Crescent Hotels & Resorts is a privately owned, third party hotel management firm that manages major chain hotels such as Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton, as well as independent luxury brands.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Crescent’s portfolio of hotel clients have experienced a significant drop in revenue due to safety concerns of traveling and occupying shared spaces.
We first set out to explore the full impact that COVID-19 had on the hotel industry as a whole, then Crescent Hotel and Resorts more specifically. Then, discover areas of support that could help Crescent during this time.
We conducted interviews with Crescent’s VP of Client Relations, instrumental in gaining and maintaining new clientele, as well as a Baltimore-based General Manager, serving on the front lines of the hotel industry, trying to keep her location afloat.
To gain a deeper perspective of how COVID-19 is influencing consumer perception of hotel stays, we conducted both a one-on-one interview and sought secondary industry research.
1:1 Interview Insights from a Frequents Business Traveler / Hotel Guest
IDC (International Data Corp) Survey
1,500 US consumers asked how COVID-19 is influencing their travel
Then it was assessing the current user interface design of the Crescent Hotels and Resorts’ website, as well as its separate intranet with 3 individual resource pages housing all of the COVID-19 resources for hotel management.
How might Crescent Hotel and Resorts provide more efficient and timely COVID-19 resources and support to their front-line General Managers at their various hotel locations, as well as show hotel consumers the strength and proactiveness of their brand?
We wanted to create a comprehensive COVID-19 resource hub that maintained vital and timely information, while also having an enjoyable user experience. It would be accessible by login through Crescent’s main website for added convenience, but also to show consumers the measures being taken to maintain safety. The home page of the Crescent site would also be redesigned to highlight the brand’s transparency and solidarity to everyone during this time.
The main user of our resource hub would be the hotel management staff for the various hotels Crescent operates. The empathy map below reflects the behaviors and attitudes we envision for our main user.
45 years old | Married with 2 teen children
Currently a Genera Manager for a Marriott in Nashville, TN
Has been a loyal Marriott Employee for over 15 years
Crescent’s current website and COVID intranet site are 2 separate platforms. During busy and stressful times, it’s much more efficient for General Managers to have all of their content integrated into one site.
Keeping a strong brand identity and reminding clients why it’s beneficial to be within the Crescent umbrella is more crucial than ever. The goal was to create a more inviting overall feel through warmer imagery, define the brand’s essence and highlight the current portfolio of hotels to show Crescent’s continued strength and success.
To maintain a level of privacy and keep proprietary COVID-19 strategies secured within the company, a login page was created for the new resource section. Because COVID-19 is a sensitive topic and the industry was hit so hard, imagery and messaging representing support and unity were included to provide an empathetic and transparent experience.
The new resource page (or COVID-19 Resource Gateway as it was named) unifies all of the separate shared drive sections of the current COVID-19 intranet site: Resources, Webinars and Quick Links. Resources were neatly categorized by hotel department, as that was the most logical way users could find information with search capability for specific files. Finally, the design was meant to provide visual context in an authentic yet soft way.
Click on the link below to access the Crescent Hotels and Resort’s redesigned home page which directly connects you to the new COVID-19 Resource Gateway, complete with neatly categorized resource files, an online video library and webinar schedule, as well as a section of quick links for key information sites.
We feel that Crescent Hotels and Resorts now has a new and improved user experience for General Managers and other related staff to access the information they need to navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. The need for a strong user experience and interface design is even more crucial during a time when accurate and timely information is so vital.
Interested in discussing ways that we could collaborate? I’m always looking for new endeavors. Contact me and we can begin the conversation!
- Liz Sacks
lizsacks@olioport.com