The unveiling coincides with the appointment of new CEO, Filip Boyen, and a successful International Conference for member hotels in Marbella last month during where SLH outlined ambitious plans for the future focusing on quality, development, technology and loyalty.
The new direction, coined ‘The SLH Way’, emphasizes SLH’s core philosophy to match independently-minded people with independently-spirited hotels. It celebrates the fact that all SLH hotels are consistently different, united by a shared commitment to providing the highest levels of quality and service to their guests, and reinforces SLH’s position as an anti-brand kind of brand. Complementing the existing logo a new brand ‘device’ will feature more prominently on the website and newly launched apps for iPhone and Android to reflect a 49% increase visits to SLH’s mobile site and 71% increase in reservations via mobile, as well as on SLH collateral, notably the SLH Directory which has been reintroduced for 2016.
Key initiatives for SLH in 2016 will include:
· A more stringent approach to the Development and Quality Assurance programmes that will raise the standards expected from hotels both to join the brand and to remain as members. This will guarantee that all hotels in the collection offer the very best guest experience.
· A focus on ensuring that SLH is able to offer hotels in new destinations requested by its guests. In 2015 SLH introduced hotels in Tokyo, the Seychelles, Prague and Malta based on unfulfilled customer searches on slh.com. In 2016 key destinations will include Ibiza, Dubai, Hawaii, Munich and Sydney as well as major cities in the USA.
· The introduction of language specific sites including an updated Chinese website, and brand new sites in German and Spanish over the next 18 months.
· A new loyalty scheme – Very Independent People – to be launched in late 2016 that is designed to embody the independently minded approach and reward customer behaviours in conjunction with a variety of luxury partners.
