Jumeirah Inside - 360° of Luxury 

Jumeirah Inside allows users to experience the luxury of Jumeirah properties through an immersive online experience. Using video, 360° imagery and 3D sound, it gives online visitors the opportunity to explore the hotel’s spectacular rooms and public spaces.

As anyone who has flown first class or checked into a top hotel knows, luxury travel is all about the little details that make the experience special. In the offline world, these details are easy to spot, making it easier for premium brands to stand out, but in the online world, it can be difficult to create the same impression. 

To address this, Google recently collaborated with Jumeirah Group on a project that gives travelers from all over the world a chance to virtually explore the famous 7 star Burj Al Arab hotel and 20 other properties in the brand’s portfolio. 

The result, ‘Jumeirah Inside’, is the travel industry’s first fully immersive, integrated discovery and booking platform, gathering together the previously disjointed processes of inspiring and converting visitors into a single, beautiful website.

Journeys begin online

Data from Google’s Consumer Barometer shows that online is still a key channel for researching and booking leisure travel, with 57% of European travelers going online to compare products, prices, and features. One of Jumeirah’s main aims for the ‘Jumeirah Inside’ project was to create a destination site that would accomplish the dual goals of inspiring travelers and providing them with a seamless path to booking. As Ross McAuley, Jumeirah’s Vice President of Brand, Digital & Loyalty explained: “Just as we aim to exceed our guests' expectations whenever they visit our luxury hotels, so it was our aim to give them an unforgettably rich, immersive online experience in advance of their arrival.”

Building a digital Burj Al Arab

So, how do you go about giving a building as iconic as the Burj Al Arab an online presence? At the core of ‘Jumeirah Inside’ is an interactive platform that uses video, 360° imagery and 3D sound to give visitors the opportunity to explore the hotel’s spectacular rooms and public spaces. Virtual travelers can step inside the sumptuous Royal Suite, experience the serenity of the Talise Spa, and view Dubai’s skyline from the dizzying heights of the hotel’s helipad. Scattered throughout are clickable ‘hotspots’ that enrich the digital journey by giving insights into the working of the hotel, letting the user play with interactive features such as fountains & waterfalls, and showcasing imagery of the flourishes that make a stay at the Burj Al Arab so unique. While their flagship hotel is the undoubted star of the show, Jumeirah’s other properties have a similar presence on the platform, complete with tours, videos and 360° photography, allowing aspiring travelers to fully explore each luxurious destination.

Immersive and accessible

Around 50% of visitors to the Jumeirah website access it from a mobile device, so Jumeirah knew that to create a truly welcoming experience, they needed to optimise for desktop, tablet and mobile. Equally, with an international clientele, they wanted to make the content available in multiple languages, localising the entire site into English, Arabic, German, Russian & Mandarin. Word-of-mouth has always been an important source of new business in the travel industry, so a wide range of sharing options for all the major platforms were also implemented.

Bringing luxury online

The travel industry was one of the first verticals to embrace digital, and since then brands like Jumeirah have been at the forefront of innovation in search and booking. Now, with technologies such as Photosphere and 360° Video expanding the possibilities of digital engagement, the sensory thrill of travel is something that can finally be experienced online. An immersive platform like ‘Jumeirah Inside’ inspires travelers to imagine their own magic moments, while ubiquitous booking allows the brand to capture that intent as soon as it emerges