Duncan is an award-winning editor with over 20 years experience in journalism. After starting his career in tech journalism as the editor of Arabian Computer News in Dubai, he has since edited a number of technical and digital marketing publications including Computer Business Review, TechWeekEurope, Figaro Digital, Digit and Marketing Gazette.
Synonymous with luxury and operating worldwide, The Langham Hotels and Resorts have provided a five-star experience since opening their London location in 1865. The Langham Hospitality Group now has an extensive hotel portfolio with more than 4,721 rooms in hotels in countries such as Great Britain, Australia, China and the USA.
The problem:
The Langham needed a mature platform that would allow them to seamlessly update business information and monitor and act on reviews. With nearly 40 locations and the importance of a robust review strategy that is so important to the hospitality industry, manual updates and responses have not been scalable to achieve the level of excellence in customer experience The Langham wanted.
The solution:
As a luxury hotel chain, reputation management is fundamental to business. Langham Hotels and Resorts pride themselves on an exceptional experience and wanted to extend that experience right through to the start of the customer journey. By aggregating ratings on the Yext platform, The Langham were provided with a view to specific improvements through the ratings program that needed to be made to bolster their five-star reputation. Kasia Rudnik, Director of eCommerce at The Langham Hotels and Resorts, said, “Having worked with Yext in a previous role, Yext was the first technology partner I implemented when I joined The Langham. For me it was part of a checklist of tools and I wanted to make Yext a global technology partner. It was a business-critical element of our digital strategy. “
Additionally, the relationship with Yext also underpins The Langham’s search strategy. It is critical that they have consistent information across platforms, not just for customers but for the search engine crawlers as well, and that doesn’t just apply to Google and Tripadvisor. Rudnik adds, “We know that over 66% of travelers won’t stay in a hotel if management doesn’t respond to reviews. By being responsive to our customers, we show them we’re listening to them, but we also gain valuable insights into how we can improve. ”Yext’s competitive intelligence metrics help them make strategic business decisions. This type of insight is traditionally quite costly, but it’s a great addition to accessing other competitors.
The result:
The relationship between Yext and The Langham continues to thrive. In the first few months of working with Yext, the number of profile views of Yext-based offers at Langham increased by 112% compared to the same period of the previous year. This increased visibility directly leads to more consumers visiting the website to book a stay, which enables a higher conversion rate. In addition, The Langham uses Yext’s search experience cloud to manage its listings and reviews through its dashboard and leverage competitive intelligence to underpin its strategy.
By working with Yext, The Langham has been able to add a touch of luxury to their digital touchpoints even before customers reach the check-in counter, and they also have improved visibility and control that allows them to post reviews manage and deliver rich content to customers.
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