Local Language Advantage
Best Western International, based in Phoenix, Arizona, saw an
opportunity to grow revenues from its online hotel websites by
serving more of its visitors in their own language. The challenges
facing Best Western International were time-to-market, the
cost associated with translating web content for over 4,000
hotels into 7 languages, and the processes required to maintain
changes made at the hotel level in the source language, English.
Best Western planned to include all marketing information
regarding each hotel, to allow for an informed buying decision
by the customer. Required language translations included
Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Simplied Chinese
and Korean. Updating hotel content by a hotel owner or manager occurs
frequently to promote changes to the physical plant, promotion
of special events and varied consumer offerings. These changes
represent thousands of updates to content annually, in addition
to the millions of words to be translated for the initial launch of
the consumer site. Assessing the Alternatives
Clarke Chandler, then Director of Electronic Distribution
Services, was responsible for ensuring a solution was found
to provide customers with translated content. Two options
were available,commented Chandler. The rst was an in-
house team of translators that would maintain local language
changes as they occurred, followed by quality assurance audits
performed by afliate Best Western ofces in various locations
throughout the world. The second option was the selection
of an experienced vendor, capable of dealing with all of these
languages, as an outsourced solution. The feasibility of using local university students as an in-house
solution was explored. The results were mixed. Resources for
translation were not qualied linguists, and based on university
enrollment, the number of students available for translation
varied each semester. Given these variables, a timeline was
developed and cost analysis completed for an internal solution.
Time-to-market in a best case scenario would be 18 months to
two years. Further, an effective translation management tool still
needed to be evaluated for use in translation. With the in-house analysis complete, Best Western started
to look at the second alternative. It conducted a request for
information from over 40 translation providers, with responses
varying widely in both cost and recommended solution.
Throughout this process, SDL International offered and provided
consultative services. It reviewed the in-house solution and
suggested multiple options, including a workow tool to be
used by in-house translators. SDL also offered the use of their
certied linguists as required, based on availability of internal
resources. What emerged was a cooperative venture between SDL and Best
Western to achieve the most cost effective and timely solution. Case Study Ensuring a Good Night's Sleep for 5 Million
International Customers Challenges Reduce the time-to-market for localized websites Reduce the cost of translation Web content required for 4,000 hotels in 7 languages 4 million words to be translated Continuous updates to the site such as promotional events and varied consumer offerings Solution Elements SDL Knowledge-based Translation System SDL consulting services SDL language services Results Translated 4,000 hotel websites into 7 languages Time-to-market reduced substantially to 8 months Faster time-to-market for localized websites Best Western rst-to-market in the industry with best translated web content Accurate and efcient translations SDL estimates cost savings to be up to 50% Anticipate signicant Return on Investment (ROI) Increased guest satisfaction Best Western, the worlds largest hotel chain, wanted to
better meet the needs of more than 5 million international
customers who stay at its hotels each year. An important
requirement was to enable these customers to view
properties and book reservations in their native language. With over 4,000 hotels and more than 4 million words
per language, there were some immense challenges to
overcome. Best Western worked with SDL to achieve their
objectives much faster and at dramatically lower cost than
otherwise possible. The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System
Timelines improved dramatically with the support of SDL,
explained Chandler, but Best Western still faced uncertain
prospects when initial recruitment provided limited resources.
SDL suggested Best Western consider the use of 'knowledge-
based translation' as an alternative to linguists, reducing the
number of translators required during peak to zero. The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System is the intelligent
combination of translation automation software with linguistic
skills, delivering up to three times the translation throughput
of traditional human translation. Innovative software is used to
automatically identify key terms and phrases in source content.
These are used to improve the performance of automated
translation, after which translators post-edit the output into
its nal form. Translation Memory is maintained to ensure
sentences are only translated once. The whole process is
controlled by the SDL Translation Management System.
A sample of data was pulled from the Best Western database
and sent to SDL for the extraction of key terms and phrases.
The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System was then
congured for Best Western and sample output les were
sent to each afliate ofce for review of accuracy. The results
were outstanding. Afliate ofces provided positive feedback
on accuracy of translation, time-to-market would be reduced
substantially to eight months and translation automation was
providing efciencies that could not be achieved in a manual
environment. Best Western contracted with SDL to begin work
in August 2004. The Best Western website, translated into seven
languages, went live in April 2005, on schedule and on budget
and SDL estimates a cost saving of up to 50% compared to an
in-house solution. A Signicant Return on Investment (ROI) Expected
Web analytics are currently being evaluated to rene tracking
and source information. If initial booking data for the period
April-May 2005 is indicative of the incremental revenue derived
from this initiative, Best Western expects to realize a signicant
ROI. The success of this effort is attributed to SDL working with Best
Western as a partner, said Chandler. No other localization
provider offered such extensive support. The two companies
worked through options that provided for a broad range of
services from software licensing to a fully outsourced solution. The outsourced solution operates with a seamless integration into
Best Western data repositories. Any updates in the source content
are automatically routed to the SDL Knowledge-based Translation
System, without involving any Best Western resources. Similarly,
translated content is automatically returned to the Best Western
system and immediately published. There is no need for any in-
house resources for translation, content manipulation or project
management. During post launch meetings, the information
technology group and project ofce at Best Western gave SDL
high marks for the success of this initiative. As the stakeholder for Best Western during the entire
globalization process, remarked Chandler, it was both a
positive and rewarding experience. Every level of the SDL
organization exceeded expectations. The project timeline
remained on track as originally planned and all updates were
detailed. If there were questions on interpretation, les were
provided by SDL for review, and a convenient format was
provided for feedback. Weekly conference calls were concise, and
the teams worked together brilliantly to achieve Best Westerns
objectives. In the weeks following launch, industry observers praised the
globalization effort, and the current revenue generation is a
testimonial to the merits of communicating to a global audience
in their local language. SDL Europe
Globe House
Clivemont Road
Maidenhead, Berks
SL6 7DY, UK +44 (0)1628 410100 SDL Americas
5700 Granite Parkway
Suite 410, Plano,
TX 75024
USA +1-214-387-8500 SDL Asia Pacific
Meguro-Higashiyama
Bldg., 4F, 1-4-4
Higashiyama
Meguro-ku, Tokyo
153-0043, Japan
+81-35720-2591 www.sdl.com Copyright
Best Western International, based in Phoenix, Arizona, saw an
opportunity to grow revenues from its online hotel websites by
serving more of its visitors in their own language. The challenges
facing Best Western International were time-to-market, the
cost associated with translating web content for over 4,000
hotels into 7 languages, and the processes required to maintain
changes made at the hotel level in the source language, English.
Best Western planned to include all marketing information
regarding each hotel, to allow for an informed buying decision
by the customer. Required language translations included
Spanish, German, Italian, French, Japanese, Simplied Chinese
and Korean. Updating hotel content by a hotel owner or manager occurs
frequently to promote changes to the physical plant, promotion
of special events and varied consumer offerings. These changes
represent thousands of updates to content annually, in addition
to the millions of words to be translated for the initial launch of
the consumer site. Assessing the Alternatives
Clarke Chandler, then Director of Electronic Distribution
Services, was responsible for ensuring a solution was found
to provide customers with translated content. Two options
were available,commented Chandler. The rst was an in-
house team of translators that would maintain local language
changes as they occurred, followed by quality assurance audits
performed by afliate Best Western ofces in various locations
throughout the world. The second option was the selection
of an experienced vendor, capable of dealing with all of these
languages, as an outsourced solution. The feasibility of using local university students as an in-house
solution was explored. The results were mixed. Resources for
translation were not qualied linguists, and based on university
enrollment, the number of students available for translation
varied each semester. Given these variables, a timeline was
developed and cost analysis completed for an internal solution.
Time-to-market in a best case scenario would be 18 months to
two years. Further, an effective translation management tool still
needed to be evaluated for use in translation. With the in-house analysis complete, Best Western started
to look at the second alternative. It conducted a request for
information from over 40 translation providers, with responses
varying widely in both cost and recommended solution.
Throughout this process, SDL International offered and provided
consultative services. It reviewed the in-house solution and
suggested multiple options, including a workow tool to be
used by in-house translators. SDL also offered the use of their
certied linguists as required, based on availability of internal
resources. What emerged was a cooperative venture between SDL and Best
Western to achieve the most cost effective and timely solution. Case Study Ensuring a Good Night's Sleep for 5 Million
International Customers Challenges Reduce the time-to-market for localized websites Reduce the cost of translation Web content required for 4,000 hotels in 7 languages 4 million words to be translated Continuous updates to the site such as promotional events and varied consumer offerings Solution Elements SDL Knowledge-based Translation System SDL consulting services SDL language services Results Translated 4,000 hotel websites into 7 languages Time-to-market reduced substantially to 8 months Faster time-to-market for localized websites Best Western rst-to-market in the industry with best translated web content Accurate and efcient translations SDL estimates cost savings to be up to 50% Anticipate signicant Return on Investment (ROI) Increased guest satisfaction Best Western, the worlds largest hotel chain, wanted to
better meet the needs of more than 5 million international
customers who stay at its hotels each year. An important
requirement was to enable these customers to view
properties and book reservations in their native language. With over 4,000 hotels and more than 4 million words
per language, there were some immense challenges to
overcome. Best Western worked with SDL to achieve their
objectives much faster and at dramatically lower cost than
otherwise possible. The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System
Timelines improved dramatically with the support of SDL,
explained Chandler, but Best Western still faced uncertain
prospects when initial recruitment provided limited resources.
SDL suggested Best Western consider the use of 'knowledge-
based translation' as an alternative to linguists, reducing the
number of translators required during peak to zero. The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System is the intelligent
combination of translation automation software with linguistic
skills, delivering up to three times the translation throughput
of traditional human translation. Innovative software is used to
automatically identify key terms and phrases in source content.
These are used to improve the performance of automated
translation, after which translators post-edit the output into
its nal form. Translation Memory is maintained to ensure
sentences are only translated once. The whole process is
controlled by the SDL Translation Management System.
A sample of data was pulled from the Best Western database
and sent to SDL for the extraction of key terms and phrases.
The SDL Knowledge-based Translation System was then
congured for Best Western and sample output les were
sent to each afliate ofce for review of accuracy. The results
were outstanding. Afliate ofces provided positive feedback
on accuracy of translation, time-to-market would be reduced
substantially to eight months and translation automation was
providing efciencies that could not be achieved in a manual
environment. Best Western contracted with SDL to begin work
in August 2004. The Best Western website, translated into seven
languages, went live in April 2005, on schedule and on budget
and SDL estimates a cost saving of up to 50% compared to an
in-house solution. A Signicant Return on Investment (ROI) Expected
Web analytics are currently being evaluated to rene tracking
and source information. If initial booking data for the period
April-May 2005 is indicative of the incremental revenue derived
from this initiative, Best Western expects to realize a signicant
ROI. The success of this effort is attributed to SDL working with Best
Western as a partner, said Chandler. No other localization
provider offered such extensive support. The two companies
worked through options that provided for a broad range of
services from software licensing to a fully outsourced solution. The outsourced solution operates with a seamless integration into
Best Western data repositories. Any updates in the source content
are automatically routed to the SDL Knowledge-based Translation
System, without involving any Best Western resources. Similarly,
translated content is automatically returned to the Best Western
system and immediately published. There is no need for any in-
house resources for translation, content manipulation or project
management. During post launch meetings, the information
technology group and project ofce at Best Western gave SDL
high marks for the success of this initiative. As the stakeholder for Best Western during the entire
globalization process, remarked Chandler, it was both a
positive and rewarding experience. Every level of the SDL
organization exceeded expectations. The project timeline
remained on track as originally planned and all updates were
detailed. If there were questions on interpretation, les were
provided by SDL for review, and a convenient format was
provided for feedback. Weekly conference calls were concise, and
the teams worked together brilliantly to achieve Best Westerns
objectives. In the weeks following launch, industry observers praised the
globalization effort, and the current revenue generation is a
testimonial to the merits of communicating to a global audience
in their local language. SDL Europe
Globe House
Clivemont Road
Maidenhead, Berks
SL6 7DY, UK +44 (0)1628 410100 SDL Americas
5700 Granite Parkway
Suite 410, Plano,
TX 75024
USA +1-214-387-8500 SDL Asia Pacific
Meguro-Higashiyama
Bldg., 4F, 1-4-4
Higashiyama
Meguro-ku, Tokyo
153-0043, Japan
+81-35720-2591 www.sdl.com Copyright
