NEW YORK— Hilton Hotels Corp. is expected to unveil this week to its Doubletree franchisees and general managers the details of its 2003 action plan designed to continue to bolster the brand’s performance. Doubletree Senior VP/ Brand Management Dave Horton and his team will take the stage at the company’s annual full-service brand conference in New Orleans to outline Doubletree’s initiatives, which will include further maximizing the Hilton HHonors program, leveraging its customer relationship management (CRM) system, driving more revenue through the brand’s website and central reservation system, and improving individual hotel quality and consistency. If successful, all of these initiatives will then lead to a RevPAR index for the brand of between 102 to 105 for the year, Horton told HOTEL BUSINESS®. “We are aligning Doubletree with the Hilton brand,” Horton said. “There are operational synergies but we are also creating an environment to cross-sell. We are building brand awareness through advertising and loyalty and commitment,” he said. The cornerstone to this strategy is fully utilizing and expanding the Hhonors member rewards program, Horton and Doubletree franchisees said. “Our Hhonors strategy will continue to emphasize service delivery and new member acquisition,” he said. To do this, the brand is pushing a slew of new tactics, including a new HHonors VIP Benefits Options package detailing the benefits delivered at Doubletree hotels; providing additional HHonors training for guest managers and front office team members; and communicating HHonors performance of individual hotels to Doubletree operating teams, Horton said. “The push is brand integrity, taking care of our best customers and focus on growing the brand,” he said. Some Doubletree owners fully agreed that HHonors has been the main boon to their businesses and the brand’s steps to improve that further have been well received. “Certainly the extension of HHonors to the Doubletree brand has been hugely beneficial,” said Lee Pillsbury, chairman of Thayer Lodging Group, which owns seven Doubletrees. “HHonors is a big driver. Anything they do to increase the frequency of members using the program will be good for us.” Added Richard Conti, president/COO of Boykin Lodging Co., which has 12 Doubletree hotels in its portfolio: “Today, we are getting incremental revenue from the HHonors program. The contribution from HHonors is very high.” In fact, Doubletree was the beneficiary of $283.2 million in stay revenue through September 2002 from HHonors members, up more than 18% from the $239.8 million for the same time period in 2001. The goal for all of 2003 is to increase that to $390.5 million in HHonors stay revenue. Another area of focus for the Doubletree brand this year will be to better leverage its distribution channels, specifically the Internet, Horton said. For one, the brand is looking to migrate to the HilStar reservation system to fully align itself with Hilton and gain some cross-selling leverage, he said. “Right now about half our brand has been consolidated into the central reservation system,” Horton said, adding at presstime there were 155 Doubletree hotels, all of which are expected to be utilizing the same system within the next year. Franchisees are looking to take Hilton’s lead on this added source of revenue as they grow more frustrated by the massive room discounting taking place through third-party websites. “This is a big issue. They need to gain control of the Internet,” said Conti. “Whatever they can do to recapture control of the Internet through our website would be big this year.” This will enhance pricing integrity and increase RevPAR again, Horton added. Also as part of its technology strategy, Hilton is looking to better integrate its CRM system to more Doubletree properties in an effort to better retain Gold and Diamond customers, Horton said. Leveraging the CRM system across not only Doubletree but other Hilton brands
