Hospitality Management Company Case Study
How thebigword delivered accurate and personalised translations for a highly competitive on-line marketplace.
Background
Our client is a hospitality management company; managing brands, people, relationships and other people's properties.
After expanding from 29 to 164 hotels in eight years, the company took on three new brands in an exclusive 30 year master franchise deal. The launch of a new lifestyle brand followed in 2004.
The company's vision is to become one of Europe's leading hospitality management companies, with a focused collection of high performing, profitable brands in various market segments. The company offers a portfolio of premium brands, from high class comfort to outstanding luxury and serves destinations across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. With five unique brands to choose from, each with its own distinct character and style, this company is in a class of its own.
The Challenge
The client needs to deliver web-based content to sell the services of all the hotel groups under its management. Content must be accurate, but must also strike the perfect tone in a personalised yet highly competitive on-line marketplace.
The content must be up to date with special offers and any time critical hotel information, such as new facilities, maintenance to existing facilities and last minute deals. Managing such content in a single language can be difficult. Managing such content in multiple languages adds a new dimension to the challenge.
Translation Solution
The key to achieving the correct solution lay in the process for selecting translators. The translators were short-listed then tested by thebigword, before being put forward for further test pieces by the client. By using in-country reviewers in this process, the translators were selected and the reviewers were brought in to the process in a short pre-project period.
Procedures for on-going monitoring and reviewing were controlled by our project managers, giving the client confidence that thebigword can provide high quality marketing messages and allow the client to concentrate elsewhere.
A second important part of the solution was an innovative use of technology. The client runs the hotel content on a Fatwire Divine Content Management System. The system can export XML files that represent the hotel content.
Using thebigword's world leading XML management software, the XML is protected and handed back unbroken every time, regardless of the character set.
Benefits
Our client works with the hotels to create marketing copy. On deciding the language requirements for this copy, the hotel and the hospitality management company can relax, knowing that the translation will be managed for them.
The messages are consistent, styled correctly and linguistically perfect, thanks to thebigword's tried and tested project set up procedures. The files will also import directly into the CMS thanks to thebigword's XML file management software and together these provide peace of mind for the client.
Why thebigword
When using marketing messages in different countries, translation should not be left to chance. The running of a project set up process involving in-country staff, marketing briefings, style selection tests, reviewer instruction sheets, glossary management and other such techniques is imperative. Linguistics should always be coupled with water-tight file management techniques, where system files are the translation medium. thebigword have expert staff in all areas to produce the perfect results every time.