Valtech has partnered with Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group to launch a new digital experience. Partnering with Valtech to transform its online presence in the heart of the pandemic resulted in an initial relaunch in time for the first travel surge in December 2021. This rapidly showed results; the average revenue per booking increased by more than 40% and engagement behaviors rose more than 10%.
Mandarin Oriental and Valtech have now completed the grand relaunch of Mandarin Oriental’s sites for all its global locations, including the UAE where it owns and operates iconic properties in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, to meet the continued increase in travel demand ahead of competitors in the industry.
The new online presence enhances the visual experience and flow for travelers, all supported by the replatforming of the website to Sitecore. This further investment has extended the success of the new digital experience, with numbers from the full relaunch showing year-over-year increases in organic traffic (90.8%), unique visitors (17%), and revenue (42%).
“The expertise Valtech provided made the transformation easy by elevating Mandarin Oriental’s digital experience to a level where we are already seeing exciting growth in customer engagement and booking value,” said Peter Norris, Vice President, Digital at Mandarin Oriental.
The UAE’s hospitality industry saw strong recovery through 2022 as the total number of hotel guests in the first half of the year increased by 42% to reach 12 million. In Dubai occupancy rates through 2022 averaged an impressive 76%. To accommodate this robust recovery, Mandarin Oriental had the foresight to lead the hospitality industry in providing guests with a unified, unique experience across both physical and digital properties. For Mandarin Oriental, this means the complete redesign and replatforming of their online presence, giving visitors and customers the same feeling of luxury and dedicated service from the moment they enter the new website, throughout the booking, and even the confirmation process that they get during their stays at the properties.
“In our most recent collaboration, we aimed to build an online experience that truly showcased the scale and distinctiveness of such a wonderful brand, while still prioritizing the improvement of the entire customer journey, as Mandarin Oriental welcomes travelers back to their properties,” said Lori Esposito, VP, Head of Client Services at Valtech.
“What makes this journey so unique is that the Mandarin Oriental leadership saw beyond the challenges Covid presented and invested in the upturn – a decision that is paying back tenfold today. Valtech is proud to have been a core part of Mandarin Oriental’s Digital Experience Transformation journey, and look forward to more successes together,” said Kareem Monem, Regional Managing Director at Valtech MENA.
