Redesigned for Revenue: Driving 32% year-on-year digital growth
Best Western Hotels GB is one of the largest hotel groups in the UK, with more than 250 independently owned and operated properties. They came to LION+MASON with a commercial challenge: their existing website was underperforming, leaking revenue to OTAs and failing to meet the expectations of the modern digital traveller.
The website had fallen behind. A dated interface, a multi-step booking journey that caused drop-off, and a lack of meaningful value for logged-in users were all combining to push potential guests towards third-party booking platforms. Best Western needed a fundamental rethink of the digital experience, not a cosmetic refresh, with a clear focus on driving direct bookings and growing online revenue.
The project began with an in-depth discovery phase, aligning with key stakeholders to define objectives and understand pain points. Using a combination of analytics data, stakeholder insight, and qualitative user research, we identified the core experience challenges: dated UI, friction in the booking journey, and limited value for logged-in users.
We carried out:
These insights informed a strategic roadmap, balancing near-term wins with longer-term transformation opportunities.
Our UX team redefined the core user journeys – from hotel search and booking to account management and rewards – with a strong focus on reducing friction and increasing clarity.
We:
Early concepts were rendered as detailed wireframes and extensively tested with users, allowing us to explore structure, flow, and interaction patterns quickly and collaboratively.
Testing early and often was key to de-risking design decisions. We used clickable prototypes populated with real content to validate redesigned journeys with real users, capturing their feedback on usability, clarity, and confidence at key touchpoints.
Through testing, we were able to:
Feedback loops informed iterative refinements ahead of visual design, ensuring the final experience was not only beautiful but also intuitive and effective.
We evolved Best Western’s visual identity to bring more warmth, clarity and consistency across the digital journey, while staying true to brand guidelines.
Our art direction focused on:
The goal was to create a UI that felt premium, trusted, and easy to engage with, across every screen.
Building on the new visual direction, we delivered high-fidelity UI designs for all key templates and interactions. We also created a modular digital design system to ensure scalability and maintainability as the site evolves.
Key outputs included:
We continued to support the development team post-handover to ensure quality and consistency through build and launch.
The website redesign for Best Western Hotels GB has been a marked success. We worked hand-in-glove with the client team to create a modern, user-friendly site that has enabled the Best Western team to deliver a future-proofed best-in-class platform from which to evolve and grow.
Our methodical, insight-based approach, clear design plans and continuous support made it easy for the development team to build and launch the new site seamlessly.
Importantly, it has provided a basis from which we have developed a powerful partnership supporting Best Western Hotels GB as they move forward with their ambitions.
