Skift Take
Each hotel chain has its own quirks and benefits. There are important things for event planners to know when considering them. Here’s a list of the things you need to know about Hilton.
Hilton Brands is comprised of 14 brands including the Waldorf Astoria, Embassy Suites, Conrad Hotel & Resorts, Doubletree by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton, Hampton Hotels, Homewood Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton, and several others. It has meeting facilities in over 540 hotels worldwide. They offer a lot of planning tools and discounts for event planners. If you haven’t looked at Hilton recently, here are a few things you should know.
1. Bundled Meeting Pricing
Hilton’s Meetings Simplified™ program makes meeting pricing easy through bundling. Their pricing includes the meeting room, basic WiFi, flip chart and markers, all-day non-alcoholic beverage service, and per person (up to 25 people) pricing for ease of calculation. You can also add meal options, breaks, and AV equipment.
2. Use the Space Calculator
Not sure how much room you need or which venue would work best? Try their space calculator. It may just suggest something you hadn’t thought of. Plus, since it can be downloaded online, you can run the numbers at your convenience not just when the sales department is open.
3. Arrange Your Space
The space calculator also lets you play with the set-up using one of their designs or creating a custom layout.
4. Use the Guest List Manager
The Guest List Manager allows event planners to see guest bookings, reserve rooms, and coordinate guest bookings easily in a central location.
5. Make it Easy with the Personalized Group Webpage
If web design isn’t your thing, Hilton offers HiltonLink. This free service gives groups their own branded web page where attendees and potential attendees can find all necessary information for the event. Guests can even reserve rooms and select their room online through the page. It’s available in 23 languages. You can create it or call your meeting planner at Hilton properties and they will create it for you.
Two things you should be aware of if you select HiltonLink. Your event website will be taken down the day of your event check out and while you can monitor traffic, this web page is on Hilton’s site, not yours. It will not benefit your SEO. You can customize a URL but the page cannot be hosted on your domain.
If you create the page yourself with HiltonLink, you will need to submit it for approval before it goes live. Once it’s live, you cannot make changes online. You will need to contact Hilton with your changes so make sure you have everything included the first time.
6. Loyalty Program
Hilton recently rebranded its Honors program to include new opportunities and experiences to offer more flexibility, more value, and more ways to use your Points, especially for group travel. Among those changes is the ability to pool Points and the all-new Points & Money system.
- Points Pooling is an all new, free benefit that gives members the options of combining their Hilton Honors Points with up to 10 other people to reduce their group travel cost.
- Points & Money invites members to choose nearly any combination of Hilton Honors Points and money when booking a room. That means business travelers can reap the rewards by putting their points toward a discount on the next family vacation.
Loyalty programs at hosting hotels can be a bonus for attendees and Hilton has 50 million members in its program.
7. Go Green with Hilton
According to its website, “Hilton is the first global hospitality company to be certified ISO 50001 for Energy Management, ISO 14001 for Environmental Management and 9001 for Quality Management across our entire hotel portfolio.” It was also recognized by Forbes as a Top 50 Green Brand and by Newsweek as a Top Green Company in the World.
8. Understand the Hilton Clean Air Program (Asia/Pacific)
If you’re hosting an event in the Asia/Pacific area, Hilton estimates carbon emission based on your event and purchases the equivalent carbon credits from their partner, Climate Friendly. The credits are then used to fund climate-friendly programs in the region.
9. Explore Mindful Eating
Hilton’s Meet With Purpose is designed to improve health and wellness for meeting attendees by inserting fitness breaks and healthy food options. They even offer a Yoga & Yogurt package where you receive a 50 minute, instructor-led yoga class followed by sumptuous granola and yogurt after.
Food waste is also a major concern these days and Hilton Hotels help you to plan dining options that minimize waste and encourage healthy choices. This is done with things like portion control planning and water stations with reusable containers through Meet with Purpose.
10. Use Good 360
Hilton partners with Good 360, which encourages planners to donate unused meeting items (like notepads, bags, t-shirts, etc.) to a community organization that can use them. Hilton guests/event planners have donated more than $5.5 million since the program began. Guests at Hilton Brands can also participate in Clean the World, a soap recycling program that allows partially used bars of soap to be repurposed for those in need.
In Conclusion
If you’re considering an event at one of the Hilton properties, it’s important to know all the ins and outs. More tips and updates are shared on the Hilton’s LinkedIn page.
Have you worked with the Hilton? What other top tips would you add?
