LINDNER HOTELS IMPROVES CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT AND EVENT PLANNING WITH MATTERPORT

An Award-Winning Hotel Group

Travelers who prefer individual hotels over the big chains are a discerning bunch. They’re looking for something unique, a destination with a strong sense of place and more attention to detail. Individual hotels work hard to stand out from the competition, and they have to work even harder to stand out online, where would-be guests often have a tough time seeing and feeling from a distance what makes a place special.

The family that owns the Lindner Hotels & Resorts group in Germany understands this. They have a background in architecture dating back to 1959, and their hotels have won numerous awards over the years, including "Hotel Property of the Year," "Top Hotel Newcomer Award," and "Best Hotel Group for Business Travelers in Germany." 

Lindner Hotels not only wants to create great experiences for guests while they are at hotels, but the company is also determined to digitise the entire customer journey. That includes the ability to check-in and out online, but it begins with showcasing its guest rooms and spaces online.

The Future of Travel Planning

Most travel booking sites remain moored in the world of still photography. Meanwhile, entire Lindner hotels—guest rooms, restaurants and bars, fitness areas, conference rooms, and event spaces—have been digitally captured with Matterport and rendered into digital twins that include immersive, 3D imagery as well as spatial data. Guests can now virtually tour Lindner hotels from anywhere. 

“We can showcase our properties better than the big third-party booking sites,” says Oliver Stotz, Corporate Director of Marketing and Distribution. “Those sites might include a lot of photos and general written information, but we want to provide potential guests with even richer details about our property that our guests find exciting. We want them to experience our hotels long before they set foot in one.”

Guests can virtually move through a digitally captured room and decide for themselves if an economy room has enough space or if they’d rather upgrade to a suite. “We want our guests to be confident that they’re booking the right room, and that can only be done if we provide detailed visual information upfront,” Stotz says. 

Lindner can use Matterport to create a dollhouse view of entire properties, from the ground level to the rooftop. “Matterport digital twins are very detailed and clear,” Stotz says. “Unlike with photographs, guests can interact with the digital replicas of the hotel in Matterport.” 

Beyond Virtual Room Tours

With Matterport digital twins, Lindner Hotels can showcase many amenities in addition to its guest rooms, meeting rooms, and event spaces. For example, for the Lindner Golf Resort Portals Nous in Mallorca, guests can visualise a candlelight dinner at Niko's Place or an evening of tapas and cocktails at the Chumbo Pool Restaurant. Guests who want to get a massage can view both the Bahari Spa and the bamboo hut at the Outdoor Spa before they decide where to book.

And the digital twins Lindner captures with Matterport offer more than 3D representations. They are a starting point. Films, 4k images, and 2D room plans can also be generated from the digital twins, meaning that additional photoshoots are no longer necessary, work processes can be shortened, and collaboration with interior designers and event planners can be simplified.

“We host a lot of conferences, so we created a mini-map within Matterport that can take potential clients straight to every space in the locations we want to show them,” explains Stotz. “And we can virtually stage our event spaces to demonstrate various possible layouts.”

The Lindner Hotel City Plaza is the first German hotel to be a part of a pilot project using the collaboration platform AllSeated, which uses Matterport digital twins to enable event participants to create realistic 3D floor plans from anywhere in the world at the same time. Planners can virtually move through the event room and determine what kind of seating will work best. Virtual furniture can be reconfigured, the colours of tablecloths can be changed, and so on. In the future, banquet employees from the hotel will be able to conduct live virtual walkthroughs with prospective event planners, caterers, and florists to work out details.

More Engagement, Better Feedback

Matterport digital twins have led directly to more engagement on Lindner’s website. “We‘ve linked every Matterport 3D tour to our Google My Business entry, which has resulted in 25 percent more clicks,” Stotz says. “It’s so easy to use Matterport and to integrate the digital twins on our site. We can even connect them to Google Street View.” Not only are more people visiting the site, they’re also spending more time on it. 

Stotz says guest feedback is fantastic, especially on the business side, where booking assistants can show their managers an immersive view of meeting areas and event spaces. “I hope the third-party booking sites don’t adopt this technology any time soon,” he says and laughs, “so that we can enjoy having unique content as long as we can.”

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ABOUT LINDNER HOTELS & RESORTS

Based in Dusseldorf Germany, Lindner Hotels & Resorts is an innovative family-owned hotel group that owns, operates, and franchises its boutique brands across seven European countries. With more than 30 properties, their primary brand, Lindner Hotels & Resorts provides 4-5 star business accommodations and leisure resorts while their newest brand concept, me and all hotels, offers lifestyle accommodations focused on urban flair and local events. 

www.lindner.de

HEADQUARTERSDüsseldorf, Germany

 INDUSTRY Travel and Hospitality

CHALLENGEConvert enquiries to bookings. Provide customers with comprehensive views into the entire hotel experience to drive increased bookings.

PRODUCTS Matterport Pro2 

SOLUTION Lindner Hotels uses Matterport to create immersive digital experiences of its properties.