FEATURE: HILTON WORLDWIDE
Management team. Our philosophy is to
deploy our capital in to major masterplan projects where it can have the most impact for the our guests, our owners and the business, rather than a ‘sprinkle the fairy dust’ approach. Design therefore becomes a much more intrinsic part of these masterplans. From a Global Design Perspective, these capex projects run the same way as the development projects but the key difference is that we are our own client so to speak.” The Global Design Services team
works on full service and luxury projects, comprising the Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton brands. Hampton by Hilton and Hilton Garden Inn projects are looked after by a Focused-Service team headed in Europe by Senior Director Dan Reed, who also sits with Gordon Coles’ team. Similarly in the US, Focused-Service projects are run from an office in Memphis, with the rest looked after by a Global Design Services team for North America based in the McLean headquarters. “Hampton by Hilton and Hilton Garden
Inn are volume vehicles so you’ve got to make it as easy as possible for franchisees and owners to be able to deliver them,” says Coles. “We’ve standardised as much as possible, so across all the areas of the Hampton by Hilton and the Hilton Garden Inn we have prototypical schemes that we recommend the owner takes on board. More often than not, they do.” Larry Traxler adds: “Focused-Service is a
much smaller animal to get our arms around. We handle that within the regional offices so that there is local context and regional understanding of what it takes to ensure those prototypes that were built here in the US actually work in the UK, Turkey or India. We work closely with each of those regional offices on what that regional adaptation is, so that it doesn’t become something that’s inconsistent with the brand vision.” Upon his appointment, Chris Nassetta
set out a five year plan to revamp the core Hilton brand. At the heart of this was a global review, dubbed H360, which looked at guest perception of the brand. This formed the basis of a ‘design narrative’ for the Hilton
Hotels & Resorts brand. Similar narratives have since been drawn up for the other brands in the Hilton Worldwide portfolio. As Larry Traxler explains, these narratives
provide the global context for the company’s design projects worldwide. Each individual project then has a specific design brief which puts that context into regional focus. “We provide the consultants with a design narrative that describes what the baseline understanding is for each of the brands and what the differences are between the brands during kick-off meetings. Then we establish a design brief which provides an understanding of where this hotel sits within that global context, but in regional focus. That has completely changed the product that we’ve been able to achieve around the world, by approaching each and every project in that same manner. We have a global context of what a design narrative is for each of the brands, and then we have a regional brief that narrows down and drills down into the locality of that hotel. That’s really what’s helped us change the face of design at Hilton.” Chris Webb says these design narratives
allow the designers to give the projects regional flavour, whilst ensuring brand consistency: “The narratives are a fantastic, useful tool to brief designers in the brand’s vision and design direction, especially in the non-English speaking countries because designers communicate visually. There has been a lot of effort put into those documents in describing how we would like to see our lobby and public areas, for instance, work in a Hilton. Although not ideal, sometimes we inherit designers who have never designed a hotel before or who have little hotel design experience and the principles in these documents avoid basic errors being made. They give the designers freedom, under our guidance, to make sure we’ve got some stunning properties. If the fundamentals are right, the rest follows.” “We can really guide the designers through
the process without interfering in the process,” says Celia Geyer. “The narrative lays out the basics and key principles that they can then build on with their creativity. That’s proving invaluable.” Distilling the essence of the brands
032 NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2012
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DOUBLETREE BY HILTON ISTANBUL MODA
DoubleTree by Hilton has enjoyed huge growth in recent years, offering an attractive proposition to developers in the current economic climate, partly due to its flexibility and suitability for conversion projects. In Europe it has been particularly successful in Eastern Europe and the UK, the latter now having 20 hotels open and four under development, nine of which are in London. In Turkey, the Doubletree by Hilton, Istanbul – Moda, is the second DoubleTree by Hilton in Istanbul. Located in the Moda district on the Asian side of Istanbul, the newbuild hotel has spectacular views of Istanbul Old Town, the Marmara Sea and the Prince Islands. The hotel is operated by Tasyapi Insaat Taahut Sanayi ve Ticaret A.S., under a franchise licence agreement with a subsidiary of Hilton Worldwide. In February 2012 Hilton Worldwide announced the signing of development agreements to open four new hotels in locations across Turkey, including DoubleTree by Hilton Kusadasi and DoubleTree by Hilton Malatya. Its latest Turkish development pipeline now stands at 19. It now has 41 hotels either operating or under development in the country.
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