Everyone assumed Bangladeshis spend Eid at home. The booking data said otherwise. So we asked the country to do something it almost never did: book the Eid hotel early, and book it online.
The common belief was simple: Eid is spent at home, with family. Hotels during Eid felt unnecessary to most people, and booking one weeks in advance felt even stranger. In Bangladesh's domestic travel market, people usually bargain for a room when they arrive.
But the signs were already there. In December 2021, Cox's Bazar was so packed that travellers ended up staying with locals or renting balconies from resorts. The headlines made it national news.
Going back through previous years' booking data showed something the assumption hid: the peak for domestic hotel bookings coincided with the festive seasons. People spend the first days of Eid with family, then travel in the two or three days after. They were travelling. They just weren't booking ahead.
So the ask became counterintuitive on purpose: book your Eid hotel early, and book it online.
For once, hotels were the hero instead of flights. The campaign opened with video announcements from 30+ creators across different verticals, then kept the conversation going in waves of new content, until people were asking why every influencer they followed was booking their Eid hotel on GoZayaan.
The creators didn't just promote. They told their own stories of holidays that went wrong for lack of planning, and every piece ended with the same advice: plan ahead, and book your hotel early. Future Startup described it as Bangladesh's largest-ever influencer campaign by a travel brand.
Across Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, the campaign passed 5 million impressions and drove a surge in hotel queries. Flights had always been GoZayaan's hero product; this was the campaign that made it a serious name for hotels too.
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