Face to Face: John Greenleaf, DoubleTree by Hilton
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DoubleTree by Hilton appears to be expanding at quite a rate. What is your pipeline looking like now?
We recently opened a hotel in Islington which was our 10th in London. Since its opening around a month ago it has had high occupancies. There were 143 rooms added during renovation which means it now has 370 rooms.
The next two UK openings are in Nottingham and Liverpool which will be our 25th and 26th hotels in the UK.
There are more than 150 hotels in our pipeline and opened our 400th hotel last week in Australia. Our growth has been incredible; we are now in 33 countries now on six continents.
Some areas we have focused a lot of attention have been in Europe such as Turkey and Poland. We’ve also opened our first hotels in Spain and Portugal this year. For a brand that had no hotels outside of the US six years ago we now have more than 50, but we do not have any in France or Germany so we are actively looking at opportunities there.
We now have four hotels in the UAE and our pipeline is biggest in Asia particularly China.
Is there a typical DoubleTree customer?
Our customers demographically are fairly similar to full service brands in terms of age but there are some things that are unique.
Our guests have a higher affinity to using and adopting technology; they are willing to try new things.
They are also looking for an experience in the hotel product that is different, which is why each property is a slightly different from the next depending on location. Our guests like more diversity but still with the service.
What do you think is behind the brand’s success?
There are two ways to look at the success. The first is the development side; we are predominantly, although not exclusively, a conversion brand. As the portfolio of hotels we have is diverse, we look into renovation and takeover of properties which not many brands do.
This means the level of quality is consistent but the fact we offer hotels the opportunity to convert to a DoubleTree opens up development to a lot more options. I believe we have the best development team in the business who seek out those options.
The other aspect is that we are positioned well and each property is different. The teams do a terrific job of making a hotel their own and making it work with the local area, different environments but with the same little things we add to the experience.
A combination of the flexibility and consistency of hospitality really resonates with customers and has given us the opportunity to expand.
Also 70% of our hotels are with existing owners so we have people returning to do business with us and I think that says a lot about how the brand and team delivers.
Is it this that sets your brand apart from others?
Yes certainly.
Our CARE (Create A Rewarding Experience) culture also focuses on the little things that can be the differentiators of the success of someone’s stay in a hotel.
We have a structured programme so that every individual can help resolve an issue on the spot.
It’s a combination of what the customer requires and the ability of our teams to actively immediately help a guest on their own; it says a lot about the service and culture.
We have a core set of standards in each hotel that is not compromised such as our beds, the wake-up breakfast and the cookie greeting.
What do you think is the biggest challenge you face?
I think the key thing we’ll face in the hotel business is how we introduce technology as we aspire to offer choice and control to our guests so they get what they want.
It’s working out how that is balanced against the human touch which we truly believe makes a difference to a stay with us. It’s the CARE culture: the variety of culture and the core standards that will make us different. It’s working, we have nearly 50% of guests that are members of the HHonors loyalty programme.
An on-going element to our growth is also the quality of our offering. Anyone can grow fast but it has to have the quality too and effort to support the brand, so the expectation is met.
There are a lot of new brands that are being marketed aggressively and that creates a much more competitive environment even compared to a few years ago. We need to see the opportunities and what we could consider to stay relevant for guests.
What initiatives have you introduced to DoubleTree recently?
We now have HHonors floors in each of our hotels which has been rolling out this year. That has been well-received.
There is also a small meetings programme that we have introduced in some hotels in the US which aims to bring technology into the meetings experience so that is a focus too.
We continue to offer free WiFi in our public areas and we continue to look at that as an on-going area with our hotels. Some properties have free WiFi already but we are getting ready for the day when it will be free everywhere and then we will have to offer more bandwidth that will be acceptable for both our guests and hotel operators. We continue to watch the market with that.
Hilton Worldwide is also developing technology that will allow guests to go straight to their room. We want to give our guests more choice at times like check-in. People will also soon to be able to choose their own room, like you would an airline seat.
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