How Enthusiast Hotels replaced legacy CRMs with ZEPIC as a unified guest engagement engine

Five boutique properties. One unified guest view. Automated attribution.

Mohan Raj
Mohan Raj,Co-Founder, Arival.ai

Before ZEPIC, building campaign tracking parameters was a grueling, manual process that slowed our execution. ZEPIC natively automated our data hygiene with error-free UTM generation. For a lean agency team, this is a game-changer. It takes the tedious data entry off our plates so we can focus entirely on high-level revenue strategy and campaign performance.

Enthusiast Hotel Collection
TeamEnthusiast Hotel Collection

Tool sprawl is a massive data problem for hospitality brands. Consolidating our properties into a single ZEPIC account allowed us to decommission four redundant CRM platforms and unlock error-free revenue attribution. We now have 100% automated UTM and promo code attribution, giving us clarity on exactly what drives our direct bookings.

About Enthusiast Hotel collection

Enthusiast Hotel property oneEnthusiast Hotel property two

The Enthusiast Hotel Collection features a group of distinctive boutique properties spanning oceanfront, mountain, and island destinations—several with a heritage of 50 to 75 years.

The Tapoco Lodge recently celebrated a landmark 95th anniversary. This rich history has fostered multi-generational loyalty, with guest relationships that extend from grandparents down to their grandchildren.

About Arival.ai

Arival.ai is the implementing agency behind Enthusiast Hotels' marketing and revenue management. They are an AI-powered hospitality partner that helps boutique and premium properties grow direct bookings and reduce reliance on OTAs.

Acting as the group's day-to-day execution team, Arival manages the marketing technology stack, campaign execution, and revenue strategy across all five Enthusiast properties.

With a contact database built across multiple properties and touchpoints, Arival had both the audience and the ambition to run sophisticated campaigns. The question was whether their marketing infrastructure could keep up.

The challenge: multiple CRMs, data blind spots, and a lack of personalization

Before deploying ZEPIC, the Arival team had to manage guest outreach across an overlapping stack of legacy software, including MailChimp, Constant Contact, Zoho, and various local CRMs.

This fragmentation created severe operational bottlenecks:

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The identity crisis across properties

The team had no cross-property visibility. If a loyal, multi-year guest of Property A visited Property B's website, the system treated them as a stranger. This made personalized cross-property recommendations impossible.

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Generic, blanket messaging

Because guest data was trapped in isolated pools, campaigns had to be sent as generic, one-size-fits-all broadcasts. The team couldn't segment audiences based on specific past behaviors, capping the conversion.

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Manual tracking overhead

Campaign tracking parameters had to be built completely manually, slowing down execution.

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Underutilized intent data

High-intent behavior, like a contact repeatedly looking at multi-property pages, went completely unnoticed.

The team needed a single hub that could cleanly separate property lists while giving a centralized agency team the power to track, segment, and personalize campaigns based on user behavior effortlessly.

The Solution

Arival initiated a staged rollout with ZEPIC for Enthusiast Hotels, beginning with the Abaco Inn before expanding the implementation to all five properties.

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A unified guest profile for cross-property personalization

To eliminate the property-level identity crisis and end generic messaging, they established a single unified ZEPIC account organized with distinct dedicated lists for each hotel property. This eliminated multi-login chaos and created a portfolio-wide view of each guest. The team can now instantly see a guest history across all locations, allowing them to segment audiences by past behaviors and loyalty tiers.

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Real-time intent capture via SDK and Instagram automation

To stop missing valuable behavioral signals, ZEPIC integrated directly into the group website provider and captured top-of-funnel social discovery queries via Instagram DM automation. High-intent behaviors are no longer hidden. Web form submissions, browsing actions like viewing multi-property pages, and Instagram DM interactions are automatically pushed into the platform in real time.

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Automated contextual engagement funnels

Rather than relying purely on manual monthly broadcasts, the team activated automated guest journeys: The Automated Welcome Sequence puts new subscribers through a structured onboarding journey. Behavior-Triggered Broadcasts send promotional emails with seasonal offers to targeted property-specific segments based on past interaction history. Frictionless Revenue Attribution via automated UTM generation and promo code tracking replaced hours of manual data entry.

Aha moments with ZEPIC

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Better revenue attribution

With tracked promo codes, the team unlocked clear visibility into exactly which campaigns drive bookings.

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Eliminated software redundancy

Four distinct CRM platforms were completely decommissioned, consolidating operations into one interface.

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Automated data hygiene

Automated UTM generation replaced hours of manual data entry, providing error-free campaign tracking natively.

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High-intent lead scoring

Click tracking (capturing metrics like 275 clicks on a single campaign) allowed the team to instantly identify highly engaged users for direct sales follow-ups.

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Discovered visitor insights

Enthusiast Hotels can now view contact activity insights that explicitly show when a single profile is interacting with multiple properties across the portfolio.

Key Takeaways

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01

Tool sprawl is a data problem

When guest contacts live across multiple tools, you’re missing the connections between guest touchpoints that make personalization possible.

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02

Centralizing multi-property operations doesn't mean sacrificing property-level targeting

One ZEPIC account with separate segments per property gives the Enthusiast team central control and property-specific execution. This is how a lean team scales across five locations.

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03

Automation compounds quickly, even with simple flows

A five-email welcome sequence sounds basic. But when every new contact from every website form and newsletter sign-up across five properties enters it automatically, the cumulative impact on first impressions and bookings is significant.

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04

Click tracking is the bridge between marketing and sales

A contact who clicked your Mother's Day package email has already told you something. Acting on that signal, rather than waiting for a booking form submission, is what separates reactive marketing from proactive revenue generation.

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05

Instagram-to-email cross-channel

Instagram is where guests first notice your property, and email gives them the nudge to book. With Instagram DM automation, you can bridge the gap between the two channels. It helps you capture email IDs instantly and grow your email list.

Enthusiast Hotels replaced 4 fragmented platforms with one unified guest engagement engine

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