Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars – Case Solution

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Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars Case Answers

What are the strengths and weaknesses of the Hilton HHonors program?

Consider this question from the perspective of each of the various entities involved (Hilton HHonors’ member properties, guests, and any others).

A key element to represent in which way a company exists and competes with others and has either an auspicious or inauspicious future in the world market is to analyze the company’s strengths and weaknesses deeply.

By examining, in this particular case, the strengths and weaknesses of the Hilton HHonors program created by the Hilton brand, it would be easy to fully understand if this program brings success or not to this corporation and what could any future changes or recommendations be, to satisfy more the world market’s demand.

To begin with, the strengths of this HHonors program will be analyzed further down. First of all, a significant advantage that this program provides to the customers is that it is open to anyone with no charge at all. This gives the opportunity to anyone who would like to join this “Hilton residence” to be welcomed and start his collection of points.

Secondly, a major factor is that Hilton’s brand, with its HHonors program, gives the unique hotel chains the opportunity of the so-called “Double Dipping.” Double Dipping offers a combination of the earned points either from the hotel program or from other affiliated companies without having to choose between points, for example, availing them in the hotel program or miles in an affiliated airline.

This is a very positive issue for customers because they can earn the “desirable” points from many activities, such as car rental companies, airlines, or partners like FTD Florist, Mrs. Field’s Cookies, etc.

In particular, the Hilton HHonors program has partnered with twenty-five airlines around the world, three car rental companies, and a large number of other companies, where people can earn miles and spend them as they wish. Moreover, members can enjoy free stays by using their points, and they also enjoy priorities, for instance, priority-reservation telephone numbers, faster check-in, late checkout, and other services provided.

For instance, the silver members can be upgraded to the best room in the hotel after the fifth stay, and the gold VIP member can be upgraded to the best room after every fifth stay, which can occur even at the time of check-in. What can also be described as the strength of this program is that the Hilton brand tries to come closer to its clients.

With the use of questionnaires, personal interviews with the members, and a database that gives specific information about customer’s preferences and needs, this program attempts to meet everyone’s expectations and make its clients feel that the organization cares about them because they strongly believe that “people care about organizations that care about them.” They try to treat their members in the best possible way so that the clients feel like they deserve that special treatment.

The strengths mentioned above seem to result in having satisfied customers and a fully informed database for future development. However, there is always space for improvement in every sector. Some of the weaknesses of this program are referred to below.

Primarily, most of those reward programs, as well as the HHonors program, have some restrictive conditions, e.g., their members cannot claim benefits such as free stay at high season demand or when local events guarantee 100% hotel occupancy. Also, there are limitations in the number of rooms available for free stays.

Moreover, customers must previously exchange points for a certificate and then use them to pay for an authorized stay. This bureaucracy often brings…