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Case Study

How ItaliaRail Added a Multi Six-Figure Revenue Stream Without Touching Their Product

The Opportunity

  • ItaliaRail had built a highly successful train ticketing platform. Every ticket sold represented a traveler who also needed a place to stay, but that booking was happening somewhere else. Their goal was simple: capture the accommodation revenue tied to their existing traffic.

Results

  • 3,000+ accommodation bookings per month
  • $400K per year in expected revenue
  • A new, high-margin revenue stream, with no impact on costs or the core user experience

"It performed way better than what we expected. We're generating thousands of bookings a month, and we're literally doing nothing for it except processing the monthly revenue share. We're already figuring out how to scale this across our other properties."

Michael Coleman
Italiarail.com

40% INCREASE IN RPM

ITALIARAIL.COM

  • Industry
    Transportation Booking Platform
  • Traffic
    Millions of tickets sold last year
  • Primary audiences
    United States, Canada, UK, and Australia

The Background

 

ItaliaRail, part of Wandrian, is the go-to platform for travelers booking train tickets across Italy, with millions of tickets sold last year. The people coming to ItaliaRail are not casually browsing. They have already decided where they're going and they’re actively booking their trip.

 

The Challenge

ItaliaRail was selling over a million train tickets a year but generating minimal revenue from where those travelers stayed.

 

The audience was there. The intent was there. But between buying the train ticket and packing the bags, those same travelers were booking hotels somewhere else.

 

That is a lot of value walking out the door every single day.

 

  • The Skepticism

  • When Michael Coleman, Head of Acquisition, first discussed the Stay22 solution with Wandrian CEO, Mike Fuller, it was met with skepticism. The opportunity was clear, but the outcome was not.

    A large audience does not automatically translate into other products and revenue. ItaliaRail had experimented in cross-selling hotels, but with limited success. It was unclear whether Stay22’s accommodation booking system would generate meaningful revenue.

     

Stay22’s Search Bar Integration

 

ItaliaRail tested Stay22's Search Bar Integration directly on their platform. Travelers booking a train ticket could now book accommodation for their destination in the same session, at the exact moment they were planning where to stay.

 

The integration took less than 1 week, and after that, there was nothing for the ItaliaRail team to manage.

 

They kept doing what they do best while Stay22 ran in the background.

 

It Worked

The skepticism did not last long. Within three months, ItaliaRail had seen an immediate increase in total revenue and was processing over 3,000 hotel bookings every month. All of it driven entirely by travelers they already had. No new campaigns, no new acquisition spend, no changes to the product.

 

A revenue stream that did not exist three months ago was adding incremental revenue without touching anything they had spent years building.

 

Further Collaboration

Three months in, and over $400K in expected bottom-line net revenue, ItaliaRail was not asking whether this worked. They were asking where else they could take it.

ItaliaPass, their all-in-one travel membership program, providing exclusive access to transportation, tours and experiences, is next. Then every other touchpoint where their travelers show up across their portfolio. As they expand into Spain and other markets, Stay22 accommodation monetization is coming with them. 

 

About Stay22

Stay22.com is a Canadian travel tech company that offers affiliate revenue generation opportunities for events, ticketing, and travel media publications to monetize the travel intent of their audience. Stay22 works with over 3,000 global partners; and has generated over $500M in GMV in 2024.

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