# b_smart hotel group

## b_smart hotel group

[Experience b_smart live](https://www.b-smarts.net/bendern)

Discover now

## Websites on a single platform

### Brand identities in one system

### Usability and functional tests

\+

### Year of project time for 25 websites

How do you transform the hotel experience into the digital world without losing its personality? That is exactly the challenge we got to solve together with b_smart: from developing a flexible digital brand world to technically orchestrating a system that today connects more than 20 hotels and motels. All for a brand that lives digitalisation: at b_smart, guests check in themselves, so the website is often the first and most important host.

The starting point was an outdated, sluggish CMS, isolated individual systems and inconsistent brand presences. The goal: a platform where editorial, marketing and development work centrally, every brand keeps its own character and new locations go online quickly. To get there, we rebuilt **25 websites in two languages and four brand looks** in a one-year transformation project.

## Focus on **brand management & scalability**

## Digit-One impressed with its precision, customer focus, and excellent project management.

![Porträt von Heinrich Toldo, Verwaltungsrat bei b_smart](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2F262228b23716ab7a62e9b15062a98ad2eb836623-800x800.jpg&w=1920&q=75)

Heinrich Toldo

Board of Directors @ b_smart

Corporate Website

Headless

Storyblok

Digit-One combines precision, quick comprehension, and a customer focus that is essential in the hotel industry. Despite the high complexity of our project, we always felt well looked after and appreciated the professional project management. Agile actions and short-term adjustments in the interests of the project were immediately reflected within the team and documented accordingly. Even under time pressure, communication was goal-oriented and appreciative. We are glad to have chosen Digit-One as the right partner for our demanding project and would do the same again.

![GWA-2025-Award-Siegel (gold)](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2F98e9e20b3a9af175d3539d37c43b1c1a57278f6b-2849x1268.jpg&w=1920&q=75)

## Finding the right setup together: fast, focused, on-brand

In an intensive **design sprint** and accompanying concept workshops, we laid the foundation together with the team: requirements, target groups, brand values and digital goals were analysed, prioritised and translated into a modular concept. More than **150 usability and functional tests** validated the decisions, from the booking entry point to the navigation. After go-live, a further test with real hotel guests followed. The result: a clear interplay of strategy, design and technology, built for the hotel group and scalable for every future instance.

From there, the work continued iteratively: development sprints with ongoing acceptance, the content pipeline built in parallel, a **pilot launch** and a step-by-step rollout of the locations over several months. We recorded all decisions in one central **decision book**, so everyone involved always had the same picture.

## A new digital CI/CD: Recognizable. Reusable. Forward-thinking.

The b_smart houses have a strong identity, and it stays exactly as it is. For the websites, we reinterpreted this identity digitally: a **brand facelift** that translates colours, typography and components into a modern, flexible design system. Everything interlocks and can be adapted for every single house. The look stays recognisable across the whole group, while each house keeps its individual character. All colour worlds derive from the parent brand, module structure, templates and animations stay constant, and individual colours were deliberately darkened to maximise contrast for accessibility.

## Website builder? More of a storytelling instrument

On the basis of a modular design system, we created a website architecture that is more than just functional. It tells stories. Every page is an experience. With [**Storyblok CMS**](https://www.digit-one.com/en/web/headless-websites/storyblok), content is managed editorially, without limits, without a rigid CMS corset. City motel, mountain hotel or a house by the lake: the platform adapts. Fast page loads, fluid interactions, mobile first and **accessible down to the detail**, with adjustable font size and a contrast mode right in the header of every website.

## Built for the editorial team

In the **visual editor**, the editorial team sees every change in the preview right away. **Roles and permissions** define who may edit what, mandatory fields and clear instructions prevent mistakes, and a comprehensive user manual gets new team members up to speed. Pre-production environments let content be tested before it goes live, and further languages are easy to add.

![b_smart Hotelgruppe: Ansicht der Website](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2Ff3a4b0f2f5636f073e2b25712666d95d41b5db24-6400x4800.jpg&w=1920&q=75)

![b_smart Hotelgruppe: mobile Zimmerdetailseite der Website](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2Fd0c92a196ce96393d93faf589c861642050015cf-4106x2300.png&w=1920&q=75)

![b_smart Hotelgruppe: mobile Ansichten der Website auf vier Smartphones](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2Fba221b19aacc505d50b4573c02fa6e5724efe808-4112x2292.png&w=1920&q=75)

## Global content, available locally

Important information, offers, policies, or jobs are managed centrally and displayed where they are needed. A folder structure for global and location-specific content and global module blocks that can be placed anywhere make this work. This creates consistent experiences for guests and efficient workflows for editors. A win-win situation, without any copy-paste chaos.

## Launch new websites in hours instead of days

The architecture enables the uncomplicated launch of new hotel websites. Both Storyblok CMS and the cloud-hosted Next.js frontend scale dynamically. Costs and internal effort for new websites are therefore low. Centralized access enables efficient management of all websites and globally shared content. New features and optimizations go live simultaneously for all websites.

## Book where others scroll

The integrated booking journey is deeply anchored in the experience. It is not an add-on, it is an **organic part of the storytelling**. Guests book right where they expect to: front and centre in the homepage hero, on the room detail pages, or from anywhere via the navigation. Vouchers, restaurant and offers are just one click away too. For a brand where guests check in themselves, the digital journey has to work **from the first click to the room door**. That is exactly what it is built for.

## How a new location goes live

A new hotel website is set up in a few hours, without touching the code:

1. The website is configured in Storyblok and created from the starter skeleton.
2. A pre-production domain is connected via DNS to the password-protected pre-production frontend.
3. The editorial team maintains the content and tests it there before publishing.
4. At go-live, the configuration in Storyblok is switched and the production domain is connected via DNS to the production frontend.

Behind it sits a single **Storyblok instance** as the backend for all websites, with one production frontend serving all domains. New features pass through a staging stage for acceptance and then an automated release process. Development follows Git flow on one central code base for all websites.

## AI for content that senses what guests are looking for

With AI support, content is **prepared intelligently**. The basis is an AI content pipeline that drafts copy semi-automatically from the corporate voice, the CMS structure and the data sheets of the houses. That saves the editorial team time and raises quality: from automated image captions to SEO-optimised copy and content that follows what guests are actually looking for. The content gets not just prettier, but smarter.

### One front-end theme, many brand identities

What looks like an homage to variety is technically quite a feat: we built a central front-end theme that **adapts dynamically to each hotel brand**. Colour worlds, typography, imagery, content modules: all centrally managed, yet locally staged. The brand identity is selected per website with a single setting, keeping maintenance lean and the presence strong. This creates distinct user experiences for b_smart Hotels & Motels, flexy.motels and all Hotels by b_smart.

## One platform, many domains

Behind the scenes, a multisite architecture resolves every request intelligently: custom domains and subfolders are **centrally mapped to the right website**, so every house gets its own presence without its own infrastructure. The cloud-hosted **Next.js front end** scales dynamically, whether one house is in high season or twenty are at once. For the editorial team, it all feels like one system. For guests, like their hotel's own website.

## What was technically demanding

A platform for many domains brings its own hurdles: **routing in a multi-domain setup**, internal references and link resolving, dynamic templating for the room pages and well-thought-out caching. On top of that, flexibility and simplicity had to stay in balance while new features were built and tested continuously. A clear structure in Storyblok was decisive for that.

## The result

A platform that connects **more than 20 hotels and motels** while letting every house keep its own character. New websites go live in hours instead of days, features and optimisations reach all houses at once, and one central team maintains content without copy-paste chaos. The platform has kept growing ever since, house by house and feature by feature. And it proves a point: digital scaling works best when the **brand gets sharper, not diluted**.

The platform meets the accessibility and performance criteria, acceptance among the editorial team is high, and the project won the **German Web Award**. The foundation is set for personalised guest experiences and data-driven marketing; the continued development of design system, content pipeline and brand governance is on the roadmap.

[Contact now](mailto:benno.purin@digit-one.com)

### Benno Purin

![Porträt von Benno Purin, Director Clients & Operations und Co-Founder bei Digit-One](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2F514c41a28280e2171d543d6a9382763f2f4efdeb-2386x1915.jpg&w=1920&q=75)

Director Clients & Operations, Co-Founder @ Digit-One

“Interested? I'd be happy to tell you more!”

![b_smart Hotelgruppe: Übersicht mehrerer Seiten der Website](https://www.digit-one.com/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.sanity.io%2Fimages%2Fp48sl94f%2Fproduction%2Ff0653d0b7cf054f4afa98384cf6bbddb164223a6-4112x2302.png&w=1920&q=75)

## What we take away from the project

Three lessons that carry over to other complex digitalisation projects:

- **Involve stakeholders early**, including remote ones such as department heads: it builds acceptance and brings every perspective into the project from the start.
- **Invest in a thorough concept up front**, with a technical concept, clear requirements and clean scoping: it reduces project risk considerably.
- Run **quality assurance** across the entire project, not only at the end.

The whitepaper walks through the project step by step, with the design system, architecture diagrams and all lessons learned.

[Read the whitepaper](https://cdn.sanity.io/files/p48sl94f/production/345abcff0135b11aa6e0dfe25e8556ab3a53391b.pdf)

All details as PDF (German)

[+43 664 168 39 50](tel:00436641683950)

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