It is a brand with enormous popularity in emerging markets, said Wolfgang Neumann, president and CEO

A pilot program will help set the direction for new offerings such as a mobile and online check-in option, an on-property concierge smartphone application and the launch of an in-hotel charity program.
CHICAGO Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is revving up the rejuvenation of its Radisson brand with a pilot program designed to innovate the numerous vermont spa inns touch points guests have with the chain s 426 open properties.
As part of Carlson Rezidor s ongoing Ambition 2015 program, Radisson s pilot program seeks to find ways to improve the guest experience and brand perception, which will lead to increased revenue-per-available-room opportunities and better guest-satisfaction scores. The pilot program is being tested at four U.S. Radisson properties in La Crosse, Wisconsin; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; and Seattle. vermont spa inns The full program vermont spa inns is expected to be rolled out in 2014. It includes a mobile and online check-in option, an on-property concierge smartphone application and the launch vermont spa inns of an in-hotel charity program.
Through a filter of caring, share and daring we re going after the customer service part of the game, Gordon McKinnon, executive vermont spa inns VP and chief branding officer for Carlson Rezidor, told the 500 attendees of the group s annual full-service conference vermont spa inns last week in Chicago.
vermont spa inns We re very conscious as we move into the self check-in arena, said Thorsten Kirschke, president of the Americas for Carlson Rezidor, adding that in many cases it s the self check-out arena that s more meaningful to guests. vermont spa inns It s important to be in it at this stage.
We re trying to take it in a different vermont spa inns way, Kirschke said of the service program. It s about making it great for (the staff), much more interesting vermont spa inns for them, much more believable for them that they can buy into.
The program is the latest chapter in the company s efforts to upgrade its Radisson portfolio . Since 2010, 50% of Radisson hotels in the U.S. and Canada have completed property improvement plans. The refurbished vermont spa inns hotels have enjoyed an 8.9% RevPAR increase, according to the company.
We have successfully bifurcated the Radisson brand, Kirschke said. This is not the same brand any more that you knew three years ago. We have actually proactively pruned vermont spa inns our portfolio. We eliminated vermont spa inns over 20% of our North American portfolio. We had hotels that were a liability to our brand, and we could not afford vermont spa inns to have that continue.
The company s executives also plan to see growth for its Radisson Blu brand. A second Blu in the U.S. is scheduled to open in mid-March in Minneapolis to complement the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel Chicago. Carlson Rezidor also announced the conversions of two of its owned assets to the Radisson Blu brand: the Radisson Plaza-Warwick Hotel in Philadelphia later this year and the Radisson vermont spa inns Plaza Hotel Minneapolis in 2014.
The group added 33 Radisson Blu hotels globally in 2012, growing the portfolio to 272, including the rebranding of the 2,500-room, 13-hotel Radisson Edwardian Hotels portfolio in the U.K. to Radisson Blu .
Bob Kleinschmidt, Carlson Rezidor s executive VP and chief financial and development vermont spa inns office for the Americas, said the brand is looking at several opportunities in New York, but there is nothing solid.
The company vermont spa inns executives are also happy with its midscale Park Inn by Radisson brand, which is rolling out a next-generation prototype. The group opened nine Park Inn by Radisson hotels in 2012 to grow the portfolio to 194 hotels and more than 36,000 rooms in operation and under development.
It is a brand with enormous popularity in emerging markets, said Wolfgang Neumann, vermont spa inns president and CEO of Rezidor vermont spa inns Hotel Group, Carlson Rezidor s partner in Europe. We re repositioning it to the consumer; it s all about flexibility and individual choices. Connectivity is a big play in this next (generation) roll out.
The way the brand represents vermont spa inns itself in terms of its physical product appeals vermont spa inns to Asian travelers, added Simon Barlow, Carlson Rezidor s present of the Asia/Pacific region, who added that the company has a deal to develop 49 Park Inn properties in India during the next 13 years.
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