orr333

Before I get into this, in the chance that our HHonors Rep reads this, I think that opting out should not even be a choice for properties. You either ARE or ARE NOT a Hilton property.
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I was in Madison, WI this weekend and needed to stay one night. Unfortunately, the 2 properties that opted into the current promotion were booked up. All of the remaining properties opted out. We ended up staying at the Homewood Suites Madison West.

In the room was a card for feedback and it had the CEO's email address for that hotel group (NCG Hotel Group). I went to their corporate site and looked at all of their properties. All but 2 in the nation opted out of this promo.

I sent him an email explaining that I know I am not alone when I say I would only stay at an opt-out property if I had no other choice as was the case this weekend and some other info from my perspective.

He responded kindly and said he would look into this with his marketing team - as if to suggest he had no idea this was their tactic.

I also learned recently from a manager that they actually receive an email for every promotion at the property and have to consciously OPT IN. That means a missed email and a property is opted out automatically. It should minimally be the other way around.

My question to the group: Does anyone have any idea of the actual cost to properties for the points? Do they have to pay for ALL points or just promo points?

3Cforme

Franchise laws vary by state and by industry. There are likely owners of hundreds of thousands of businesses nationwide who would disagree with your corporate dictate demand.

jerry a. laska

There was some discussion in this older thread about costs to hotels for participating in promotions:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hilto...romotions.html

Sisosig

A couple of years ago for a certain promotion the hotel would pay 1.5% of the total room bill including incidentals, restaurant etc.

For example, if your bill would run $1000, and the promo was like "double points" your basic points would be 10000. The hotel would be charged $15 for the additional 10000 bonus points. In other words the costs were shared between the hotel and HHonors, because 10000 points normally are worth at least $30. (Example is from before the big devaluation, so probably they were worth much more.)

The 1.5% was typical, it could be some %points more or less. Don't know if this system is still being used.

oranjemakker

Sorry, but that makes no sense. in any franchise marketing is a key role of the franchise brand and there are obligations all the time for franchisees to participate in marketing promotions as dictated by group.

Dont see too many McDonalds not participating in say a studio movie promo around happy meals.

If a promotion is marketed officially by the group, surely all Hilton properties should participate, unless there was some legal reason not.

In fact, taking your logic to it conclusion, your implication is that a Hilton franchisee can pick and choose which parts of the Hilton brand it wishes to use, so they might as well ignore brand standards if that doesn't suit them either!

JohnnyColombia

I completely agree with the OP and have questioned this myself a few times on FT.

Say you are a provider of cheese doodles to a supermarket, even then you have to sign to agree to participate in promos. If you do not then you are invited to come and pick up your doodles and get lost.

Hilton is big enough and ugly enough to write promo participation into the franchise agreement, and if franchisees don't like it then don't sign the agreement. Simples.

Sadly the ship has kinda sailed already. Hilton has about 4000 properties that presumably do not have this enforcement written into their franchise agreements.

ttw

This seems pretty accurate from my experience both in professional and guest capacity. There are many properties which do not comply with the Brand Standards from construction methods and minimum facilities (mandatory AC / Wifi for example in EMEA) to F&B offering. Properties pick and choose what they want to adopt based on profit margins and investment required to bring up to standard which updates annually. Many obtain acceptance from corporate for deviations from the Brand Standard which often come with a time limit which just gets extended and extended. In the UK the quality and compliance between the new and older Hiltons (ex Stakis) vary wildly.

writerguyfl

Although they aren't about promotions, I have seen a flurry of articles about how McDonalds franchisees are unhappy about the mandatory changes the Corporate Office made to the menu. I see that as an example of leaders who make changes without really understanding how their franchisees operate.

Nope. Brand standards are part of the franchise agreement. As JohnnyColombia notes, mandatory participation in corporate-created promos is not. That's your "legal reason".

Try looking at it from a different perspective: Chain-wide promos are designed to increase revenue. Assuming they are acting rationally, the only time a franchise hotel will opt out of a promotions is if they reasonably believe that they will make more money without it. Since Hilton Corporate gets a percentage of the profits of each franchise, they will encourage the hotel to choose the option that results in more profit.

So, it comes down to the question of whether non-participating hotels cause guests to book away from the entire chain. I don't think any of us know the real answer to that question.

treppenlaeufer

Speaking from Germany, I can assure you some McDonald's restaurants do indeed not participate in all chain wide promotions. Hence always the addition to any McDonald's advert here: "In all participating restaurants".

I do agree that this is not a customer friendly practice, of course.

Points Scrounger

Hilton had a promo not that long ago where there was no opt-out list. Amazingly, all were required to participate.

AnthonyF1227

If it's true that a hotels opt-out by default, that's pretty silly. They should all opt-in by default and then have to go out of their way to opt-out.

orr333

As with anything like this, take it with a grain of salt. The MGR that told me is a pretty seasoned MGR so I guess I believed it.

SimpleManToo

I used to stay at Hilton's until the big devaluation a few years ago. I only stay there occasionally now but if everyone else keeps devaluating, I may find myself back at Hilton. The problem I had was that in some cities (say Dothan Alabama as a random example), ALL the Hilton hotels Opt'ed Out. Not one of their properties participated.

This was true in many places. I for one really disliked when this happened and some Hilton hotels Never Ever participated in a single promotion.

Promotion's are useless if you are going to have so many Hotels Opt Out and the area you travel in has Hilton properties who refuse to participate every time or just opt out every time.

Baze

If they are all in one city then they are likely all owned by the same person or group.

writerguyfl

Or, that city has very high demand, either in general or within a specific hotel group.