These mountains. These lakes. This light!
The Randolins mountain hotel in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
These mountains. These lakes. This light!
Rising to the challenge
In June 2023, after nine months, we took the three-website project Berghotel Randolins St. Moritz live.
Content management
In terms of content, the challenge was to structure the huge web content that had accumulated over the years for 3 houses, in 3 languages and 2 seasons: What do we take over, what can be removed, what needs to be rethought?
It was clear that this task would be laborious. But it also offered the chance to finally bring order back to the confusing chaos.
From webEdition to ProcessWire
The biggest technical challenge was the move from the old content management system (CMS), the German-language webEdition, to the modern, lean and future-proof CMS ProcessWire.
Advantage for the hotelier:
- Intuitive CMS
- Maximum flexibility in the pages, individual modules and blocks
- It's child's play to set up, maintain and publish a topic page yourself.
- Best loading speed.
Recognizability
The recognizability of the previous website was a central concern of the hoteliers Stephan and Isabella. XPORT ensured that the guests of the Berghotel Randolins can easily find their way around the new website and can continue to book their stay as numerous and smart as before.
Together, we decided to use the layout of the previous website as a solid foundation on which to build.
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Site in the Engadine, St. Moritz, Switzerland
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Houses = 3 different concepts
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Meter altitude of the hotel
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years of history
Project planning
At the beginning, it was difficult to estimate the exact scope of the project. For the Randolins and us, it felt like we were exploring a huge hotel without knowing how many rooms it had.
That's why we organized a one-day kick-off at the hotel in St. Moritz. In any case, it is important to XPORT in every project to feel and understand the guest experience at first hand.
Screen designer and front-end developer Tobias as well as project manager and managing director Thomas for XPORT, Stephan Amsler and Isabella Scheuermann for Berghotel: Together we gathered in a creative room of the hotel with a magnificent view of the mountains to discuss every eventuality of the project and ensure that the goals and vision were clear.
Three houses, three concepts
The website project was conceived as a "multi-site" project. Three hotels, three hotel concepts. The 3-star Randolins mountain hotel, the family resort and the hostel were accommodated in one technical instance. The advantage: synergies in terms of content. For example, content that is the same for all three hotel websites is only entered once and displayed on all three pages. Even if these pages differ visually and in the URL. Take a look at the history of the hotel, for example:
Berghotel Randolins: https://www.randolins.ch/berghotel-schweiz/stiftung-leitbild-geschichte/
Family resort: https://www.randolins-familienresort.ch/familienhotel-schweiz/stiftung-zentrum-randolins-st-moritz/
Hostel: https://www.randolins-hostel.ch/hostel/stiftung-zentrum-randolins-st-moritz/
Visual rejuvenation
These mountains! There is no doubt that the mountains of St. Moritz are the number one reason for guests to visit the Randolin. That's why the mountain silhouettes are reflected in the web design. They serve as a charming divider, like picturesque windows to the breathtaking surroundings. Every click becomes a journey through dreamlike landscapes.
The Quickbooker at the bottom of the website always remains in view of the website user. From here, they can access all three Randolin hotels and/or the embedded booking engine from SimpleBooking. The TrustYou score placed right here ensures trust.
Many details, one overall composition
Image motifs that (move)
Our Cinemagraph*1 header is a true rarity, bringing our website to life with a summer and a winter motif. We immerse website visitors in a moving image that intrigues and soothes them at the same time. An unforgettable first impression that stands out from other hotel websites.
Animated USP and feature pictograms tell guests at first glance what makes the three hotels so special.
And finally, the heart of our redesign - the orientation towards the existing layout. While we carefully approached the modern look, we preserved the soul of the previous website. Because the Randolins knows that loyal guests will feel at home here and still enjoy the subtle changes in the aesthetics.
Beautiful in summer and winter
In the backend of the website, the Berghotel Randolins now has the option of changing the season from summer to winter and back again. Either via preset start and stop dates or manually. This function makes it possible to transform not only the colors of the website, but also the content itself. Guests choose the season that suits them and experience a magical transformation of the website that puts them in the right mood.
Navigation as a support for website browsing
The 3-level navigation invites you on a journey of discovery through the digital hotel world. Each level reveals new information, offers and experiences that inspire guests and entice them to book.
The fixed navigation when scrolling is like the friendly concierge who is always at the guest's side. No matter how far they wander on the website, the navigation always remains within reach.
The scrolling sidebar, practically equipped with season, contact and FAQ buttons, is the website visitor's personal assistant. The sidebar offers direct contact to the hotel without having to search for it.
The red button to happiness
Before the red button was pressed and the new website went live, we made sure that the good visibility and rankings of the (old) website would not be dented in the Google and Bing search engines. The site was developed with state-of-the-art technical and content SEO:
- Comprehensive redirect concept (redirecting old URLs that no longer exist to corresponding new pages)
- Sitemap, Robots, Rich Snippets
- Crawlable content
- Development or transfer of all meta information for each individual page
- Image SEO: Labeling of all images with descriptive ALT texts (created by the customer)
- Immediate indexing request to Google and Bing after going live and much more.
Welcome to a world where the eye is the gateway to an extraordinary journey!
Welcome to the Berghotel Randolins St. Moritz, Engadin, Switzerland.
Larger smartphones, more demanding users
In a world where smartphones are getting bigger, we adapted our design to optimize usability on mobile devices. For example, we placed the menu button far down. This allows guests to navigate comfortably with their thumbs and explore the wealth of information on the hotel website with ease.
The result after the launch
1.200 redirected old to new URL according to redirect concept
I want it too!Integrations IBE SimpleBooking, OutdoorActive, Weather API, separate calendar for Observatory Suite, TrustYou and much more.
I want it too!Up to 22 % more entries from the website into the IBE
I want it too!
Footnotes:
* Slogan of the Engadin Tourism Association, St. Moritz, Switzerland
*1 A cinemagraph is a typical photo with animated individual areas. The animations run in repeating loops.
The user chooses and the entire website changes to his favorite season.
A static image motif becomes a moving highlight with just a few elements.
The discreetly animated icons show guests the special features of the hotel.
Full-screen embedding of the YouTube video window
Quick overview: Room overview via mouse-over effect
Flexible layout for arrangements. Adapts to the summer or winter season, the amount of text and image size.
Footer in mountain silhouettes as a multi-domain block: maintained only once, stored in all three domains.