Essay about How Hilton Hotels Builds a Relationship with Its Customers

Conrad Hilton (Figure 1.1), the man who started Hilton hotels. He was born on December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, New Mexico and died on January 3, 1979 in Santa Monica, California. Conrad Hilton was famous as American hotelier and businessman. For instance, he was also the founder of Hilton hotel chain (Figure 1.2A - Figure 1.2C) and in 1925, he built his first hotel in Dallas Hilton and it costs $1million. Conrad Hilton was deep faith in God and country. Not only that, he belief in hard work and has the ability to dream big. Thus, he was influenced by his mum’s Catholic beliefs and told by his mum prayer was the best investment ever. Furthermore, “digging for gold” and “esprit de corps” are his golden principles of being successful. He published his autobiography,”Be My Guest” in 1957.

For instance, in the hospitality industry, the Hilton brand symbolises high-end properties, elevated quality of service and a unique guest experience. Brand name and brand image are essentially two factors that differentiate companies which operate in the same industry and market. Therefore, the brand name must be unique. Hotel companies like the Hilton have established strong national brands and seek to use them globally with an intention of increasing profits. Once its established as a global brand, the company has successfully created an international image that can lead to increased efficiency through branded marketing efforts and cost savings on a much larger scale. Nowadays with an increase in international travel, the competition among international hotel corporations is becoming a lot more competetive. Those tourists that travel to foreign countries tend to stay in one of the known hotel brands and their standardised quality of service. Hotel chains are motivated to maintain a high rate of global expansion as a key marketing strategy of creating brand loyalty (King,

One of Porter’s main contributions was Porter’s value chain. The value chain is all the activities an organization undertakes to create value for a customer. According to Porter, there are two ways to gain an edge over competitors. A firm must provide comparable but value but perform the activities on the chain at a lower cost, or; Perform services in a unique way

The value chain is one of the critical elements of a company’s strategy in today’s competitive world, because company’s profit depends on how the successful and efficient it runs its operations and how the end product appeals to the customers at a price that covers all the expenses of the company.

A firm’s value chain can be different for the different segments of business units of Virgin Atlantic, which could be understood in the context of business unit chain. In this context, applying the value chain of Virgin as a competitive tool would be deficient because it would constrain the analysis to a single type of business pursued by the airline. In essence, this would obscure the strategic importance of other in-demand products services that are critical in the airline transportation

The Hotel Monaco achieves their desired organizational effectiveness by being conscience of goal accomplishments, satisfaction of constituencies, and acquisition of necessary resources. The Hotel Monaco claims its three most vital assets are its customers, its employees, and its investors. Their customers’ expectation and satisfaction of the hotel’s top-level of service offerings, and its unmatched customer service, is what keeps them in business and at the top.

* To maintain brand name uniform services are to be maintained across the hotel chain. With centralized OnQ infrastructure, it became possible for Hilton Hotels to replicate their services across the various hotels across the globe.

Hilton Hotel is founded by Conrad Hilton, they started their operation since 1919 and since then, they become one of the well-respected premier hospitality organizations with diverse employees worldwide. Currently, they have more than 4,600 owned and franchised hotels and resort chain in 100 countries. It has more than 200,000 rooms to accommodate guests from different parts of the world. It has more than 400,000 employees and team members to answers the needs of their guests (Hiltonhotelworldwide.com, 2016). In most of their branches their organizational structure is simple, with managers and supervisors from a different department, including admin, marketing, finance, human resource, concierge, food and beverages, housekeeping and etc.

Hyatt’s value statement is “to adhere to a set of core values such as, mutual respect, intellectual honesty and integrity, humility, fun, creativity, and innovation to characterize the culture of the company” (Hyatt, 2013).  Hyatt provides its consumers with an intangible good, which is customer service. Hyatt values it personnel as an essential factor in achieving its strategic plan of authentic hospitality. Hyatt’s successful approach to empowering its personnel is its “thoughtful approach to growth” and furthermore, emphasizes its strategy. (Hyatt, 2013).

• Evaluating all current and future purchasing policies and practices across the brands to ensure that the range of products placed in hotels not only enhance the guest experience but drive value for owners while supporting the company's overall

The main objective of the company is not only to attract but also to retain staff who are interested to work in the hotel business for the five-star level of high service, taking into account the wishes of clients, and which offers an innovative, dynamic environment and reflects the culture of the local country. To achieve this, Hyatt strives to be a company listening to well-informed and concerned people. Hyatt provides plenty of opportunities at all levels for their employees, which are accompanied by numerous development

Hilton Hotels is one of the biggest players in the hospitality industry with over 2900 (as of September 2007) hotels worldwide consisting of numerous brands and products. The hospitality industry is service centered and highly competitive. The challenge for Hilton is to create and deliver value better than its competitors. Hilton understand that it is important to improve customer experience and build strong relationships with the customers. Hilton Hotels adopted a Customer Really Matter (CRM) strategy out of necessity to cater for

1. Why might Bollenbach have opened his bidding for ITT at $55 per share? What was his likely strategy?

Hospitality Management is a difficult and competitive market, and any lack in customer service can result in defecting customers or the termination of a relationship between a customer and a service provider. In this paper we will look at Hilton a company that has continually ranked amongst the top ranking hotels and continues to improve. Hilton’s customer service ranks as one of the top hospitality providers in the United States. We will look at the history of how Hilton came to be the name brand it is today and some of their process the used to narrow the customer service gaps such as Hilton Honors, the Hiltons Reservation Customer Care, and RESMAX. We will look at how they look at how Hilton manages the customer expectations through the use of employee training and their decreased the customer service gap through employee retention. We will also look as how Hilton co-partnered with Citibank in order to offer its Hilton Honors member additional benefits in order to keep in line with the customer service that the customers have come to expect.

The report focused particularly on the following hotel chain Hilton Worldwide. Hilton legacy began in 1925, it was founded by Conrad N. Hilton. The first hotel was built in Texas and had 40 rooms; today Hilton is one of the most respected brands in the world. The company owns, manages or franchises a hotel group of some of the most famous and highly regarded hospitality brands worldwide, including Hilton, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Double Tree by Hilton, Embassy Suites Hotels, Hampton, Hilton Grant Vacations, Homewood Suites by Hilton and the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts. With 4000 hotels and 650,000 rooms in 90 countries Hilton Worldwide is one of the world’s leading hotel. (Hilton Worldwide, 2013)