Four Seasons Hotel Firenze in Florence, Italy When travellers with deep pockets and expensive taste go online shopping for a room at a luxury hotel, it’s the Four Seasons they turn to most .
That’s the conclusion of the World Luxury Index Hotels report, which scoured through more than 133 million searches on top search engines like Google, Bing, Yandex in Russia and Baidu in China to discern the most sought-after luxury hotel brands in the world.
In the category of deluxe top-tier luxury hotels, the Canadian-based brand emerged as the most popular and most searched-for chain in the world, taking nearly five percent of global online demand.
The chain is particularly popular in the UK, where it received the highest ranking.
Authors of the report credit the company’s aggressive push in digital marketing for allowing it to trump its competitors, including Loews, Shangri-La, Mandarin Oriental and Regent which round out the top five most sought-after deluxe hotel brands. The company has invested $18 million USD to reinforce their online presence.
“Four Seasons benefits from an outstanding level of online awareness reflecting a high level of brand desirability,” said Florent Bondoux of the Digital Luxury Group, which prepared the report. “The iconic Canadian brand is a best in class in luxury brand management and has invested massively in digital.”
The luxury hotel chain operates 90 properties in 36 countries and derives most of its business - 69 percent - from business travellers, with the balance made up from the leisure sector.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts, meanwhile, emerged as the top overall most searched-for brand across all three categories which looked at mid-level, major and top-tier exclusive chains in the world.
Here are the top 10 most sought-after \"luxury exclusive\" hotels in the world:
1. Four Seasons
2. Loews
3. Shangri-La
4. Mandarin Oriental
5. Regent
6. Kempinski
7. Jumeirah
8. Langham
9. Banyan Tree
10. Oberoi
Source: AFP