Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Background

Starwood Hotels & Resorts is one of the world's most prominent hotel and leisure companies, responsible for such diverse brand names as Le Meridien, Sheraton, St. Regis, Westin, and W Hotels. Regarded as a leader in the luxury and upscale segment of the hospitality industry, Starwood Hotels has a strong global presence in most major cities and resort areas, with an accommodation portfolio that includes more than 750 properties in 80 countries around the world. Starwood's locations have been added to Conde Nast Traveler's "Top 100 Best Hotels in the World," and the company was recently named the "World's Leading Hotel Group" at the World Travel Awards.

Challenge

To expand its market potential, Starwood opted to localize its website into four languages: French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Under the Starwood umbrella, each of its seven brands touts a very specific, unique identity in the leisure industry, targeting different segments of the travel community. With that in mind, Starwood needed a localization partner that could provide each of its brands with the appropriate voice in the marketplace.

• Emphasizing brand imaging specific to each of its venues, thousands of words need to be localized within a dynamic authoring process and under tight time restrictions, while adhering to Starwood's commitment to excellence.
• Starwood sought a translation vendor capable of handling large volumes of content, including twice-weekly submissions and a collection of projects on multiple timelines.
• As Starwood works with a number of outside agencies, content from over 100 contributors needed to be aggregated, localized, and served up dynamically to customers across the globe.

Solution

To handle the vast number of projects originating from different contributors, Translations.com implemented its GlobalLink GMS software product./p>

• GlobalLink gave Starwood full control over the workflow, while a submission schedule was established to keep file transfers running smoothly.
• Translators were selected to adapt existing content and create language support materials to guide translations throughout six Starwood brands.
• Translations.com instated a dedicated account manager to oversee all aspects of the Starwood localization initiative and coordinate linguists in an effort to further ensure consistency.
• GlobalLink, Translations.com's proprietary CMS system, was installed to automate file extraction, submission, and retrieval, thereby accelerating the process of content translation.

Despite the many obstacles facing this account, Translations.com constructed an airtight customized regimen to ensure the highest quality, fastest turn-around times, and most convenient client service structure for Starwood. Today, Translations.com proudly continues to provide software and ongoing services to help drive Starwood's global revenue.

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