Crowne Plaza and The School of Life to Offer an Emotionally Intelligent Hotel Experience
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Crowne Plaza and The School of Life to Offer an Emotionally Intelligent Hotel Experience

  • New hotel team training programme ‘Dare to Connect’ aims to enhance guest experience at Crowne Plaza
  • Training modules created by emotional intelligence experts The School of Life to roll out across Crowne Plaza hotels in 2019

December 14, 2018 // Franchising.com // Leading business travel hotel brand, Crowne Plaza has launched a new training programme to help hotel team members become more attuned to guests’ needs through a heightened awareness of the skills of emotional intelligence.

The training programme called “Dare to Connect” has been developed using bespoke ‘Life Skills’ modules, created by emotional intelligence experts at The School of Life and will help to upskill Crowne Plaza team members who work across the brand’s 98 hotels in Europe.

The training, run by Heads of Departments at each hotel, will focus on developing six core emotional intelligence skills: vulnerability, self-belief, connection, anticipation, authenticity, and perseverance. Those who participate in the training will learn ways to alleviate guests’ anxiety by responding to, and anticipating the particular emotional needs people can experience when they are travelling for work.

By applying these skills to their day to day roles, team members will be better able to recognise cues in guests’ behaviour and make natural and authentic connections with guests without following a script.

A trial run of the training programme across four Crowne Plaza properties in the UK - Leeds, Manchester City Centre, Newcastle Stephenson Quarter, and Dublin Blanchardstown - has delivered promising initial results. Compared with previous years, the overall service scores grew by at least four percentage points, and overall experience scores grew by up to five per cent. Furthermore, the hotels saw an influx of positive guest reviews.

Mike Greenup, Vice President, Marketing for Crowne Plaza said: “While we understand that business travellers appreciate efficient and functional service, we’ve seen how applying an added layer of empathy to our guest interactions, greatly improves the stay experience. The School of Life is really helping us achieve this by equipping our team members with the tools to give them confidence to deliver this deeper, more emotional level of service.”Sarah Stein, Head of Content at The School of Life said: “Emotionally intelligent connections between hotel team members and travellers helps create a positive feedback loop. Customers want to return to a brand not only because the products or services are good, but because they feel, in a more significant way, that they are understood and belong there. Guests are far more likely to continue using a service and to praise it if they feel this connection.”

In addition to the modules provided for the ‘Dare to Connect’ emotional intelligence training, The School of Life will provide Crowne Plaza hotels with tangible service enablers to support better guest connections. These include:

  • Destination postcards - To be given to guests as a gift at check in, to encourage moments of connection both with Crowne Plaza colleagues and with friends and family back home
  • Better Meetings tool - A box of questions, games and activities designed to help guests have more engaging and productive meetings

The ‘Dare to Connect’ training programme will roll-out across Crowne Plaza hotels in Europe from 2019 onwards.

About IHG®

IHG ® (InterContinental Hotels Group) [LON:IHG, NYSE:IHG (ADRs)] is a global organisation with a broad portfolio of hotel brands, including Regent Hotels & Resorts, InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Kimpton® Hotels & Restaurants, Hotel Indigo®, EVEN® Hotels, HUALUXE® Hotels and Resorts, Crowne Plaza® Hotels & Resorts, voco™ Hotels, Holiday Inn®, Holiday Inn Express®, Holiday Inn Club Vacations®, Holiday Inn Resort®, avid® hotels, Staybridge Suites® and Candlewood Suites®.

IHG franchises, leases, manages or owns more than 5,500 hotels and approximately 826,000 guest rooms in almost 100 countries, with more than 1,800 hotels in its development pipeline. IHG also manages IHG® Rewards Club, our global loyalty programme, which has more than 100 million enrolled members.

InterContinental Hotels Group PLC is the Group’s holding company and is incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales. More than 375,000 people work across IHG's hotels and corporate offices globally.

Visit www.ihg.com for hotel information and reservations and www.ihgrewardsclub.com for more on IHG Rewards Club. For our latest news, visit: www.ihgplc.com/media and follow us on social media at: www.twitter.com/ihg and www.facebook.com/ihg.

Media Contact:

Lauren Moment-Walker
lauren.momentwalker@ihg.com
+44 (0) 1895 512 663

SOURCE IHG ® (InterContinental Hotels Group)

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