Quantcast

Personal Finance Digest

Former blog

Hilton brand standards, for anybody who’s interested

By





I was looking around for boring details of how Hilton’s rewards program works and I happened to find the Hilton Brand Standards, which a handful of you may find interesting. It’s interesting to me first of all because it’s 384 pages, which is a lot of fairly dry stuff for a hotel owner to be on top of. It’s also kind of cool to see some of the behind the scenes stuff hotels have to deal with that we never think about (for example, 384-page brand standards manuals).

There is a lot of detail in there. For example: suppose you’re in charge of building a buffet at a Hilton Restaurant. Shouldn’t be too difficult, right? Not so fast:

hilton buffet standards

Mind you, those are just the finish options. There are about three or four pages of standards like this for the buffet. There’s even a section on kick plinths.

And if I were running a Hilton hotel, I would definitely be extra nice to Diamond members:

  • If a Diamond Member is dissatisfied, he or she must receive an immediate (same day) refund of the points redeemed from the reward. The hotel must pay for these points. The hotel will not receive reimbursement credit for the reward, as the points were recredited to the member’s account. The hotel must complete the “Re-credit of Points for Reward Stay” form, which can befound on Focus HHonors > HHonors Rewards > Reward Reimbursement Materials > Re-credit of Points for Reward Stay.
  • The hotel’s General Manager or General Manager’s representative must contact the member by phone to apologize for the service failure within 48 hours of notice of dissatisfaction.
  • The hotel must retain and make available a 30-day rolling record of these transactions. For OnQ PM hotels utilizing the Service Recovery functionality, the Service Recovery report will replace the need for a manual log.
  • In order to support customer satisfaction and loyalty, the Hilton Worldwide Guest Assistance Department has the discretion to grant Diamond Members up to two complimentary future nights. The cost of these room nights will be charged back to the hotel

There are other brand standards guides too. For example, here’s Hampton Inn, which is over 400 pages. And here’s a franchise agreement for Home2 Suites. Want to be a franchisee? Well:

The total investment necessary to begin operation of a newly constructed 107 suite Home2 Suites by Hilton hotel, excluding real property, is $7,407,500 to $13,124,500, including up to $199,500 that must be paid to us or our affiliates.

That’s a lot of money, even more than I make from this blog!

So: who wants to run a branded hotel?

Comments

  1. RRB says

    Now I see why they gave me 100,000 Hilton points (pre-deval) when I complained about no hot water at a Waldorf Astoria

  2. PedroNY says

    great find, thank you! Even with all devaluation and changes over last decade, they are still my favourite go-to brand. It’s just so easy to compile HH points, and leverage Diamond status for multi-room stays with the family.

    This document is a treasure trove of info that I can talk about with a GM next time at a Hilton stay!

    Cheers,

    PedroNY

  3. Gunnie says

    This is interesting, if I’m reading this correctly, Gold and Diamond members are supposed to get access to the higher tier speed internet?

    “Complimentary high-speed Internet access in the guest room (wired and wireless if available) for the Member and one additional guest or device upon request (to have active connections on two devices simultaneously; additional guest must be registered to the same room). If two or more high-speed Internet access offerings are available at the hotel, the Gold Member guest is provided complimentary access to the highest connection speed offering. This benefit must be provided to all Gold Members regardless of booking type (e.g., third-party) or rate.”

  5. Paul says

    Some real gems in that manual…just need a few days to read it all. But that’s what Titan Bloggers are for – they’ve got nothing else to do while sipping champagne in their Apartment or Suite’s class seat, while laughing all the way to the bank about how stupid/gullible/ignorant the average blog reader is for clicking on their substandard affiliate offers by the thousands…

  6. Paul says

    Pffft. Hilton moved the file to a location that needs password access. Anyone save the file to pdf and care to share it?

  9. Stephen says

    Did you happen to save a copy of the brand standards? Would love to be able to access it for a potential issue. TIA.

  11. Tracy Harvard says

    Pedro,
    Any chance you can email me a copy of the brand book? I’ll gladly send you a Starbucks card for your time. I’m a designer looking to get work from my local Hampton’s and Stiltons and I cant seem to find the 411 on their branding / colors guidelines.

    Thanks Tracy
    tharvard@maingraphics.net

Trackbacks

Recent Comments

Disclosure

The owner of this website may be compensated in exchange for featured placement of certain sponsored products and services, or your clicking on links posted on this website.

Disclaimer

Saverocity is Journalistic in Nature, please obtain Professional Representation prior to attempting anything discussed herein. Opinions expressed here are author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airlines or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.