Understanding that true Spanish-style hospitality knows no price point, Meliá Hotels International has embarked on a journey to design a consistent service culture across its six distinct brands, all in an effort to activate all guest touch points to deliver a truly unique and differentiated experience for their guests.
Meliá Hotels International, founded in 1956 in Palma de Mallorca, spans 370 midscale to luxury hotels in 40 countries; its brands include Gran Meliá Hotels & Resorts, Meliá Hotels & Resorts, ME by Meliá, Paradisus Resorts, Innside by Meliá, Sol Hotels and TRYP by Wyndham. There are nearly 40,000 associates interacting and representing the brand to an increasingly global customer base.
Meliá sees each associate as an extension of their brand and integral to delivering the warmth and flare of their Mediterranean heritage and the unique promises of their six brands. It’s for this reason that company is investing in their Service Culture. Where most brands take an insular approach to these types of efforts, Melia is inviting guests to help create what their service culture needs to look and feel like at every interaction. Starting in September, guests of each of the six brands are being invited to participate in a session in London and Miami to help design Meliá’s service culture.
“Rather than assume we know what guests want, we are inviting our guests to tell us. This will allow us to move beyond meeting the needs of our guests to anticipating them,” said Alex Hugot, Melia’s VP Global Brand Management. “The Spanish culture, a rich part of our heritage, is known the world over for its warmth and openness. It is our wish that every guest, at every one of the Meliá properties, would experience that culture with every visit.”
Meliá Hotels International has engaged North America-based Bond Brand Loyalty to partner on this important work. Bond Brand Loyalty is a recognized leader in building brand loyalty and customer engagement for many of the world’s most influential and valuable brands. “The experiences we talk about are the ones that create emotions. This is deeply human and it is why our Customer Experience work focuses on the interactions between a brand’s representatives and their customers”, commented Bob Macdonald, President and CEO, Bond Brand Loyalty. Macdonald further added, “We applaud Melia Hotels International for the work they have done on the entire spectrum of brand and customer experience, and we are exceptionally proud to be supporting them.”
Meliá Hotels International is in a period of substantial growth, and a consistent service culture coupled with other strategic efforts already underway will impact not only the Meliá properties of today, but also those of tomorrow.