WASHINGTON -- Hilton Hotels enhanced its "Our Best Rates.
Guaranteed" program to include travel agents.
Previously, Hilton guaranteed consumers the lowest room rates
when booked directly with any of the Hilton Family of Hotels, which
includes Hilton, Conrad, Doubletree, Embassy Suites Hotel, Hampton
Inn, Hampton Inn & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Hilton Grand
Vacations Club and Homewood Suites by Hilton.
Now Hilton guarantees that starting Feb. 17 a customer with a
confirmed reservation made by a travel agent for any Hilton hotel
will not find a lower, unrestricted rate for the room through any
other third party source.
If they do, the chain will match the lower rate and the consumer
will be eligible to receive a $50 American Express gift
certificate.
Hilton's initiative follows a similar one by Marriott that took
effect January.
"This was a multi-step process," G.T. Dhillon, managing
director, travel partner relations for Hilton Hotels Corporation,
told TravelWeekly.com during a telephone interview. "We launched
our pricing and integrity consistency standards back on July 1,
2003. We launched the standard within our company. It basically
says you can't offer lower rates through third party channels. That
was the first step in our process to get hotels on board.
"In the franchising world, where we and some of our competitors
live, it is very difficult to dictate pricing," Dhillon continued.
"Actually, it is illegal to dictate pricing. So we went about it
from the way of a pricing standard and brand value."
On Dec. 3, Hilton promoted the guarantee to consumers after all
of its hotels adopted the program.
Hilton, like several other competing chains, are presenting
consumers rate guarantees in an attempt to reestablish rate
integrity in the marketplace and to diminish situations in which
Internet-based, third party travel companies advertise room rates
lower than those offered by the chain itself.
"There is the retail model where they sell our retail rates just
like a travel agent would out of the GDS systems," Dhillon said.
"And there is the merchant model rate, which has kind of become the
four-lettered word in the industry over the last couple of
years.
"The retail model we support wholeheartedly. If Expedia or
Travelocity wants to sell our retail rates, we are very happy and
pleased to have them sell our retail rates. It maintains price
consistency and it gives them fair compensation for making that
booking. The merchant model, on the other hand, is really a
distress tool. It is a deeper discounted, low yield rate for
us."
Nevertheless, Dhillon said, the merchant model has its place in
"certain markets and we will continue to look at it from a
market-by-market basis and participate where it makes sense."
Meanwhile, Dhillon said he wants to assure travel agents and
their clients that when they book a room with Hilton, the rate is
guaranteed.
"Ultimately, what you want is consumer confidence in your
pricing," Dhillon said. "You want a travel agent confident in your
pricing and you want price consistency rationality. The reason we
are doing this is because we value our relationship with travel
agents. [They are] a viable distribution channel for us and we want
make sure that they know that we appreciate them and what they do
for us."