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Sol Meliá and LRA Worldwide Launch Global Brand Assurance Program
PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain/HORSHAM, Pennsylvania, USA; December 17, 2009 – Sol Meliá, the 15th-largest hotel chain in the world and the leading Spanish hotel and resort company, has launched a comprehensive brand assurance evaluation program across its global portfolio of hotel and resort brands. To execute the program, Sol Meliá has partnered with LRA Worldwide, Inc., a leading firm in the design and development of performance measurement and quality assurance programs for the hospitality and lodging industries.
The brand assurance program is a crucial part of Sol Meliá’s “brand equity” strategy for all of its various brands. The process began with a series of brand “boot camps” facilitated by LRA to help further define each brand and how that offering is delivered at the property level. The evaluation program is designed to measure the effectiveness of the implementation process and delivery of a “branded” guest experience at each property.
“It is crucial to the continuing growth of our company that we consistently deliver what we promise across more than 28 countries and 300 properties,” explained André Gerondeau, Executive Vice President, Hotels for Sol Meliá. “LRA brings the right blend of hotel operational experience, brand sensibility and data collection expertise as our partner in this program.”
Each of Sol Meliá’s hotel and resort brands - including Gran Meliá, Meliá, ME, Innside, Tryp, Sol and Paradisus – has a customized evaluation protocol designed to measure its specific brand attributes. In addition, there are a set of common standards that are measured across all brands. All of the data is available at the corporate and property level via LRA’s proprietary online quality management reporting tool, TouchPoint Manager ™. All reporting is available in both English and Spanish.
“Sol Meliá understands that the strength of a brand is in consistently delivering value and quality,” said John Roberto, LRA’s Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Quality Assurance. “Once we helped Sol Meliá define their brands, our charge was to distill those brand elements into measurable line items to ensure consistent execution.”
LRA provides a variety of branding, standards development and performance measurement services to seven of the top ten hotel companies in the world. In all, LRA’s Quality Assurance practice conducts nearly 13,000 site visits and evaluations each year, either as a stand-alone offering or as an integrated part of an overall Customer Experience Management project. In addition to its work with other lodging clients such as Hyatt Hotels Corporation, IHG, Sofitel Luxury Hotels, Grupo Posadas, Pestana Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Wyndham Worldwide, LRA works with industry leaders in Sports, Conference Centers, Timeshare, Gaming, Homebuilding, Retail and Travel.
The brand assurance program was officially launched in June at the Gran Meliá Colon in Seville, Spain. Since then, LRA has conducted an additional 190 evaluations, with a full complement of evaluations scheduled for 2010.
About Sol Meliá
Sol Meliá was founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and is the world’s leading resort hotel chain, as well as Spain’s leading hotel chain in both the business and leisure markets. It currently provides more than 300 hotels in 28 countries on 4 continents under its brands: Gran Meliá, Meliá, ME, Innside, Tryp, Sol, Paradisus and Sol Meliá Vacation Club. www.solmelia.com
Sol Meliá is the hotel company with the greatest number of properties in the exclusive club of “The Leading Hotels of the World” (seven hotels). In 2006, the “Corporate Reputation Institute” of New York ranked the company amongst the corporations with the best reputation in the world, the leading hotel company and the second highest ranked company in the travel industry. Sol Meliá is the only travel company included in the exclusive “Footse4Good Ibex” Spanish stock market index, and is the third ranked company in Spain amongst companies which generate the greatest degree of confidence and in the top three hotel chains for reputation.
The company currently employs more than 34,000 people worldwide with staff from over 80 different countries.
About LRA Worldwide, Inc:
LRA Worldwide is a leading research and consulting company in the emerging discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM). We work with our clients to help them design and deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences in order to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, and company growth and profitability.
In LRA’s 25-year history, we have grown from a provider of customized quality assurance evaluation programs for the hospitality industry, to a leading CEM consulting company offering a variety of client solutions. The evolution has been driven by our clients asking us one question – "How do we get better?" In response, we have built a range of performance measurement, research, training and consulting solutions to help them do so. Today, we are a growing company operating in more than 120 countries throughout the world, helping clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the National Basketball Association, the PGA TOUR, InterContinental Hotels Group, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and Ritz-Carlton Clubs deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every touch. Every time. For more information, visit us at www.LRAworldwide.com.
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