Hilton Hhonors Worldwide Case Analysis
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Hilton HHonors Worldwide Case Analysis
Situation Analysis
The Hilton HHonors was the loyalty program designed and managed by Hilton HHonors Worldwide (HHW) to build loyalty to two hotel companies operating under the Hilton brand, Hilton Hotels Corporation (HHC), Beverly Hills and Hilton International Corporation (HIC), London. The HHonors loyalty program included 492 Hilton brand hotels that had more than 154,000 rooms. The program was a huge success for Hilton and by the late 1990s companies in airlines; service industries also adopted loyalty programs to lure their customers with redeemable points and miles. But the biggest threat came to Hilton HHonors Worldwide when the Starwood Group of Hotels announced its Starwood Preferred Guest Loyalty Program in February 1999. This became almost like a loyalty war between Hilton and Starwood and Jeff Diskin – the head of HHW – was unsure about the way he should react to the loyalty war.
Overview of the Hotel Industry
The American hotel industry generally has three different market segments:
Business Segment: Employers if business travelers are the direct customers
Convention Segment: Professional business travel companies are the direct customers
Leisure Segment: Tour and travel agents are the direct customers
The travelers generally selected the hotels to stay based on two factors:
Price point of a particular hotel
Nature/Purpose of the travel
Based on the above two factors it was identified that:
Resort Hotels: Preferred mostly by leisure travelers and by some conventioneers
Convention Hotels: Preferred by business travelers
Near-Airport Hotels: Preferred by business guests
Challenges in Marketing the Hilton Brand
The Hilton brand faced two primary challenges with respect to its marketing:
Hilton (HHC and HIC) had many different hotels for many different market segments ranging from super-premium Waldorf-Astoria, Hilton Hawaiian Village to the smaller middle class hotels
Hilton found challenges to give consumers a clear sense of what and what-not to expect from their various types of hotels
Description of Hilton HHonors Program
Membership qualification: Membership was open to anyone who applied, at no charge
Members would earn points whenever they stayed at HHC or HIC hotels
They could use the earned points in following ways:
Redeem for stays at HHC or HIC hotels
Buy products and services from partner companies
Convert them to miles in airline frequent flyer programs
There were four tiers of membership:
Silver VIP
Gold VIP
Diamond VIP
Double Dipping: The unique practice of Hilton HHonors Program. If a member chooses Double Dip option, HHW would buy miles from the partner airlines and credit the members frequent flyer account at 500 miles per stay
Members would enjoy other benefits such as priority