Why partnering with Tripadvisor gave this steakhouse the competitive edge

What makes a restaurant successful?

Delicious food and good service are only the beginning. Acclaimed chef Gastón Riveira created La Cabrera, a 250-seat Argentinean-style parilla located in the heart of Bogotá, Colombia, serving premium, local ingredients with his signature high standards.

The brand has existed for over 20 years with many reputable restaurants in Buenos Aires. But as every restaurateur knows, success can prove elusive despite past accolades. While the brand overall did pretty well across Latin America, this new restaurant in a brand new city struggled to gain steam. The restaurant was at less than 40% capacity on the weeknights and only 60% capacity on the weekends. With razor-thin margins and high operating costs, they needed to get more diners through the door — which is why they turned to Tripadvisor.

“Tripadvisor was and still is our first ally during the opening of La Cabrera Bogotá,” says General Manager Luis Fernando Mengual. “It encourages us to keep pushing and keep following our philosophy around the world to make our clients feel like home.”

“Tripadvisor was and still is our first ally during the opening of La Cabrera Bogotá,” says General Manager Luis Fernando Mengual. “It encourages us to keep pushing and keep following our philosophy around the world to make our clients feel like home.”

The challenge: Visibility in a crowded market

La Cabrera embarked on an ambitious marketing strategy, utilizing several of Tripadvisor’s products including Ads and Premium.

The first thing the team decided to do was a Tripadvisor Ads campaign to increase their visibility. From there, they used Tripadvisor Premium to solidify the brand’s image and showcase their innovative offerings directly on Tripadvisor.

Each Tripadvisor product works together to help with marketing efforts across the business, from drawing in new customers to getting them to go from interested to making a reservation. Here’s how it works:

• Tripadvisor Ads captures ready-to-book diners’ attention as they search for restaurants in your area, increasing visitors to your Tripadvisor page.
• Once there, Tripadvisor Premium allows you to tell your story. With features like Storyboard, a dynamic video, and Top 3 Reasons to Eat Here, which showcases why diners love your restaurant, you can convince diners that your restaurant is the one to visit.

Immediate return on their investment

After only two weeks of using all three products combined, they saw a huge influx of diners to their restaurant from Tripadvisor, increasing organic visibility by 300%. Their ranking jumped from 99th to 43rd. They gained more exposure and started seeing more customers come in and leave positive reviews, driving them up the rankings even more over the last six months.

By partnering with Tripadvisor, La Cabrera has seen these substantial results:

• More customers in their restaurant leading to 60% full capacity on weekdays, 80% on weekends
• More positive reviews on their Tripadvisor listing page
• An increase in their Tripadvisor ranking for Restaurants in Bogota from 99th to cracking the top 10
• Around 5,000 views of their Tripadvisor listing page per month

Now, La Cabrera ranks in the top 10 restaurants in Bogotá with huge organic exposure. The team plans to open a new restaurant in 2023 due to the success of the first location, with Tripadvisor as their main marketing tool.

Says Head Chef Gastón Riveira, “Tripadvisor has been an outstanding support in spreading La Cabrera experience and becoming a success story in 2022. It will continue to be an ally in our 2023 expansion.”