Langham Hospitality Group and LRA Worldwide Develop Guest Experience Assessment Program

HORSHAM, PA, October 25, 2011 (Press-News.org) Langham Hospitality Group has built its portfolio on its historical and luxurious past - its "Birth of a Legend" branding message evokes the very first Langham that was the talk of Victorian London as Europe's first grand hotel in 1865. Now Langham has partnered with LRA Worldwide, Inc., to evaluate how well Langham associates connect the guest emotionally with its legendary past, using LRA's proprietary Emotional Audit framework.

LRA has customized the Emotional Audit protocol to reflect Langham's unique service components and the desired emotional connection they are designed to evoke. In addition, the program has been customized slightly to accommodate two of the Langham brands - The Langham and Langham Place.

"This program provides us with a view into a guest stay with Langham that we have never had before," said Paul Walters, Vice President -Brands for Langham Hospitality Group. "The personal interactions between our associates and our guests are what make the experience, and LRA's Emotional Audit helps us quantify what had previously been left to anecdote and observation."

LRA, a leader in Customer Experience Management and Quality Assurance Evaluations for the global hospitality industry, designed the Emotional Audit as a complement to traditional QA audits and guest surveys. In short, the Emotional Audit serves as a bridge between the brand standards that are communicated to a hotel property, how those standards translate into associate behaviors at the hotel, and how those behaviors ultimately make the guest feel. Naturally, that desired emotional connection varies based on the brand.

"While typical hotel Quality Assurance programs measure compliance of the behaviors and processes that drive guest satisfaction, the Guest Experience Assessments have allowed Langham to measure the execution of its brand promise, which helps differentiate the experience and drive guest loyalty," explained Rick Reilly, LRA's Account Director for Langham. "Based upon the program's results, we have been able to augment Langham's set of key performance indicators to include this important measure of performance."

The project with Langham began with a full assessment of the Langham guest experience and how effectively the desired emotional connection with the guests is articulated at a corporate level and delivered at the property. Following that work, an LRA-Langham team customized the Emotional Audit framework based on the desired attributes that a Langham associate should be trying to convey at each guest touch point to mesh with the Langham brand pillars. LRA consultants currently conduct the audit at each Langham and Langham Place property across the world on an annual basis.

About LRA Worldwide, Inc:
LRA Worldwide is a leading research and consulting company in the emerging discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM). We work with our clients to help them design and deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences in order to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, and company growth and profitability.

In LRA's 25-year history, we have grown from a provider of customized quality assurance evaluation programs for the hospitality industry, to a leading CEM consulting company offering a variety of client solutions. The evolution has been driven by our clients asking us one question - "How do we get better?" In response, we have built a range of performance measurement, research, training and consulting solutions to help them do so. Today, we are a growing company operating in more than 120 countries throughout the world, helping clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, the National Basketball Association, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group and InterContinental Hotels Group deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every touch. Every time. For more information, visit us at http://www.LRAworldwide.com.

About Langham Hospitality Group:
Langham Hospitality Group encompasses a family of distinctive hospitality brands which include hotels, resorts, residential serviced apartments, restaurants and spas, located on four continents.

It takes its name from the legendary Langham in London which was opened in 1865 as Europe's first Grand Hotel. For almost 150 years, this flagship hotel has represented sophisticated and gracious hospitality, a philosophy that reflects elegance in design, innovation in hospitality, genuine service and captivation of the senses across all properties.

The brands include the luxurious Langham and international five-star Langham Place, the upscale Eaton Luxe, midscale Eaton Smart and the award-winning Chuan Spa.

The Langham is where guests can enjoy service with poise and be enchanted by our innovation and traditions while Langham Place, the fun sibling of The Langham, is about living the 21st century through design, technology and attitude, epitomising stimulating and artistic hospitality.

Eaton, a premium member brand, aims to surprise and delight our guests with a value-for-money proposition that delivers a stylish, modern level of comfort with spirited, can-do service.

Currently 27 member hotels are open or in the pipeline across four continents.

Langham Hospitality Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great Eagle Holdings (Stock Code: 0041) which was founded in 1963 and listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972.

Reservations for either Langham or Eaton properties can be made by logging onto langhamhospitalitygroup.com.