Stockholm Meeting Selection

Background: Eleven destinations that treat guests to the good things in life

From one castle to eleven destinations. From a pure conference focus to conferences, parties and private staycations. And from the dot-com crash to a striking multibrand with five castle clubs and a vision of always treating guests to the good things in life. That's Stockholm Meeting Selection in short.

It all started in the early 2000s. Torbjörn Blomqvist ran the interior design company Svensk Inredning and was commissioned to furnish Ulfsunda Slott. When the dot-com crash hit the castle owners' finances hard, Torbjörn was offered the castle instead of payment. He took the chance.

In the beginning, the main focus was conference guests. Over time the business grew with more castles, and just before and during the pandemic the castles opened up to the private market as well, with new additions like spa, padel and game rooms.

Today Stockholm Meeting Selection has eleven destinations in its portfolio, across three business areas: conferences, parties and weddings, and private weekends and staycations. The eleven destinations are Åkeshofs Slott, Bosön, Hesselby Slott, Lejondals Slott, Näsby Slott, Rosersbergs Slottshotell, Skytteholm, Sturegatan 15, Ulfsunda Slott, Villa Foresta and Villa Lovik. Every destination has its own touch, with its own logo, tone of voice and colors. Five of the eleven also run castle clubs – a kind of membership club with special discounts, meant to give locals the feeling that the castle is theirs.

Stockholm Meeting Selection is, in short, a fascinating business – and one still owned by Torbjörn today. They work from a B2H mindset rather than B2B and B2C: a private guest can just as easily be a conference booker, and the other way around.

The challenge: A long list of contact lists – but no way to segment or speak to the right people

With many brands, many ideas and a lean organization come challenges. Guest communication was one of them. Before the marketing team at Stockholm Meeting Selection came across MarketHype, they used a simple newsletter tool – which worked to begin with.

– We had many contact lists and many ways of communicating. The tool we had before was basic, a start, but we needed to take the next step on the journey, says Åsa Wall, Head of Web & CRM at Stockholm Meeting Selection.

The previous system left no room for targeted communication. More specifically, they couldn't send emails based on legitimate interest, set up signup and birthday automations, or filter on booking history. They wanted to be able to speak differently to someone who had booked a champagne weekend and someone who had booked a conference.

– We saw a need to scale up our communication, speak in a more targeted way to customers and newsletter subscribers, and increase sales, says Åsa.

The solution: Eleven brands in one platform – and around 100 automations

In early 2025, Stockholm Meeting Selection moved to MarketHype. The platform switch and the onboarding went smoothly. Åsa had prepared a flow chart of the automations they wanted to put in place, and Zaklina Udovicic, Customer Success Manager at MarketHype, ran the kickoff meetings and helped them get going.

– It took a little time to set up the email templates, since every destination has its own colors and fonts. But once they were in place, it was just a matter of getting started, says Åsa.

With MarketHype, Åsa and the team can manage data, analyze their visitors and send both manual and automated emails. Thanks to the smart filtering, they can also target their communication in detail and export audiences to Meta.

So which feature does Stockholm Meeting Selection use the most? The automations, without a doubt. In total they have around 100 automations running across the different destinations: welcome automations triggered by newsletter signups, automated birthday emails and winback emails with discount codes. Villa Foresta also hosts a handful of events each year, with automations rolled out before and after them.

– Setting up the automations was a bit of work, but now they just tick along. I've made it a routine to go in every quarter and check that everything is right, says Åsa.

The Staycation newsletters are another key piece. They go out every other week to all private customers, with extra sends during campaigns. Castle club members get a monthly email too – one per club. And unlike before, emails can now be sent on legitimate interest, which gives a much wider reach.

To make sure recipients get the right communication, the team uses filtering in MarketHype. With it, they can easily pull out geographic segments – everyone living in and around Stockholm, for example – and those who have booked a day spa or another product. In the same way, they can exclude recipients who have opened or clicked a particular email.

Results: Emails that drive clear sales and ”incredibly good” support

When they switched from their previous newsletter solution to MarketHype, there was a need to scale up communication. They wanted to speak in a more targeted way and understand how email marketing contributes to sales. So how has it gone? Åsa explains:

– I'm in MarketHype every day, and the first thing I do is look at the emails we've sent: who opened, who clicked and what the sales were. We can see that we sell really well on our emails!

Åsa points to two types of sends that perform especially well: the winback and birthday automations. Thanks to legitimate interest, they also reach more people – which shows in sales. And with filtering, they can keep their communication relevant and on target, even with many contact lists and brands to handle.

The team at Stockholm Meeting Selection is also very happy with the support they get from MarketHype:

– I think I've had incredibly good help. You move forward so much faster. I can say “I want to achieve this” and ask ”can I do it this way?”. Either it's confirmed, or I get the answer ”no, but you can do it like this”, Åsa concludes.