Cityscape view of Hong Kong
My absolutely favorite hotel in the whole world (and I have been in far too many in my career) is the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong and I picked up a press release that they have just relaunched it’s new website.
As part of its interactive marketing strategy, the Hong Kong-based luxury hotel operator has re-launched its global Web site, enabling it to expand to new locations rapidly, while protecting the integrity of its global brand.
“Our reputation as a superior, luxury brand is vital to us at Mandarin Oriental and, like our properties, our global website must support our mission to delight our customers,” said Christoph Oberli, vice president of e-Commerce & Interactive for the group. “It was imperative that we work with a system that simplifies the execution of our global marketing initiatives by localising many aspects of the site, while still maintaining a high level of brand consistency throughout.”
So why is the Mandarin my favorite hotel? Simply this, they just try harder to get it right. Go and stay there and you will see what I mean!
Comment by John Alex on 22 January 2009:
I stayed at Mandarin hotel in Hong Kong and it is in a class on its own compared to other hotels in hong kong
Comment by Matt on 25 February 2009:
As someone in the industry, the 'settling for average' syndrome by hoteliers is plain annoying. Recently standards have slipped and todays' 4 star hotel can be little more than a 2-3 star hotel years back. Dubai has had to introduce '7 star' hotels which basically says to the rest of thew world that your 5 star hotels are not luxury anymore.
It is the same with first class air travel – years ago you had gourmet menus, real crockery and cutlery (ok terrorist laws prevent this) but now you're lucky to get a meal fit for a dog.
Rant over!