the ultimate Greenville Home Alone Experience while staying at the historic Westin Poinsett, one of Greenville’s most iconic Christmas hotels. Guests stayed in one of the Westin Poinsett's finest suites while enjoying a Home Alone movie marathon from the comfort of their own luxurious bed while devouring an enormous ice cream sundae from The Crazy Mason Milkshake Bar & Ice Cream Shop, delivered straight to the room.

Next, guests enjoyed a two-hour limousine ride from Eastside Transportation around town while enjoying cheese pizza from Sidewall Pizza before heading to the ice-skating rink on United Community Ice on Main​.

Finally, they headed to the “Coolest Toy Store on the Planet”- O.P. Taylors to go on a shopping spree and receive their very own ornament before stopping by Greenville’s Christmas tree right outside the Westin Poinsett to make that final Christmas wish.

This experience not only helped drive up occupancy but created a massive impact on the local businesses that we partnered with to make this possible. As a result of earned media, we were able to sell out every day the package was available, creating incremental business both locally with staycations and nearby drive markets. The package was so well received that we had people calling to rebook again for next year.  

Lessons Learned

From this experience, we learned the importance of collaboration with partner businesses. The collaboration allowed us to create something out-of-the-box to help distinguish our destination from competitors and create something new for visitors to experience with their families during the holidays.  

Another important lesson we learned is that experiences must be PR-worthy. They don’t have to be original, but they need to be unique, lean into the strengths of your destination, and, most of all, something people can get excited about.  

When marketing to our target during the holidays, nostalgia was also a strong motivator that got both parents and their kids excited to experience something they love together. Being a holiday movie classic, Home Alone was easy to understand and easy to buy into once it was packaged together.  

Actionable Advice

Because this experience received a lot of attention quickly, we sold out of packages due to the availability of the limo. I would adjust the package so that the amenities could scale to accommodate a larger volume of visitors.  

Also, depending on the experience, I would recommend pinpointing a key decision-maker outside of your organization with whom all other partners could communicate. The future goal would be to create a permanent space where partners could collaborate to build other opportunities that don’t require the DMO to manage.  

Top Takeaways

One of the biggest pieces of advice I have for other destinations is to think outside the box and get creative in solving traditional problems. We often look at our destination first for the answer, but my advice is to lean into your target audience. Get to know your target audience intimately, extract the human truths about their needs and wants and tie your destination to that solution.  

Another big piece of advice is that if your destination doesn’t have the exact package you want to promote, lean on your local businesses to create something new organically. You would be surprised by the willingness of your community to work together for a greater purpose to benefit the destination.  

Before moving forward with a similar promotion, I recommend seeking legal counsel to ensure you comply with current laws and have zero barriers to pulling off a successful promotion.

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