Role
Pass the Keys® is a Seedrs-funded short-term lettings and hospitality franchise operating across the UK and Europe. During my tenure as Marketing Director, I led the end-to-end growth strategy across host acquisition, franchise expansion, guest booking performance, and brand transformation — helping the business scale from 600 to 3,500 properties and grow gross booking value from £13M to £41M.
My role spanned B2C, B2B and D2C channels across multiple markets, overseeing a full marketing investment of more than £2M, a multi-timezone team, and the strategic evolution of the business into a performance-led organisation.
The Core Verticals Powering Their Expansion
Objectives
The UK short-term rental space was maturing quickly, with Airbnb reshaping guest expectations and new management operators emerging at pace. Pass the Keys® needed a clearer market position, a stronger national brand, and a scalable marketing engine capable of driving property supply and franchise expansion across multiple regions.
Grow property supply and expand franchise territories
Reduce reliance on Airbnb and diversify OTA bookings
Strengthen brand presence and franchise consistency
Rebuild the tech, CRM and performance stack
Improve guest acquisition, retention and repeat booking
Create new revenue streams to increase profitability
Deliverables
I delivered a complete marketing transformation across brand, digital acquisition, CRM and franchise growth. This included rebuilding the national marketing strategy, scaling paid media across Google, Meta and OTA platforms, developing a multi-region franchise marketing toolkit, delivering new website and landing page frameworks, building a guest CRM ecosystem, creating insurance revenue campaigns, and driving data-led optimisation across all channels to support UK and Spain expansion.
Host & Property Acquisition Growth (UK & Spain)
Built and executed the host growth strategy across Meta, Google Search, Display and Bing
Enabled 90 franchise partners with local acquisition playbooks, direct mail, outreach and local branding
Reduced CAC through tighter channel optimisation and funnel tracking
Doubled lead volume in the first 6 months with only a 20% increase in investment
Franchise Expansion Across UK, Spain & Nordics
Designed the franchise acquisition strategy across paid, partner portals, events and outreach
Supported pipeline development through tailored content, tools and pitch frameworks
Acquired 45 new franchise partners in 3 years
Booking & Guest Growth Marketing
Oversaw the rebuild of the booking website and improved direct conversion
Launched automated CRM and email lifecycle journeys
Built a 30,000-contact database through sms guest outreach within 12 months with a 45% opt-in rate
Increased repeat bookings to 17% of all guest stays
Channel Management & OTA Diversification
Led the strategy across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, Plum Guide and other short-let platforms
Optimised listing quality, photography, pricing strategy and guest journey
Reduced over-reliance on Airbnb from 90% to 65%, a critical company KPI
Marketing stack for Pass the Keys®
Brand Repositioning & National Consistency
Rebuilt the brand framework and asset library
Modernised creative, tone, and performance messaging
Supported a large franchise network with unified brand standards and toolkits
New Revenue Streams & Profit Centres
Built a company-wide damage guarantee and property insurance programme
Directed onboarding, claims processes, and partner negotiations
Created an additional £400K+ annual revenue, with £300K profit
Culture & Team Development
Rebuilt team culture through engagement strategies, team days and leadership routines
Increased all-company meeting engagement from 40% to 80%
Developed a high-performing, multi-timezone team of designers, marketers and operators
