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Case Study

Thistle Hotels – Feature Development

Thistle Hotels, run by Clermont Hotel Group, is a UK-based hotel company with a portfolio of 9 hotels in the Central London area. The portfolio of luxury hotels offers guests a home away from home with a focus on delivering exceptional customer service.

 

With the desire to innovate, own customer relationships and maximise brand loyalty, Thistle sought a trusted partner to develop a pioneering “Choose your own room” platform.

Laravel Feature Development Hospitality
A well-appointed hotel room featuring a comfortable bed with decorative pillows, modern side chairs, a stylish lamp, and a round table, all illuminated by natural light from a nearby window.

Introduction

Pioneering a Platform to Increase Direct Bookings and Improve the Guest Experience

Filter partnered closely with Thistle—operating under GLH Hotels at the time—to bring a pioneering booking innovation to life: a branded, post-booking microsite that empowers guests to personally select their exact room.

 

Brimming with detailed floor plans, immersive 360-degree Matterport visuals, and rich room descriptions, the platform enhances the guest experience and fosters deeper customer loyalty. Built on a modern tech stack (Laravel backend, JavaScript frontend, REST API, Mailgun), it launched successfully across their portfolio.

Relationship Length

Delivered project in 2020

Focus

Balancing heritage with product showcase through digital transformation

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Problem Problem

  • Needed to boost guest experience and loyalty through personalisation  
  • Aimed to increase direct bookings and control customer relationships  
  • Required an industry-first room selection feature

Solution Solution

  • Built “Choose Your Own Room” platform after extensive consultation
  • Launched microsite with floorplans, descriptions, and virtual tours
  • Developed Laravel backend with JavaScript frontend, integrated Matterport 360°

Result Result

  • 98% of 11,000+ surveyed users would use again
  • Tens of thousands of bookings processed flawlessly
  • Rolled out to full suite of hotels

A laptop displays the Thistle Hotels website with a scenic view of London. The site encourages users to think of London and book their stay at Thistle Hotels.

The Challenge

The concept took months of planning with extensive consultation both with industry experts and hotel employees. Multiple scenarios were worked through, tackling questions such as room refurbishments, lack of choice, room changes and cancellations.

The team needed to create a platform that met all stakeholder needs while working effectively from a digital perspective, taking guests through a completely new room booking journey.

Our Approach

We created a prototype that allows guests meeting each hotel’s criteria to choose their own room within the hotel.

Guests receive an email two weeks before their stay with a secure link to a branded microsite featuring hotel floorplans, descriptions, pictures and virtual tours of available rooms.

The platform was developed using Laravel for the backend admin system with a JavaScript frontend, decoupled with all content delivered via REST API. Matterport camera technology captured 360-degree images of the rooms, with all communications delivered through Mailgun.

A laptop displays the Thistle Bloomsbury Park website, featuring a page dedicated to flexible meeting and event spaces, with professional individuals engaged in discussion, showcasing the venue's collaborative atmosphere for hosting events.
A laptop and smartphone display a website featuring a gallery of meeting rooms, including the Russell Room, and a contact section with a map.

Results

Since launch, the platform has processed tens of thousands of bookings with no issues. From a survey of over 11,000 responses, the platform received a high satisfaction score with 98% of users saying they would use it again.

The success led to expansion across 15 additional glh hotels, while the innovative concept has since influenced major hotel chains, with Hilton Hotels developing their own room selection functionality as part of their Hilton Honours scheme.

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Why This Story Matters

This project demonstrates how innovative technology can transform guest experiences and influence entire industries. For Thistle Hotels, that meant creating the first “Choose your own room” platform that has since been adopted by major hotel chains worldwide.

If your hospitality business needs to innovate guest experiences, improve direct bookings, or pioneer new concepts in your industry, we can help build something that sets new standards and drives competitive advantage.

Three smartphone screens showcasing the Thistle Hotels website. The first screen promotes booking a stay in London, the second displays a gallery of images, and the third includes contact information and a map for locations.

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