GLOBAL hotel chains Starwood Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Hotels & Resorts will introduce in their properties worldwide a range of in-room amenities and services tailored specifically for Chinese guests.
French hospitality giant Accor introduced earlier this year a similar initiative in Australia (TTG Asia e-daily, April 1).
Starwood’s Personalised Travel programme will debut in 19 hotels across the globe today. The programme features teapots for brewing Chinese tea, packets of instant noodles, translated welcome materials and travel guides, as well as on-site translation services. Restaurant menus will be available in Mandarin and offer familiar favourites such as congee – a staple for Chinese breakfasts.
Hilton’s Huanying, which borrows its name from the Chinese phrase for ‘welcome’, will provide Chinese guests with a front desk staff member fluent in Mandarin, a dedicated Chinese television channel, as well as an extensive selection of Chinese breakfast dishes. Some 30 Hilton properties have enrolled in the programme, which will debut in San Francisco on August 16.
Both Starwood and Hilton are zooming in on the lucrative China outbound market, which according to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, is set to grow to over 100 million travellers by 2015.
