The Student Hotel has completed the first phase of its digital transformation programme, designed and implemented by digital experience agency, Rufus Leonard.
The result is a new website that delivers a differentiated brand experience for a complex mix of hospitality products and an enriched booking journey for student guests. Built on Episerver and React, the new site is intuitive to navigate, built on mobile-first principles, supports accessibility in all its forms, and performs efficiently and reliably. It uses a digital design language that can adapt to any device, enabling a consistent look-and-feel no matter the brand touchpoint. As well as an impactful and user-centric design, under the hood is a refined and efficient codebase.
Mark Liversidge, Chief Digital & Experience Officer at The Student Hotel: “As we rapidly grow and build our global community, so does our vision of creating purposeful connections, lifelong curiosity and learning. We needed an agency partner that understood this vision and could design and build a digital experience connecting curious-minded student spirits to our built spaces and community. We found this in Rufus Leonard, who had the proven credentials to engineer our core digital platforms to deliver distinctive experience to our customers and community. This milestone is the first step in our digital transformation from offering a collection of individual products, to a seamless lifelong customer experience integrating a complex mix of hospitality products, lifestyle services and learning experiences.”
Laurence Parkes, CEO at Rufus Leonard: “The Student Hotel already had a strong personality, a distinctive tone of voice and a proposition that was disrupting the hospitality industry, but they needed a partner that could define and deliver a meaningful experience across their digital ecosystem. We used our Experience Playbook process to create an inspiring blueprint for creating The Student Hotel’s industry-leading digital experience. Among other things, it outlines the impact of hero moments on the bottom line as well as the technical infrastructure needed to deliver them. Once we had the Experience Playbook in place, we delivered the first phase of The Student Hotel’s transformational digital ecosystem, their dynamic global website. This is just the beginning of a very exciting and innovative journey.”
Pioneering a next generation hybrid model in hospitality, TSH is an urban regenerator, partnering with cities to create new communities based around a blend of co-living, student and hotel accommodation with co-working, private office and meeting spaces, enriched with lifestyle options across wellness, entertainment, events, bars and restaurants.
The new website launch is the first milestone of an ambitious programme of work to deliver next level digital experience at all touchpoints, including a new app for guests which will transform the full customer journey from arrival to lifelong connection with the growing global community.
The launch comes at a time of success for Rufus Leonard. The agency is an Econsultancy Top 100 Digital Agency, Top 10 Design & Build Agency and won Best Digital Agency at the 2019 Digital Experience Awards, as well as four 2020 Transform Awards for work with London Business School and ARU.