Advertising Travel

HotelTonight urges people to ‘Have a Threeday’ in campaign starring Rachel Feinstein

By Kyle O'Brien, Creative Works Editor

August 10, 2018 | 3 min read

Comic sexual innuendos are nothing new to advertising, but they seem to be popping up more frequently in ads lately, from Dr Ruth’s ads for SlingTV to the latest from HotelTonight.

HotelTonight Threeday campaign

In the ‘Let’s Have a Threeday’ campaign from booking app HotelTonight, three people are featured in provocative requests of extended weekends.

The digital spots featuring comedian Rachel Feinstein in various suggestive settings where she, her friend and another guy propose to have a ‘threeday’ – a term for a long weekend with friends. In each instance, different sounds are timed to blur out every time the ‘day’ part of the word is mentioned, winkingly implying a three way rather than an extended trip.

In ‘Mixing it Up,’ Feinstein and her roommate ask her other male roommate to “have a threeday” but he misunderstands because he’s either cracking ice trays or hitting a blender. The same keenly timed sounds are heard while Feinstein proposed threedays at diner and at the gym.

The tongue-in-cheek campaign may grab the low-hanging fruit on the concept, but Feinstein and company perform it with zeal and slick comic timing. All the threesomes, however, are with two women and a man, which some might see as not the most forward-thinking in terms of modern sexuality.

“While other OTAs continue to push extended summer vacations, we represent the perfect solution to the everyday getaway.” says HotelTonight creative director Jordan Braun. “We wanted to deliver a series that’s both true to HotelTonight’s brand voice and more relevant in today’s on-demand world.”

Added Mekanism creative director Eric Cosper: “People vacation more freely nowadays. They jump on spontaneous shorter trips as opposed to blocking out a romantic getaway nine months in advance. For this campaign, we wanted to leverage HotelTonight’s provocative spirit to encourage people to try something new. We put the innuendo on the viewer, to stop them in their tracks. And if they see something beyond people getting excited about having a three day weekend, that's on them.”

HotelTonight’s internal creative team devised the campaign in partnership with Mekanism and the videos are directed by SNL Digital Short alum Mike Bernstein.

In addition to digital spots with Feinstein, the campaign features significant out-of-home takeovers in New York and Los Angeles.

See all three spots by clicking on the Creative Works box below.