When Hilton went to the OnQ system in 2000 it was all over the computer and data trade magazines what a huge step it was. Their goal was pretty simple, collect data on 15 million customers (hhonors members or not) and translate that into prompts and scores that the front desk could use when you show up. How they greet you (Welcome back to our Hampton Mr Smith or Welcome to Hilton Hotels Mr Smith) to how much they should go out of their way for you based on your past history with them.
as one story said a few years ago:
The system sifts and sorts customers, spitting out lists ranking new arrivals in order of their value to Hilton -- how often they stay with the company and how much they spend. Once a guest is identified at the front desk, the clerk will be prompted with the correct perky way to greet them -- "I see this is your first time at an Embassy Suites. Let me tell you about our made-to-order breakfast," for instance. They may be prompted to politely nudge a guest who is close to the threshold of a higher loyalty level.
A clerk at Hilton's Waldorf Astoria in New York might be prompted to apologize that a guest's room wasn't made up on time during a trip to an Orlando, Fla., Hampton Inn last year. They will be only a few mouse clicks away from seeing the guest's bar bill last week at the Hilton Garden Inn in Cleveland and whether he used the high-speed Internet there. In a demonstration of the technology, we pulled up one customer's record and found he had watched porn movies the evening before. While the names of films don't show in the billing system, their prices are a giveaway.
All that information gets collected -- and could be used to tailor marketing offers in the future. "Every night, when someone checks out, all their information gets sent up to this database," says Tim Harvey, Hilton's chief information officer. The company has been studying how Harrah's Entertainment Inc., a Las Vegas casino operator, has used its database on gamblers' behavior to identify lucrative customers and the most efficient ways to approach them. "I admire Harrah's," says Mr. Harvey. "We need to do some of that stuff."