Grove Park Spa gives Away 96 rooms in 90 Minutes via Twitter

To celebrate its 96th year in operation, the Grove Park Inn Resort & Spa opted to do something most 96-year-olds don’t usually do: get onto Twitter.

Last Monday, the Asheville, NC, resort put out an offer to its followers, informing them that the first 96 callers who dialed a designated toll-free number would win a free one-night stay in the historic resort’s Mountain View accommodations.

Within fewer than 90 minutes, all 96 of the giveaway rooms had been claimed.

“It was amazing how fast they went,” said Jay Winer, a spokesperson for the privately owned resort. “The displays on the phone banks kept showing ‘Twitter’ to mark the 1-800 number we used specifically for this promotion.”

Many of those getting the Twitter message and calling in were new followers on the microblogging service re-tweeting the offer to their friends, he pointed out.

“We only had about 42 followers starting out, but when I last checked [on Tuesday, May 12] we were up to about 250,” Winer said. “We were interested to see the number increase after this promotion. You definitely learn from doing things like this.”

Callers who reached the hotel after the 96th free room had been awarded were told to keep following E.W. Grove, the resort’s founder, on Twitter to pick up on future offers.

Winer said those are definitely in the works for a future undetermined date. He said the next Twitter offer from the Grove Park Inn may target discounts rather than giveaways.

“You can’t wait too long to go after the [Twitter] followers, because they drop off,” he said. “But I think the next time we try this, the natural evolution will be to say, ‘The next 96 people who call in will get a room for $96.’ And then we’ll see how many bites we get on the second promotion.”

The Twitter effort from Grove Park is the latest component in an extended interactive campaign designed to generate buzz for the resort in social media. The property launched a highly interactive Web site several months ago.

Themed as “Grove’s Magical Elixir 2.0”, the Web site picks up on the notion that before founding his hotel in 1913, the real-life Edwin Wiley Grove was an apothecary who got rich selling potions such as “Grove’s Tasteless Tonic.”

Grove Park has also posted a video to YouTube in an attempt to tap into viral media.