Bob W

Bob W had outgrown its existing website from nearly every angle. The off-the-shelf platform it was built on limited on-page SEO, slowed page load times, and created a fragmented experience between the booking flow and the guest reception area. There was also nowhere on the site to tell Bob W's brand story, including its relationships with local companies and artisans in each destination city. 

Bob W had limitations developing custom functionality on its previous CMS. The enterprise tier of that platform was expensive and still wouldn't have delivered the functionality the brand needed. 

The project's goals were to: 

• Improve on the progress already made with the booking flow and guest reception area 

• Help guests find inspiration for their next city and personalize their experience down to the neighborhood level 

• Centrally store content so authentic neighborhood stories could be reused across the website, email, and social 

• Orchestrate customer journeys that surface the most relevant content while reducing bottlenecks 

• Grow the average length of stay 

IDHL led the end-to-end transformation of Bob W's digital experience, bringing together strategy, design, and technical delivery to create a scalable, integrated platform.

Working closely with Bob W's product, engineering, and commerce teams, IDHL: 

• Reimagined the digital experience, introducing a refined visual identity and bringing the "Bob" character to life as a consistent, experience-enhancing element across the site 

• Connected the full customer journey by seamlessly integrating the marketing site with the booking platform, removing fragmentation and creating a unified path from inspiration through to conversion 

• Enabled scalable storytelling with a structured content model that lets Bob W showcase local neighborhoods, partnerships, and travel inspiration, moving beyond a purely transactional website 

• Reduced operational friction by delivering a platform that empowers Bob W's teams to manage and reuse content efficiently, significantly reducing reliance on developers 

• Future-proofed the business with a modern, flexible architecture that supports rapid expansion into new markets and ongoing innovation 
  
  Favorite new site features: 

• A new visual identity, bringing the "Bob" character to life through subtle, handwritten elements across the guest experience 

• A single content source powering both the marketing site and the headless booking platform 

• A structured content model for neighborhood, partnership, and travel-inspiration storytelling 

• A unified journey from inspiration through booking, with no fragmentation between the marketing site and booking flow 

Xperience by Kentico was selected as the best-fit DXP for its ability to combine structured content management with flexible delivery across channels, enabling Bob W to support both its marketing website and booking ecosystem from a single content source. The visual Page Builder was also a key differentiator, giving non-technical teams the ability to create rich, on-brand pages without developer dependency. 

Kentico directly advised on the appropriate way to use the headless channel, and contributed to the project through: 

• Content reuse and omnichannel delivery, using the Content Hub with structured, reusable content types for a single content source across the site and the headless booking platform API, eliminating duplication. 

• New architecture,migrating to .NET 9/10 with Xperience by Kentico, reducing technical issues and licensing costs 

• Multi-language support, with built-in localization for Bob W's expanding international presence, with AI translation workflows to accelerate content delivery 

• Progressive caching with intelligent cache dependencies to handle complex property and apartment relationships across a growing inventory 

• Content author autonomy, through custom Page Builder sections that empower the marketing team to create pages. 

• Code-first content types and automatic model generation to reduce errors 

• Content synchronization between environments ensuring controlled, tested rollouts 

Out-of-the-box and platform features used: 

• Channels 

• Content Hub 

• AIRA features 

• Image resizing, focal point, and variants 

• Lucene search 

Integrations included Segment for event tracking, newsletter signup analytics, and user identification; RSW for translation; .NET 9, migrating to .NET 10, for a modern server-side framework with nullable reference types; React and Storybook for isolated component development with testing and a living style guide; Lucene Search for advanced faceted search across apartments, articles, cities, and properties; a real-time Booking Portal integration for availability search and order placement; and Azure Blob Storage for scalable file and media management. 

Bob W's new site made it easier for guests to browse, book, and check out, and it didn't take long for that improved experience to show up in the numbers. Here's what changed shortly after launch: 

• 59% increase in website sessions 
• 121% increase in online purchases 
• 138% increase in online revenue