Elite Hotels fixed fragmented bookings, got 25% more guests

When your booking system fights against you

When Daniel Gineman joined Elite Hotels of Sweden as Head of Digital, he inherited a challenge that would define his mission. The company had grown from innovative student accommodation in the 1950s to one of Sweden's most respected hotel chains, with 40+ properties ranging from historic city hotels to unique destinations like The Wood Hotel — a 20-floor timber building in northern Sweden.

But their digital experience didn't match their hospitality excellence.

Elite Hotels had a functioning website, but bookings were handled through an external system. This created a fundamental blind spot: the team couldn't track the customer journey, optimize conversion points, or understand where potential guests were dropping off. They had no visibility into what was driving bookings or what was preventing them.

The technical debt was crushing productivity. Simple content changes required developer intervention. A key revenue driver, for example, is hotel and experience packages — combining multiple offers with guests' rooms — which would require navigating multiple disconnected systems to even create.

For a hotel group focused on delivering premium experiences across diverse properties, this fragmented digital approach was holding back their growth potential.

Building a platform that grows with ambition

Elite Hotels partnered with Optimizely and implementation partner Epinova to rebuild their entire digital ecosystem. The team chose Optimizely CMS as the foundation, with Segmentation and Web Experimentation layered on top to create truly dynamic guest experiences.

The new architecture delivered immediate capabilities:

• Real-time room availability, dynamic pricing, and seamless package creation — all while maintaining Elite's sophisticated brand experience

• With Optimizely's platform, Daniel's team could finally move at the speed of their business. Editors gained the freedom to create and design pages without developer support

• Advanced segmentation delivers experiences based on guest preferences, booking history, and travel patterns. Business travelers see different content than leisure travelers. Spa enthusiasts discover wellness packages automatically

With SEO-optimized pages and remarketing capabilities, the platform enabled Elite Hotels to reach visitors who have shown interest and drive more qualified traffic than ever before.

The team has also integrated Opal, Optimizely's AI, to strengthen their experimentation capabilities, with future plans to leverage it via the Data Platform for advanced segment creation and richer guest insights.

Results that speak for themselves

The transformation delivered immediate, measurable impact across every metric that mattered to Elite Hotels.

The unified booking experience eliminated friction points that were costing Elite Hotels reservations. Guests can now move seamlessly from browsing hotels to booking packages without losing momentum in their decision-making process, resulting in a 25% increase in conversion rate.

With integrated content management and optimized pages, Elite Hotels achieved a 43% boost in SEO visibility. They're now reaching guests who are searching for specific experiences, such as spa weekends, historic hotel stays, and destination packages.

Content creation time also dropped dramatically. The marketing team now launches campaigns independently, freeing developers to focus on strategic initiatives rather than routine content updates.

And for the first time, Daniel's team can see the complete customer journey. They track which content drives bookings, which packages convert best, and where guests drop off — then test improvements immediately.

The platform's flexibility proved crucial as Elite expanded their destination portfolio. New hotels integrate seamlessly, and unique properties like The Wood Hotel can showcase their distinctive experiences while maintaining brand consistency.

Real-time insights, statistics, and data analysis now enable Elite Hotels to optimize their customer journey at every touchpoint, from initial website visits to post-stay engagement.

Why doing all this matters

For Elite Hotels, the digital transformation addressed two critical market realities.

Elite Hotels was at risk of becoming a legacy brand with outdated digital experiences. The business had built a respected reputation over the decades through its excellence in physical hospitality. If the digital experience doesn’t match, especially for new guests being introduced to the brand for the first time, this undermines what they’ve spent years building. A fragmented booking flow or clunky content across the website can hurt the hard work and ruin first impressions.

And ultimately, hotel websites must convert in a crowded market. Hospitality brands face intense competition for attention. Elite Hotels couldn’t afford and didn’t want to lose prospective guests because of technical friction or poor user experience, especially when they knew their guests’ stay would live up to expectations.

As Daniel Gineman reflected on the transformation: "It has been a fantastically fun and successful project. The collaboration with Epinova and Pineberry has worked really well. The fact that we have worked as a tight team together on site at Epinova has been a success factor. I am extremely proud of the results we have achieved and the launch of the new website!"