Planet Clean Designer amenities Continuing its philosophy of caring for the planet and the customer, Radisson is bringing guests upgraded bathroom amenities from Rituals, a luxury home and cosmetics company. Authentic, traditional Eastern skin care and bathing rituals inspire Rituals products—with natural, renewable and organic ingredients that aren’t tested on animals. No longer is a bathroom amenity agreement just a mere business contract, says McKinnon. Today, it’s about a partnership—sharing beliefs, values and brand essence. “It’s a major coup that we attracted Rituals to Radisson,” says McKinnon.
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provide all the brand information hotels need, and all the hotel information: local attractions, menus, booking or where the gym and spa is located. Next up on the list is a new initiative in driving food and beverage (F&B), our Healthy Options menus, at breakfast or throughout the day. I think it’s another signature element that we can begin to take ownership of and be known for. Q I What’s next on the agenda? A I A program we are calling Meetings Success. It’s a huge area of potential growth for us. You can’t name a brand that is already well-known for having a special expertise in meetings. We have free capacity in our hotels. So, if you put that together with Healthy Options menus and our new apps, which will have the meeting concepts and meeting facilities directories in them, then we’re beginning to package it into something that isn’t going to need a huge investment at the hotel level. It’s all about the people, the training, the service and the concepts we offer, and it’s something our brand can really own in the future. We’re also introducing a new caring and sharing element, a giant step into the charity world. With our Share the Love program, we’ve set a target of raising $1 million, split among four charities, some of which will be local and some of which will be supported by the Carlson Family Foundation. It’s a huge commitment in terms of numbers of dollars and in terms of beginning to create a personality and more of an identity for Radisson itself. We’re beginning to do activities like this for the best of both worlds: It’s for the common good, and it starts to present a different picture of Radisson. Q I What was the starting point to move the brand along this path of revitalization? A I It was all about timing. We know you can’t create effective change without careful consideration, preparation and implementation. And we knew that we had to have the physical product in good shape before we could, in effect, take the whole experience to market. So, we started by completely reframing the World of Radisson, which represents all of the touchpoints of the customer journey. Taking Blu as the base, we established what the differences were between Radisson Blu and Radisson and gave Radisson its own signature elements, to provide it with its own identity. All of this is about making a much clearer bifurcation between Radisson Blu and Radisson. Now, in this constant state of evolution, we’ll go back and look at Blu as well. We will work that through the first couple
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of quarters this year. So, we’ll then have two brands coming from the same parent, but one operating upscale and one upper-upscale. Rest assured, we are very clear on how they will be defined separately. Q I Why is ramping up these changes so important now? A I We are very serious about all of this because it is a huge step forward for the brand. It’s coming at a point—not by accident—when the portfolio is over 50 percent there in terms of renovations and is on track to complete the rest. We’re at the very beginning of a new consumer movement in the U.S. that’s going to demand a certain level of guest experience, as opposed to treating hotel stays like a commodity. This time right now is a kind of tipping point. There’s a guest perception lag on all of this, so it may take a few years to realize the true revenue benefits. It’s really an investment in our future. Q I We’ve heard some great things about all of these changes and upgrades and how they can have an immediate impact on the guest. Do you feel a change in the air? A I We have so much going on in all the brands, so much good stuff. For Radisson, it comes back to the renovations and the great work that was done last year on the Yes I Can! tour. It’s building momentum. You could feel it at the conference. There is a real, tangible energy around the brand now. Q I What’s the ultimate goal of the Radisson revitalization? A I It’s simple: To dramatically improve the guest experience by leveraging the property product improvements and by investing directly in service concepts, as well as the skill set and knowledge of our individual hotels. At the end of the day, our objective is to be the leader in each of the markets that we serve. So by using these programs to drive demand, our goal is to have a direct impact on RevPAR [Revenue Per Available Room] through an increased GSI [Guest Service Index], leading to a top position within our competitive set. We know success breeds success, so we are hoping these changes will spur development and growth opportunities for the brand as a whole.
From Top, Clockwise: Share the Love pins from a charity fundraiser at the 2013 Full Service Brands Business Conference. Conference attendees learn about new branding concepts in the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago gallery. Radisson is working with Rituals, a luxury, environmentally friendly cosmetics company, to bring guests new bath products. Radisson is developing a new app to allow for online check-in and enhancing its website to better work with mobile and tablet technology.