The importance of paper
Work across Marriott, W Hotels and Sofitel where the digital product was asked to do something hospitality usually does in person: make the guest feel recognised. The brief looked like a booking flow. The real subject was the promise the brand makes before the guest arrives.
Hospitality is one of the clearest expressions of brand experience.
The challenge
Hospitality groups operate hundreds of properties under a handful of brands. Every property wants local nuance. Every brand wants consistency. The digital experience had drifted into a compromise that satisfied neither, and guests were meeting the brand for the first time inside that compromise.
The tension was not visual. It was editorial and operational. Nobody had agreed what the brand should feel like at the moment of choosing, and the site had been quietly optimised into something that could belong to any chain.
What I did
Redefined the guest journey as a single continuous relationship rather than a funnel, from first search to post-stay.
Built an experience system that let each brand keep its own voice while sharing structural patterns, so consistency was structural and character was editorial.
Worked directly with the operations, loyalty and property teams so the promise made online could be honoured on arrival.
The result
The site stopped being a booking utility and started behaving like the front door of the brand. Property teams reported that guests were arriving with a clearer sense of what to expect, and expecting more.
- 27%
- 1.4pt
- 6
Lift in direct booking conversion
Guest satisfaction uplift on arrival experience
Brands aligned on one experience system
In hospitality, brand is not only what a company says. It is what the guest feels across every interaction. The promise is only real if the experience supports it. This work informs my approach to experience as the place where brand becomes operational.
About the company
Marriott, W Hotels and Sofitel
Global hospitality operators whose brands live or die on the gap between the promise and the stay. The engagements were led from the top of the brand, with direct involvement from operations, loyalty and property leadership.
- Global hospitality
- Experience strategy, digital product, brand system
- Ongoing advisory
- Display Magazine
“A brand promise has no value unless the experience can carry it.”