Unifying multiple brand sites for a hospitality group with Drupal 9

The challenges

The client's team struggled with handling content across eight different websites. This made it hard to serve a diverse audience across various regions and languages, slowing down their global outreach.

They needed to add real-time pricing for their properties, improve components, and their custom e-commerce React features. Initial configuration issues were blocking smooth content sharing, adding to the challenges. The client also needed to improve the website's performance and security.

The solution

Content syndication

We used Acquia Content Hub for seamless content sharing across the main website and seven brand sites. Despite initial configuration challenges, our team ensured smooth content delivery and updates across all web properties.

This implementation guarantees consistent and timely updates across all web properties whenever changes are made on the main site.

Component-based architecture

Our team optimized and reutilized existing components in the client's digital ecosystem to expedite the creation of the brand sites. This provided content managers with flexibility in creating, editing, and managing pages.

The result was a cohesive online presence with consistent brand identity across all websites, achieved in a record time.

Content localization

Since our client operates in various locations, they needed content specific to each region. To achieve this, we created unique offers for different geographies. By adding a location field to the content structure, the client could specify the target location for each piece of content.

This helped deliver personalized offers and provide users with a customized and region-specific experience.

Drupal 9 upgrade

The client sought to upgrade from Drupal 8 to the latest version, Drupal 9, for better performance and security. Our team conducted a thorough audit of the existing sites, removing outdated and problematic code.

We made sure that the client's existing Drupal modules and themes were compatible with Drupal 9. We also upgraded Composer and BLT and addressed contrib module dependencies with necessary patches, ensuring a smooth and high-performing transition to Drupal 9.

Pricing API integration

We employed an API to introduce a new pricing system, ensuring communication between different software systems. The API updated property and room prices directly on the website. The challenge was that the new API had transaction limits, unlike the client's previous pricing tool.

To address this, our team customized Drupal modules to handle these new transaction limits, guaranteeing that the website could still display prices accurately.

Multisite platform enhancement

We used Acquia Cloud Site Factory to create the multisite platform. To simplify the process, we designed a custom command to automate content export from the main site to specific brand sites.

We set up a scheduled task (cron job) to regularly fetch and display the latest prices and offers from the pricing API on the respective brand sites. This improved efficiency, ensuring visitors always had access to the latest pricing information.

The outcome

The Drupal 9 multisite platform enables our client's team to independently launch websites and create pages. Standardized components streamline operations, while content localization delivers personalized, region-specific content.

Simplified content syndication ensures consistent and timely updates, enhancing our client's digital presence with a cohesive brand identity across global audiences.