Monika Nerger spent years as Group Global Chief Information Officer at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, leading one of the most comprehensive digital transformations in recent hospitality history. In a conversation on the Hospitality Daily Podcast, she shared why they succeeded: they started with their brand DNA and built everything from there.
Most digital transformation programs fail because they focus on technology first. Mandarin Oriental did the opposite. They started with soul-searching questions about their brand identity — their unique approach to hospitality — and then built technology to support it. The results speak for themselves: a unified program that empowered associates, delighted guests, and created measurable business value.
This case study outlines what you can learn from their approach.
The Foundation: Understanding Your Brand Before Buying Technology
When Laurent Kleitman joined the company as CEO, he immediately pushed the organization to examine fundamental questions. What is the DNA of this brand? Where do we fit in the market? What differentiates us from competitors?
“Through the pandemic and coming out of it, we could see there was some compression at luxury and ultra luxury,” Nerger explained. “Things were starting to look an awful lot alike in terms of product. We were all saying some of the same words: ultra-personalization, service excellence, retention of your top guests.”
This realization drove everything that followed. The team needed clarity on their unique positioning before they could determine which technology would support that positioning.
The cross-functional collaboration that emerged was unusual for hotel technology initiatives. Marketing, operations, IT, and human resources came together with a shared understanding: technology exists to elevate the brand, not the other way around.
“Once it was clear how we’re going to elevate the brand, how we accelerate the growth, what are the opportunities to optimize and deliver service excellence—the underbelly of this is technology,” Nerger said. “It was almost natural that marketing, operations, technology, and people and culture came together.”
This collaboration mostly happened remotely during the pandemic’s restrictive travel periods, making it even more challenging. Teams across Hong Kong, London, and New York worked around the clock to align on vision and execution.
Building a Unified Program Instead of Isolated Projects
Most hotel companies approach digital transformation through siloed initiatives. One team works on a mobile app. Another tackles CRM strategy. A third focuses on operational technology. These efforts rarely connect.
Mandarin Oriental took a different approach: everything would be part of a unified program with change management built into the foundation.
“We didn’t want to do these initiatives as silos,” Nerger emphasized. “We were going to put it together as a unified program, and the most important part was the support to get a proper transformation office where we had change management and change leadership baked into the program.”
The program included several components working in concert:
Data Infrastructure: Building proper data governance and hiring a data science team from scratch to turn siloed information into actionable intelligence.
Staff Empowerment: Creating tools like their “Guest Lens” that provide contextual information at the right moments, transforming how morning meetings and guest interactions happen.
Guest-Facing Technology: Developing the Mandarin Oriental app with meticulous attention to brand details—down to the fans that appear when guests view their past stays.
CRM Strategy: Rethinking how the brand markets to customers using newly organized data.
Channel Optimization: Using data insights to better manage distribution channels and revenue opportunities.
Each piece needed to connect to the others. The app couldn’t exist without clean data. The CRM strategy required property-level tools to execute properly. Channel optimization depended on insights from the data science team.
Data as the Starting Point
Why begin with data? Because fragmentation cripples everything else.
“In this industry, we have struggled with siloed data and fragmentation,” Nerger said. “It’s really hard when you’re a general manager to try and understand the bigger picture of what’s happening, or as a revenue manager, what decisions do I really need to make when you’re looking at too many sources of data.”
For guests, data silos create frustrating experiences. Staff can’t see preferences across properties. Systems can’t connect the spa visit, the restaurant reservation, and the room reservation.
The solution required both structure and people. Mandarin Oriental established a data governance team and appointed ambassadors for each business area—sales, marketing, and operations. These ambassadors owned their domain’s data quality and integration.
They also invested in tools to evaluate data collection across different formats and systems. One example: country of origin data. The team realized they weren’t consistently capturing this critical information, and certainly didn’t want front desk staff asking arriving guests during check-in.
“We looked at the places that we should not be collecting it, and then started looking at processes across the group where we could collect it in a useful and purposeful way,” Nerger explained.
This work enabled everything else. Without clean, accessible data, the morning meeting tool couldn’t surface relevant guest information. The app couldn’t personalize experiences. The CRM couldn’t target effectively.
Empowering Colleagues with Context
Technology should solve real problems, not create new ones. The Mandarin Oriental team started by understanding current workflows, identifying gaps, and asking what general managers and others on property wished they knew.
Morning meetings are a perfect example. Traditionally, these meetings relied on things such as VIP arrival lists. Some properties would manually build profiles from social media, spending hours preparing information that would be outdated by the time they used it.
“We wanted to use technology for that,” Nerger said. “We put in a solution called Guest Lens, which provides that information in context to the colleagues, but also at the morning meetings.”
The keyword is context. Information at the right time, in the right format, for the right purpose. Not just data dumps, but intelligence that helps staff provide better hospitality.
This required working backwards from the ideal state. What does exceptional service look like? What information do staff need in each moment? How can we provide that without adding complexity to their already-demanding jobs?
“You always have to work backwards,” Nerger emphasized. “What’s the process today? What’s working, what’s not working? What are the gaps? Don’t look for a technology solution to make a better morning meeting. That doesn’t work.”
The Transformation Office: Making Change Part of Culture
Most technology implementations treat change management as an afterthought. Mandarin Oriental made it central.
They established a transformation office with dedicated leadership and brought in outside expertise to help structure the approach. But this wasn’t a temporary program office that would dissolve after deployment.
“This is really about embracing change as part of the culture,” Nerger explained. “Because this is going to go on and on. What we saw fail in the past is that you do a program, you have a change management program, you deploy the technology, and you are done until the next one. This is really a shift in mindset.”
The office developed multiple programs to drive adoption:
Change Leadership Forums: Bringing global leadership together to explain initiatives transparently and repeatedly. Communication happened regularly, not just at launch.
Lunch and Learns: Creating opportunities for teams to understand new tools in low-pressure settings.
Celebrations and Contests: Hotels created videos showcasing their implementations. They held celebrations for milestones. Recognition became part of the culture.
“Celebrating the wins is so critical when you’re implementing a big program with lots of change, and people are nervous about how it’s affecting their job,” Nerger said. “You change one keystroke on me, and I’m like, whoa, I’m a busy person here.”
The organization invested in making transformation feel like progress rather than disruption.
Reflecting Brand Standards at Every Touchpoint
The Mandarin Oriental app deserves special attention because it demonstrates how brand DNA translates into technology.
Every detail reflects the brand. When guests view past stays, they see elegant fan graphics—a signature element of Mandarin Oriental’s brand. The design feels luxurious without being overwhelming. The experience is refined, just like staying at the properties.
“There’s a lot of detail and a lot of thought that went into every part of it,” Nerger noted. “Brand runs through all of it. We did not design in isolation. The brand was always at the forefront.”
This level of attention requires collaboration between marketing, design, operations, and technology teams. It requires everyone to understand not just what the brand is, but how it should feel in every interaction.
Many hotel apps look generic because they were designed in isolation by technology teams trying to replicate competitor features. Mandarin Oriental’s app looks different because it started with brand identity and worked outward.
Solving Problems That Mean Something
Not every success in the transformation program made headlines. Some of the most rewarding work happened behind the scenes.
Mandarin Oriental has approximately 14,000 team members worldwide, and they were asking for better access to complimentary room nights. At a company known for exceptional properties, experiencing them firsthand matters for recruitment and retention.
“We tried to repurpose the tools that we had and the data that we had, and we launched the complementary room night program for our colleagues,” Nerger shared. “It started to grow and grow, and it became foundational to how we attract people to the brand.”
This wasn’t a massive technology investment. It was a creative use of existing systems to solve a problem that mattered to staff. The impact on recruitment and culture proved significant.
“When you do something that really touches the heart and soul of the colleagues that are delivering it day in, day out, it really feels good,” Nerger said.
The Reality of Complex Implementations
Digital transformation at this scale involves significant challenges. The team dealt with:
Geographic Complexity: Rolling out technology across different countries, languages, and cultures while maintaining consistent brand standards.
Outsourced Operations: Connecting data from third-party restaurant operators, spa providers, and other vendors who operate on property.
Legacy Systems: Integrating new technology with existing infrastructure that couldn’t be replaced overnight.
Growing Portfolio: Implementing changes while the company expanded into new markets.
The unified program approach helped manage this complexity. Instead of each initiative solving for itself, teams could coordinate timing, share learnings, and ensure technology worked together.
What This Means for Your Hotel Business
You don’t need Mandarin Oriental’s budget or size to apply the lessons from this case study. The principles apply to anyone looking to drive positive change:
Start with brand clarity: Before evaluating technology, understand what makes your property or brand different. What experience do you promise guests? How should that feel at every touchpoint?
Fix data first: Siloed, inconsistent data will undermine any technology you implement. Establish governance, assign ownership, and clean up foundational information before building on it.
Design for your team: Technology that frustrates staff won’t deliver better guest experiences. Work backwards from how people actually work. Understand their processes. Identify real gaps. Don’t automate bad workflows.
Build change capability: One-time training at launch doesn’t work. Create ongoing communication, celebrate progress, recognize adoption, and make change feel like opportunity rather than disruption.
Think in systems: Your PMS, your CRM, your operational tools—all need to work together. Plan for integration. Consider how data flows between systems. Avoid creating new silos while trying to break down old ones.
Measure what matters: Track business outcomes, not just technology metrics. Does the morning meeting tool actually improve service? Does the app increase direct bookings? Does better data reduce guest service failures?
The hotel industry has struggled with digital transformation because we often approach it as a technology problem. Mandarin Oriental succeeded because it approached it as a business transformation enabled by technology.
That distinction changes everything.
The Path Forward
Digital transformation is never finished. Technology continues evolving. Guest expectations keep rising. Competitive pressures intensify.
But the foundation Mandarin Oriental built—clean data, empowered colleagues, integrated systems, change-ready culture—positions them to adapt as the landscape shifts.
“This is really a shift in mindset,” Nerger emphasized. “This is about embracing change as part of the culture because this is going to go on and on.”
That might be the most important lesson. Digital transformation isn’t a project with an end date. It’s a capability you build into your organization. The hotels that thrive will be those that develop the muscle to continuously evolve while staying true to their brand DNA.
For hotel operators wondering where to start, the answer is closer than you think. Look at what makes your hotels special. Understand what your guests value. Ask your staff what gets in their way. Then find technology that supports those insights.
That’s how you lead transformation that works.
Want more? Watch Monika share this in her own words here: