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Celebrating 21 years of SK Chase

Celebrating 21 years of SK Chase

We’re celebrating 21 amazing years of SK Chase! SK Chase was founded back in 2003 when Stephanie Wilson and Kaye Taylor had desire to start their own business and an idea that would transform luxury hotels’ gift voucher sales, creating a new revenue stream,...
Time for afternoon tea

Time for afternoon tea

Celebrate elegance and tradition In a world that often moves at a dizzying pace, there’s something deeply soothing about the timeless ritual of afternoon tea. Each sip of aromatic tea, every delicate bite of a cake or scone carries with it a sense of elegance...
Great gift sales all year long

Great gift sales all year long

There’s a ‘golden season’ for luxury hotels’ gift voucher sales – no prizes for guessing that it is, of course, the festive period. This time covers the two BIG shopping dates of Christmas and Black Friday and on average half of a...
A luxury Black Friday

A luxury Black Friday

When you think of Black Friday – what springs to your mind? The retail event is synonymous with deep discounts, big deals and blow out savings. And perhaps that’s how it began, but not necessarily where it is now. Today, Black Friday is in many luxury brands’ annual...
2021 Gift Voucher Review

2021 Gift Voucher Review

On a day filled with love, we’d like to gift our 2021 annual report to you 💕 You won’t get these insights anywhere else – it’s sourced from over 380 venues we have the pleasure of working with, making it a fantastic resource to draw from and a...
Black Friday – Your Way

Black Friday – Your Way

Black Friday is now in many luxury hospitality venues annual gifting calendar – historically, it’s the busiest gift voucher sales date of the year across our 300+ luxury client base, with traffic to gift shops increasing by around 500%, with an average increase of 12x...
Vouchers are your gift

Vouchers are your gift

As hotels in the UK work towards a reopening date, we’ve been reflecting on the past 12 months or so ‘though the lens’ of gift vouchers and created an annual report (as we do each year), sharing key data insights around how the year unfolded for our clients (over 300...
Time well spent for Mum

Time well spent for Mum

What is traditionally the BIGGEST gift voucher sales date of the first 10 months of the year is just around the corner – Mother’s Day on Sunday 14th March (in the UK & Ireland). On average, we see gift vouchers sales doubling compared to an average...
Generosity & goodwill in the hospitality industry

Generosity & goodwill in the hospitality industry

Much of the last 12 months or so will of course be remembered for COVID-19 and the devastating impact it had on our communities, businesses and lives. And yet through this time, we have witnessed tremendous generosity from many hospitality venues and been reminded of...
Make a date with our Valentine’s Day tips

Make a date with our Valentine’s Day tips

The next key gifting date on the horizon is Valentine’s Day on Friday 14th February. Although so many things have changed due to the pandemic, one of the things that has remained is that people love to gift It’s highly likely that more gifts for this date will...
Gift Hotels To Help Hotels

Gift Hotels To Help Hotels

Now more than ever the hospitality industry needs our support. 2020 has been a tough year, with hospitality being one of the sectors hardest hit by the restrictions put in place due to COVID-19. The next few months will be a critical time for venues and the...
New ‘Together’ Luxury Hotel Gift Store

New ‘Together’ Luxury Hotel Gift Store

Gifts that deliver happiness, hopefulness & love VISIT ‘TOGETHER’ GIFT STORE We’ve been looking at ways in which we can help and support our hotel clients during these unprecedented times, both on a deeper client to client level, and in a wider...
Gift Voucher Marketing During COVID-19

Gift Voucher Marketing During COVID-19

With many of our clients making the decision to close this week, we’ve looked again at how we can help and support hotels navigating the deeply concerning coronavirus situation. SK Chase works within the hospitality sector, where we work together with over 300 luxury...
Supporting Hotels Navigating the Coronavirus

Supporting Hotels Navigating the Coronavirus

The future is never certain, but this feels never more so than in the present time, with the deeply concerning worldwide coronavirus situation, with news and advice on what to do changing by the day and hour. SK Chase works within the hospitality sector, where we work...
Time well spent for Mum

Data’s the word this Mother’s Day

Did you know that Mother’s Day is the third biggest luxury hotel gift voucher shopping date of the year (after Black Friday and Christmas), where a number of hotels that we work with who run a strong campaign can sell up to 7 times more than usual week!The power...
Valentine’s Day Data Insights

Valentine’s Day Data Insights

We help our clients develop and grow their gift voucher sales with our software and service, which includes providing personalised relevant marketing insights (particulary at key gifting dates) that lead to meaningful actions & increased conversions. Here’s...
Back to Black

Back to Black

We’re now just one week away from Black Friday, approaching what could be the busiest sales date of the year, in terms of gift voucher / certificate sales, for some luxury hotels. We work with over 300 luxury hotels, based mainly in UK and in 2018 Black Friday...
Most Popular Buying Day

Most Popular Buying Day

More gift voucher / gift certificate orders are placed on weekdays rather than weekends, with Monday being the day most orders are placed. Less orders are put through on Friday and Saturday evenings, than any other days of the week.
Everybody is talking about gin!

Everybody is talking about gin!

Over the last few years the craze of the ‘gin boom’ has influenced bars around the UK and has quickly become one of the trendiest tipples in the drinks industry. From gin tastings to gin distillery tours to gin and tonic sweets and to the latest trend gin & tonic...
Most popular buying day

Most popular buying day

When we think of ‘Mondays’, first thoughts may be that it’s perhaps not a favourite day of the week, but our research shows that it’s the most popular day of the week to purchase a hotel gift experience, as you can see in the graph below, based...
New Feature – Buying Options

New Feature – Buying Options

We’ve recently released a new feature! BUYING OPTIONS This enhancement enables different buying ‘options’ associated with an experience to be presented on one voucher card on a gift site, giving an improved user experience for people browsing gift...
An ‘experience revolution’ is on the way

An ‘experience revolution’ is on the way

And luxury hotels are a huge part of it! As Sales Manager here at SK Chase, I attend the UK Gift Voucher Conference each year where the latest trends in the industry are being shared. This year there was an exciting speaker on stage called James Wallman. He wrote the...
An afternoon tea experience to remember

An afternoon tea experience to remember

Afternoon tea is a long-running quintessentially British tradition, dating back to the early 18th century and we have seen the experience increase in popularity over the years. There is certainly a lot of choice for an afternoon indulgence, but I must say The Waldorf...
Last minute festive gift voucher sales ideas

Last minute festive gift voucher sales ideas

If you are wondering whether it’s too soon to begin any ‘last minute’ festive gift voucher sales and marketing ideas / campaigns, wonder no more. It definitely isn’t.  Up to 40% of shoppers will wait until the last 10 days before Christmas to...
How to sell more gift vouchers to men

How to sell more gift vouchers to men

Men spend on average 24% more per gift voucher purchased than women, according to the latest research from SK Chase, specialist in luxury hotels and resorts gift voucher solutions, with a male average selling price of £96.89 and female average selling price at £77.86....
‘Shop’ on Facebook & Instagram

‘Shop’ on Facebook & Instagram

Social media is an essential part of a hotels’ Marketing Strategy, with Facebook and Instagram at the forefront. These two giants dominate social media over 30 million people in the UK actively using Facebook (and checking their feed on average 8 times a day!),...
A Strategic Look at Cyber Weekend

A Strategic Look at Cyber Weekend

“Sell the right gift experience, to the right customer, at the right time and at the right price”   Since the concept of Black Friday was introduced to the UK back in 2010 followed by Cyber Monday a few years later, it would appear that it’s here to stay. So, let...
Gift Voucher Buying Trends 2017

Gift Voucher Buying Trends 2017

For the first time ever, the busiest gift voucher / certificate sales for our luxury hotel clients date fell on Black Friday last year, as oppose to late December, as you can see in the infographic above, which highlights voucher buying trends from 01 November –...
How deep are your links?

How deep are your links?

You’ve done it! You have a beautiful and luxurious website, giving people a wonderful flavour of your venue and brand, with links to your gift voucher site in all the relevant places, such as: Main navigation menu Sub menus, such as dining, spa, golf and overnight...
Product Update | January 2018

Product Update | January 2018

A dedicated team of developers are continuing work on the SK Chase suite of applications and we’re currently implementing a new design and user experience of the voucher ‘browse’ on our clients’ digital voucher stores, with a number of going ‘live’ with the new design...
Sell more gift vouchers to your mobile audience

Sell more gift vouchers to your mobile audience

Did you know that mobile is now the primary channel on which consumers read marketing emails (according to research published in ‘Marketing Week’)?   It’s not surprising really when you consider that around 81% of adults in the UK own a smartphone, spending on...
It’s just another mighty Monday

It’s just another mighty Monday

Monday – the first day of the week may not be a favourite day in our minds, but they are generally the most popular day of the week for online shopping. According to Criteo (which represents a growing network of 15,000 advertisers across the globe and reaches 1.2B...
Black Friday – Cyber Monday 2018

Black Friday – Cyber Monday 2018

In today’s competitive market, luxury brands such as yours have to connect with customers in more creative ways than ever during the weekend sales bonanza of Black Friday – Cyber Monday. Our cloud based gift voucher management system makes it very easy to...
How we’re helping counter gift voucher cyber-crime

How we’re helping counter gift voucher cyber-crime

Cyber-crime is on the increase and no industry is immune as people devise increasingly creative methods to commit fraud. The UK lost almost £11bn to cyber criminals in 2016 and this figure is set to grow as offenders come up with more sophisticated ways to harm to any...
Gift Voucher Dashboard

Gift Voucher Dashboard

New Gift Voucher ‘Dashboard’ released We were delighted to release a new gift voucher dashboard to all our 330+ clients in March 2017, bringing them instant access to their gift voucher sales data and all the benefits that having this at their fingertips...
Tailor made training

Tailor made training

At SK Chase we create personable and bespoke training sessions for our clients, to inspire and build confidence in using our gift voucher software. Our software (and service) make it easy for hotels to sell & manage their gift experiences and we work with over 330...
It’s all in the blend

It’s all in the blend

A move from sometimes ‘boring’ eLearning to a ‘blended’ learning environment As Head of Training at SK Chase it’s my responsibility to ensure that our clients are using their gift voucher site to its best and are as knowledgeable as possible on how...
Be happy!

Be happy!

Happiness… It even has its own day now! Happiness. It’s important, right? Throughout our lives we will all experience times of happiness and times of sadness. Whilst we might not be able to control everything going on around us, most of us would prefer to go about our...
The beauty of digital

The beauty of digital

Online shopping – where would we be without it! I really mean it, from organising flights and holidays to bargain hunting for clothes and even ordering food for dinner. It can all be done within a few clicks. As a consumer, the convenience of online shopping and the...
Tiredness kills…

Tiredness kills…

Ok, so where is he going with this, I hear you ask… but stick with me, there is a point to it! Most drivers will have seen the signs along the road intended to reduce the numbers of road traffic accidents, but have you ever considered taking this advice “off-road”. I...
Introducing ‘What I Really Wanted’

Introducing ‘What I Really Wanted’

After looking into happiness economics, knowing that experiences make people happy, means that we are in a great position to spread the joy! As gift voucher specialists we are so excited to introduce What I Really Wanted. This is our new consumer brand to help people...
Gift giving happiness

Gift giving happiness

What makes people happy…and why? There has been a lot of work carried out and theories created that revolve around the economics of ‘happiness’. The Easterlin Paradox – a key concept in this – concludes that higher incomes relate to happiness,...
Change

Change

‘Change’ it’s a funny old word… And it is…isn’t it? But no doubt something we are all fairly familiar with, be it in our working lives or our personal ones. If you were to believe in anything to do with horoscopes, I’m not supposed to like change. I’m a Taurean (the...
Gift voucher survey results

Gift voucher survey results

In June 2015 we asked our clients to spare a few moments of their time to complete a survey that we created all about their gift voucher business. The results are invaluable; it helps us understand what our clients really value, turn this insight into action and...
5 tips to sell more gift vouchers to your mobile audience

5 tips to sell more gift vouchers to your mobile audience

Did you know that mobile is now the primary channel on which consumers read marketing emails (according to research published in ‘Marketing Week’)? It’s not surprising really when you consider that around 70% of adults in the UK own a smartphone and 91% of people keep...
Google’s mobile friendly update – 6 weeks on…

Google’s mobile friendly update – 6 weeks on…

If you own a smartphone the chances are you’ve been on Google and made a search. How annoying is it when you click on a result and your chosen website takes some time to load? According to Kissmetrics frustration leads to abandonment for many of us after only 6...
We’ve always done it this way…

We’ve always done it this way…

Last November I was scrolling through my LinkedIn feed and I came across a quote which really struck a chord with me. The person who shared the quote noted that one of the most dangerous things that you can ever hear within a business is: “We’ve always done it this...
What is it that really makes a hotel special?

What is it that really makes a hotel special?

As Training Manager for SK Chase I am fortunate enough to visit and stay in our clients’ amazing hotels and resorts. Friends often ask me ‘which hotels are your favourites?’ This is such a hard question to answer. I have visited so many beautiful properties.  Is it...
A complete gift voucher solution

A complete gift voucher solution

We offer a ‘complete’ gift voucher solution to luxury hotels and resorts. A solution that enables luxury hotels, resorts and collections, such as Gleneagles, Rocco Forte Hotels, The Savoy, Chewton Glen and Elite Hotels to sell gift experiences directly via...
Why choose SK Chase?

Why choose SK Chase?

Why do luxury hotels and resorts choose to work with us? We’ve thought long and hard about what sets us apart from other gift voucher companies. So rather than just list out our attributes, (which if you’re interested to read, you’ll find them below!) we decided to...
All about SK Chase

All about SK Chase

Why we’re here is simple: we set people free. The reason SK Chase is in business, is to set our clients free from the day to day hassle of gift vouchers and give them the opportunity to generate more money from them; we enable luxury hotels and resorts to focus on...
New and improved ‘Help’ section

New and improved ‘Help’ section

We’ve been working on a new and improved ‘Help’ section for our clients, which will help them find out whatever they need to know about gift vouchers quickly, helping them complete any task with ease, making using our gift voucher website and management...
The importance of empathy in customer service

How to bring meaning

Prior to joining SK Chase, I came from a hotel background. Hotels are made up of many departments, involving lots of people working to different agendas. Of course the vision was always to provide outstanding service to our guests, however, the journey in how we...
Our culture

Our culture

This particular post is more of a ‘visual’ one (so if you are reading this via email, it would be best to go to our blog to ‘see’ what I mean!) Our culture The company culture at SK Chase is unique – and it means so much to the people who work here. We invest in...
Smells like team spirit

Smells like team spirit

SK Chase – the next phase As I sit here writing this blog on the 30th of December, just after our busiest period of the year, I have been able to reflect on the past year at SK Chase, and in particular the last 3-6 months. I wanted to take some space to...
Infographic – Gift voucher January ‘sale’

Infographic – Gift voucher January ‘sale’

Everyone loves picking up a bargain in the January sales, so we recommend that our clients also consider running a special gift voucher promotion as a ‘January Sale’ with vouchers available at a discounted rate or with extra value added to them....
Infographic – Gift voucher sales in December

Infographic – Gift voucher sales in December

Would you like to see into the future? Predicting our clients’ gift voucher sales in December Of course, nobody can really see into the future, but what we can do is look back, see any trends that develop and predict what is likely to happen based on previous...
A new beginning

A new beginning

After three and a half years of working with SK Chase, it’s time for me to slowly say good bye. I am moving back to Vienna, Austria to set up my own business where I will be holding workshops and creating empowerment tools for people that are on their own...
Gift giving happiness

What a gift!

Receiving a gift voucher My husband and I were so grateful to receive some amazing and generous presents at our recent wedding two months ago. Among our gifts were some gift vouchers, some for shops, so we can choose what to buy and some for a specific use, even one...
Can you switch off?

Slowing down to speed up

In today’s society we are constantly on the go, always in a rush, burning the candle at both ends. Our days are mapped out to the last minute, we follow high schedules. Our world is geared up to feed our desire to cram as many activities into our day as possible. I...
Ten years old!

Ten years old!

SK Chase is ten years old this week! To celebrate we’ve created this video, where the two founders of SK Chase (Kaye & Steph) reflect on ten years in business, share their thoughts and talk about what’s next for the business. Enjoy!
What is the value of your business?

What is the value of your business?

This is the first of our new guest blogs. We are delighted that Fergus King of Shirlaws will be writing a series of business blogs for us over the coming months. Over the last 14 years and now in 11 countries, Shirlaws has helped more than 3,000 business owners build...
News in June…

News in June…

Visiting JEM Marketing Jon and Linda took a trip to visit JEM Marketing, our fulfilment partner. After a drive through the leafy lanes of Cranleigh, they arrived at their impressive warehouse. Before having a look around, they met their lovely team who consistently...
News in May

News in May

Visions Each function manager is in the process of putting together a new vision for their functions. A vision is a clear picture of the future, which is something that you choose to become real and when painted properly, conjures up positive emotions and feelings....
Fool No More

Fool No More

No-one knows the true origin of April Fool’s Day, but there are many possible stories claiming ownership of it. One of the most popular is that it originated in France in the 16th century.  Historically, the New Year fell on the 25th March and was celebrated by a...
News in November

News in November

Communication The team have now transformed internal communications since our Communications Workshop. We are all now trying to think and put in to action ways we can implement the same transformation to external communication and utilise our key learnings across...