Radisson Hotel Group has launched the next phase of its comprehensive digital transformation with the introduction of a successful customer-first and innovative digital strategy based on immersive and localized experiences. Thanks to advanced hotel digital replicas, guests can now view the Group’s hotels virtually from their laptops, mobile phones, and VR headsets. The Group’s forward-thinking localization strategy includes online journeys in 29 languages, personalized for more than 60 regions, a new record in the hospitality industry. Radisson Hotel Group is one of the first adopters of these ground-breaking technologies driving increased customer engagement and booking conversions.
Over the last three years, Radisson Hotel Group has cemented its position as a digital leader and pioneer in the industry with its digital transformation strategy to provide a localized and personalized digital experience to its guests by embracing new technology innovation and immersive experiences. Radisson Hotel Group is among the first hotel companies to create immersive digital experiences that allow it to showcase its hotels in a new way, and for guests to feel and live in the spaces virtually. With the launch of immersive experiences, the Group has blended the digital and physical worlds, where guests can move around, explore the hotel spaces virtually, see what the view from the room looks like, and even interact with surrounding objects, thanks to 3D virtual venue tours from their smartphones, computers, or VR devices. Guests can also book the specific place they see on their screen via a simple and seamless booking process.
Radisson Hotel Group launched its first immersive experiences pilot in 2020 to enhance its customer-centric approach by providing customers with new ways to experience its properties. The project has been led by the Digital Experience Center of Excellence, a multicultural in-house team of digital experts in charge of bringing the online experience of the Group’s hotel portfolio to life. To date, 86 hotels have integrated virtual tours into their hotel web pages which have delivered a +279 per cent increase in the number of clicks, a +3.85 per cent increase in average time on page, and +20.91 per cent interactions in 2022 versus 2021 when these pages had only static images. The Group’s aim is to roll-out the immersive experience across 100 hotels by the end of 2023.
Immersive content has become a strong converter booster for the Group’s Meeting & Events business. In 2022, the Group launched its first meetings and events booking engine integrating immersive experiences which allows meeting planners to easily look for their perfect event venue, explore the meeting rooms and the different set-ups, book directly, or send a request for a proposal for that specific space. Immersive virtual tours provide them with floor plans, dollhouse views, and an exact digital replica of the hotel. With just a few clicks, planners can evaluate if the spaces are what they are looking for and book them. The benefit of this technology also extends to the in-house event teams, as they can show different meeting room set-ups in real-time through any smartphones or VR goggles. Immersive experiences have generated increased qualified M&E inquiries (+35 per cent) and booking conversions (+12 per cent).
Raul Alvarez Barrera, Vice President Global Digital Experience, Radisson Hotel Group, says: “In 2020, we decided to shift our business focus from international to domestic and to adapt our digital experience to be more interactive and localized by translating the full booking funnel of our website and app into key strategic languages. The next phase included the roll-out of our Immersive Experiences. Thanks to these virtual and interactive tours, our customers can discover our hotels from anywhere in the world. This technology has been invaluable, especially to our Meetings & Events business, as it allows us to show busy meeting planners the different flexible, and customizable options we offer across our portfolio. Localization and immersive experiences have helped us to strengthen the trust and relationship we have with existing customers and have proven to be great long-term investments, as they have contributed to increased customer satisfaction and higher conversion rates. We are extremely proud of the results achieved by these projects which highlight our passion for innovation and our aim to bring the digital experience closer to our customers.”
With a choice of 29 languages, Radisson Hotel Group is the first hotel company worldwide to offer this breadth of languages available on its reservation system, reaching almost 70 per cent of the people on the planet in their native language. The goal is to extend this offering further to 31 languages by the end of 2023. Data shows that the local language conversion rate is on average 3 times higher in markets where English is not the main language. Visitors can now interact with the Group’s website and app in their own native language overcoming any language barriers, which has had a positive effect on revenue, with some pages in local languages producing more bookings per hotel than websites in English. The Group also developed a solid personalization roadmap to reach customers using their local customs, colors, societal codes, and values on top of translation. Based on their location, users see local, relevant content related to destinations and hotels. The personalized features are now available to users in more than 60 markets and has increased website conversions by 33 per cent, and reduced bounce rates by 24 per cent.
Radisson Hotel Group was recently recognized for its digital innovation and technological advancements as a winner at the CXA 23 Awards in two categories, including “Best use of Technology” and “Customer at the heart of everything – Strategy” with the projects of “Immersive experience to drive customer engagement and booking conversions” and “Localization at the heart of our digital experience”. The Group will be announcing new innovative features, which are currently in development for the website and mobile app, and wider digital technology plans as part of its ongoing digital investment and online transformation strategy.
