My biggest web development project so far. The goal was to build a single destination platform that brings together lifts, hotels, the school, and the rest of the resort stakeholders. Results: 3 major launches | 6k average daily visitors | 7,454 peak visitors in a day

One Destination Platform: LAAX Success Story

I started working remotely on the project in August 2024... from Amsterdam.

A few months later, my colleague and I traveled to the mountains to meet the whole team in person.

My favorite part: real interactions with people instead of a video screen.

Right after we arrived, we were invited into a meeting room. All departments was there: Guest Care (Support), Hotels, LAAX School, Tickets/Lifts, Finance... all the people we'd been building for-sometimes debating with, always trying to align.

That moment made the project real:

We weren't shipping "a website"; we were building a shared platform for an entire resort.

The roadmap: 3 launches that built momentum

Launch #1 - Marketing website (Nov 2024)

What we shipped

A new Next.js website powered by Sanity CMS for LAAX marketing pages and MICE (LAAX Meetings & Events, the B2B department).

What I did

• CMS benchmark (Prismic vs Strapi vs Payload vs Sanity) → chose Sanity
• Built the initial content model (schemas) so marketing could run with it
• Refreshed the old site's look & feel with a modern touch (without breaking the brand)
• Onboarded the marketing team (4 people) and supported content migration

Proof it worked (traffic jump)

Across two equal-length periods, active users rose from ~20k to ~141k:

• Sep 1 → Nov 3, 2024 (old WordPress): ~318 avg/day
• Nov 17 → Jan 19, 2025 (new site): ~2,209 avg/day

That's a 594% increase in active users in just a few months.

Launch #2 - Unified e-commerce (Jun 2025)

What "unified e-commerce" means (in real life)

One cart that can include:

• Accommodations (via SimpleBooking)
• Lift tickets (via WAG)
• School lessons (independent system)

The part I led: LAAX School (customer + admin + emails)

What this required:

• Rebuilt the current system and improved the experience
• Mapped the full offer (winter sports, summer sports, events, childcare)
• Implemented booking logic (quotas, "on request", etc.)
• Integrated school products into checkout and the admin tool
• Built the email flows that complete the customer experience

Proof it worked (school revenue)

From May → Aug 2025, school bookings delivered:

Best compliment from the head of the school:

"This week, we hit our highest number of bookings ever."

Launch #3 — Map, Webcams, and AI Assistant (Nov 2025)

This launch is where the platform moved from "booking" to a real-time resort experience.

1) The interactive resort map (MapLibre)

The old map mainly showed lift status, slopes, and webcams. We kept those core features and added live bus tracking and points of interest (restaurants, snowparks, etc.).

2) Webcams that are actually usable

We launched a dedicated webcams page and used the map to show each webcam's location (a bridge between features). We also supported a premium status for the gatecams.

3) AI assistant (with voice)

Instead of a general-purpose chatbot, we constrained the assistant to the resort knowledge base we provide. If a question is out of scope, it clearly says it doesn't know and redirects the user to the support team.

What the data says + KPI highlights (Vercel Analytics - Sep 27, 2024 → Jan 3, 2026)

↗ Full analytics breakdown (traffic, device split, top pages) plus post-purchase KPI highlights in a dedicated page.

What I learned (the stuff you don't see on the homepage) and Tech stack (the pieces that made it ship)

↗ Lessons learned and stack details on a dedicated page.

CLOSING

This project combined real stakeholder complexity, seasonal pressure, real users, and measurable outcomes.

Going from building remotely in Amsterdam to standing in a room with every LAAX department was the moment I truly understood what shipping in the real world means.