Send a summary and link to this article To Email Your Name Your Email Bot Test To pass the Bot Test, please type the white text that you see in the gray box. This helps us prevent spammers from abusing the system.

Printable Version

Reinventing Radisson The brand is 50% refreshed, now it’s onto engaging customers with a whole new approach to customer service. Thursday, February 28, 2013 Glenn Haussman

bookmark this We are on Twitter @hotelinteractiv

With Radisson half way through its brand reinvention, emphasis is shifting away from the physical state of the brand’s hotels and looking to focus on the emotional state of its guest. Now its parent company Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is rethinking the guest experience with the goal of driving loyalty and created a more customized guest experience.

The move comes three years into the company’s Ambition 2015 strategy that is radically altering all aspects of the hotel company. Already more than 50 percent of all Radisson properties have seen extensive makeovers and an additional 25 percent are in the process of renovating this year. So now it is time for Radisson executives to focus on the guest. For more information on how Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is working against its Ambition 2015 strategy read yesterday’s article here.

Now Radisson is unveiling a national pilot project that explores opportunities to rethink how guests interact with the brand at al touch points. And to figure out the best way to bond themselves to the guest hotel decision making process, the company is rolling out a test program in March 2013 that will reassess many of the brand’s key touch points. The program is dubbed Experience 2014.

“Brand loyalty is how we escape decision fatigue. And human interaction has never been more precious. That is the crux of where we are at right now. The return of the guest experience becoming much more of a movement,” said said Gordon McKinnon, executive vice president and chief branding officer, Carlson. We believe strongly that efforts made over the last three years to improve our properties, and to deliver on our service promise, will be enhanced by new innovations gathered from the pilot project. The guest experience is back. “In an iconic way technology has made human interaction even more precious.”

According to Carlson Rezidor, beginning next month and going through summer 2013, Radisson will launch a national pilot project across four hotels in the United States, including La Crosse, WI; Phoenix, AZ; Salt Lake City, UT; and Seattle, WA. The national pilot project is designed to enhance the guest experience highlighted by: establishing a new mobile and online check-in option; launching the Radisson iConcierge, an on-property concierge smartphone application, the launch of an in-hotel charity program, among additional enhancements.

The pilot project seeks to explore opportunities to: improve the guest experience, improve brand perception and leverage property product improvements; increase experience levels by investing directly in the service concepts, as well as the skill sets and knowledge of teams at individual properties; achieve a positive impact on RevPAR and increased GSI and loyalty; and drive development and growth opportunities.

Other aspects of the program include Spread the Love, a program where hotels will ask guests to donate $1 to a charity that will be matched by Carlson. They hope to generate $10 a day per hotel. Additionally there will be a focus on healthier  foods on its restaurant menus and hotel staff will get new more whimsical uniforms. New bathroom amenities from Rituals will also be introduced and the brand will more actively seek a younger client base.

“Our look very much has a younger appeal now. It is clean and has some longevity to it,” said McKinnon.

Since 2010, 50 percent of Radisson hotels in the U.S. and Canada have completed Property Improvement Plans (PIPs), up from 25 percent at the end of 2011. As a result, these hotels have demonstrated a positive growth in the Revenue Generation Index (RGI) of 4.8 and a 8.9 percent increase in RevPAR.  More than 70 percent of properties are on target for PIP completion by the end of 2013. Specific initiatives implemented across all hotels in North America in 2012 led to an improvement in guest experience producing a Guest Satisfaction Index (GSI) increase of .06 year-over-year. 
In addition to delivering on the brand promise through property improvements and service initiatives, the hotel group will continue to add new hotels to its portfolio. The brand also has deployed new, original food and beverage concepts across the Americas, including Filini Bar and Restaurant, FireLake Grill House & Cocktail Bar and RBG.
Using data collected during the pilot period, Radisson will roll out a final program of brand elements across all hotels beginning in fall 2013 with completion no later than the end of 2014.