IHG, Didi partnership to drive customer satisfaction
When Emily Chang, chief executive officer of InterContinental Hotels Group Greater China, sampled the high-quality service offered by China’s largest ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing, she was deeply impressed.
As a result of her experience, a three-year strategic partnership between the leading global hotel group and Didi Chuxing was launched at InterContinental Beijing Sanlitun on Jan 18.
The partnership will allow the two giants to conduct deeper user analysis and research, which will result in a wider range of benefits for their regular customers through the development of a series of exclusive offers and loyalty programs.
Chang emphasized that as 70 percent of IHG’s customers are business travelers, the hotel group aims to provide its guests with a fully-integrated and seamless travel experience, from accommodation to transportation.
“We have been searching for a partner to bring high-tech values to our customers, and Didi stood out as the (perfect) one,” she said.
Vice-President of Didi Yang Jun said that the concept of intelligent transportation fits perfectly into the service provision models of leading hotels, as it provides convenient and efficient services that help to meet the exacting accommodation and transportation needs of business travelers.
“Didi has strategic cooperation agreements with airlines, tourism agencies and hotels,” Yang added. “When businesses include a car hailing service in their service provision, they can offer a complete travel ecosystem.”
Didi’s collaboration with IHG shows its determination to forge links with high-end clientele, marking a change from its previous approach which targeted the general public at large.
IHG has a strong portfolio of six hotel brands in nearly 100 cities in China serving luxury, upscale and midscale segments. Didi is now available to a wide customer base in more than 400 cities across China.
The Chinese Business Traveler Report, which was jointly compiled by the two companies as the first act of their partnership, was also released on Jan 18.
From the report, IHG and Didi also made a deep analysis of the accommodation and transportation preferences of business travelers with the aim of offering a better overall service in the future.