FALL 2014

Clay de Souza

Hilton Hotels Corporation

FALL 2014

SALT Scores

1Our property scoareboard at the Hampton Inn & Suites Burlington

1 Hampton Inn & Suites Burlington back of the house

2 Vertical placement shows ordering by Property Loyalty

Hilton Worldwide Internal Employee page

Hilton Worldwide Internal Employee page

3 The table displays Loyalty scores and volume of feedback across the top-level topics and broken down by the sentiment of their comments

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4 Average Loyalty score for entire selected topic. Topics can be expanded to up to three levels.

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5 To support weekend and longer leisure business throughout 2014, the Always on Leisure campaign has been developed to highlight the great rates and packages at hotels within the Hilton Worldwide portfolio.  The Always on Leisure campaign encourages consumers to "Be a Weekender" and is supported by a comprehensive marketing strategy that includes TV, newspaper, magazine, radio, email, digital display, paid search, OTA, GDS, Public Relations and social media. "Hampton.tagworldwide.com."Hampton.tagworldwide.com. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://hampton.tagworldwide.com/index.cfm>. 6 "Hampton.tagworldwide.com."Hampton.tagworldwide.com. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://hampton.tagworldwide.com/index.cfm>.7 "Hampton.tagworldwide.com."Hampton.tagworldwide.com. Web. 10 Dec. 2014. <http://hampton.tagworldwide.com/index.cfm>.

8 Hampton Inn SALT score sample

8 The chart displays the sentiment distribution for the selected topic over a selected period of time. Hover over a column to see sentiment volume percentages. The 100 most recent comments mentioning the topic you have selected, with passages of text highlighted in green (positive sentiment), yellow (neutral sentiment) and red (negative sentiment)

At the Hampton Inn and Suites in Burlington (N.C.), we have 4 divisions/departments:

Front Desk (which I am apart of), Breakfast, Housekeeping, and Maintenance.  Each department

is governed a Supervisor who is governed by Pinki Mitchell, our General Manager or Hotelier

(as what they are called in the Hospitality Industry).

Pinki and we (The Hampton Inn & Suites) are franchised by Parks Hospitality Hotels, a

Cary-based hotel management group who owns and operates numerous hotels throughout North

Carolina including several Hilton hotels.  Ultimately as a franchised hotel, we must adhere to

Hilton’s standards or else our Hilton license is revoked.

To use Hilton’s brand for our property it costs us $40,000 per month within our $200,000

a month budget (as revealed in a team meeting). We are measured from our Management group

by not only revenue but by customer and guest satisfaction.

We are evaluated from a top down perspective on how guests rate us. Above all,

performance is determined by how ‘happy’ guests are during their respective stay with us here.

As a Front Desk Agent the last several months, how I am looked at is based on if I am displaying

“Hamptonality” towards our guests. “Hamptonality” essentially is us, the hotel staff, showing

our absolute sincerity and friendliness towards the guests no matter how happy or friendly they

are themselves. I can theoretically impress 99 guests in one day but if I am not showing 100%

Hamptonality to the 100th guests, there could be repercussions in the form of our “SALT

Scores”.

Service quality is a significant measure for the success of a hotel. The greater the

observation of service quality, the more probable guests will return to the hotel, spread

advantageous good reviews and upturn brand loyalty. Countless hoteliers discover comment

cards to be an imperative feature of evaluating guest satisfaction and use them to compute the

gulf between the service quality they have faith in they that is providing and guest/ customer

perceptions of service quality. 9

Hotels that can charm, uphold, fulfil and keep customers are more in the cards to last.10

According to industry experts, providers best positioned to harness future growth will be the

ones that are able to elevate the guest experience and meet escalating customer service and

quality expectations.11  

Customer/Guest perception of value is persuasive in defining guests’ satisfaction level

and chances of them revisiting the same hotel12 13  For a property to continue to be good and be

moneymaking, it must create robust customer/guest relationships via customer/guest advocacy,

loyalty, and repeat usage.14 15  Customers/Guests who are happy are additionally expected to

9 Keith, Nancy K., and Christina S. Simmers. 2013. "MEASURING HOTEL SERVICE QUALITY PERCEPTIONS: THE DISPARITY BETWEEN COMMENT CARDS AND LODGSERV." Academy Of Marketing Studies Journal 17, no. 2: 119-131. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2014).10 Choi, T.Y. and Chu, R. (2001), Determination of hotel guests’ satisfaction and repeat patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20, 277-29711 Litchford, T. (2007, October 10), Microsoft’s foodservice innovation outlook, retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/oct07/10-10foodservice.mspx.12 Choi, T.Y. and Chu, R. (2001), Determination of hotel guests’ satisfaction and repeat patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20, 277-297

13 . Sim, J., Mak, B. and Jones, D. (2006), A model of customer satisfaction and retention for hotels, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 7(3), 1-23.14 J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (2011, July 20), retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jd-power-and-associates-reports-hotel-guest-satisfaction-withcosts- and-fees-improves-from-2010-despite-a-decline-in-overall-satisfaction-125873078.html

15 J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (2011, July 21),  retrieved December 10, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qln-toS-5E

form loyalty, repeat purchases and favorable word-of mouth.1617  In the hotel industry, service

quality is often calculated to decide customer insights of the guest experience.  Service quality is

an originator of consumer satisfaction that, at the end of the day, impressions purchase

objectives.18  Consumer satisfaction moreover upsurges investor value.19Consequently, the

innkeeper who is capable to deliver healthier service and value has the economical lead.20  

 Satisfactory to provide better service and value, it turns into gradually significant for

hotels to monitor customer perceptions of service quality.  Many hotel managers select comment

cards as a process to figure out guest satisfaction. In the “friendliness” industry, most service

quality measurement centers on the gulf between customer expectation and apparent experience.

We, the Hampton Inn & Suites of Burlington, fall under industry-specific service quality

scales……

Even though hotel proprietors have numerous service quality instruments accessible to

them, LODGSERV, a service industry index measurement model for the hospitality industry can

be alleged as a wide-ranging, ready-to-use analysis.21  Though, many hoteliers use comment

16 Anderson, E.W., Fornell, C. and Mazvancheryl, S.K. (2004), Customer satisfaction and shareholder value, Journal of Marketing, 68(October), 172-185.17 Matzler, K., Renzl, B. and Rothenberger, S. (2006), Measuring the relative importance of service dimensions in

the formation of price satisfaction and service satisfaction: a case study in the hotel industry, Scandinavian Journal

of Hospitality and Tourism, 6(3), 179-196.

18 Cronin, J.J. Jr. and Taylor, S.A. (1992), Measuring service quality: a reexamination and extension, Journal of Marketing, 56(July), 55-67.19 Anderson, E.W., Fornell, C. and Mazvancheryl, S.K. (2004), Customer satisfaction and shareholder value, Journal of Marketing, 68(October), 172-185.20 Stevens, P., Knutson, B. and Patton, M. (1995), DINESERV: a tool for measuring service quality in restaurants, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 36(2), 56-60.

21 Keith, Nancy K., and Christina S. Simmers. 2013. "MEASURING HOTEL SERVICE QUALITY PERCEPTIONS: THE DISPARITY BETWEEN COMMENT CARDS AND LODGSERV." Academy Of Marketing Studies Journal 17, no. 2: 119-131. Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2014).

cards to provoke customer opinion vis-à-vis service quality, the customer comment card is a

basis of client comment at the time of the service experience and, hence, a beneficial instrument

for weighing service excellence(or lack thereof). Info garnered from comment cards can be

taken into account for service recovery and bearing of quality improvement.22  Comparable to

LODGSERV, customer comment cards signify a performance-based measure of the opinion of

service results and consequences. The question is whether the requests asked on hotel comment

cards are in sync with the LODGSERV scale in assessing service quality. Not everyone is

agreement that comment cards are all that.  I believe that comment cards are not used to their full

potential.  I am of the mindset that cards are used to satisfy customers and/ or to punish

employees. Poor card availability and problematic return methods contribute to ineffective

evaluation and that all of these reviews are disproportionately skewed. Hospitality academics

Wisner and Corney (1997) specify that the typical comment cards do not assess all five, service

quality dimensions established in the SERVQUAL (a quality management framework)

instrument.  If comment cards were more consistent with the components taken by LODGSERV,

they would prove to be more “intellectually and managerially valuable.”23

The system we use at the Hampton Inn & Suites as well as all throughout Hilton are

SALT scores which is used to evaluate guests’ hotel stays and their overall experiences with the

staff and amenities. These surveys are used to determine the overall performance health of the

hotel. Guests are given emails to fill out these surveys randomly and that information is housed

in a software cloud system known as Medallia, which is accessible to all hotel staff, management

22 Sampson, S.E. (1996), Ramifications of monitoring service quality through passively solicited customer feedback, Decision Sciences, 27(4), 601-622.23 Wisner, J.D. and Corney, W.J. (1997), An empirical study of customer comment card quality and design characteristics, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 9(3), 110-115.

and ownership. All Hilton hotels properties as well as the Choice Hotel brands use this model to

determine all factors of the guest experience, which is arm-in arm with revenue. The guest

experience has a slightly tad upper hand over revenue making because at the end of the day we

want our clientele to feel the “Hamptonality”.

References

Anderson, E.W., Fornell, C. and Mazvancheryl, S.K. (2004), Customer satisfaction and

shareholder value, Journal of Marketing, 68(October), 172-185.

Choi, T.Y. and Chu, R. (2001), Determination of hotel guests’ satisfaction and repeat

patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20,

277-297.

Cronin, J.J. Jr. and Taylor, S.A. (1992), Measuring service quality: a reexamination and

extension, Journal of Marketing, 56(July), 55-67.

"Hampton.tagworldwide.com."Hampton.tagworldwide.com. Web. 10 Dec. 2014.

<http://hampton.tagworldwide.com/index.cfm>.

J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (2011, July 20), retrieved

December 10, 2014, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jd-power-and-associates-

reports-hotel-guest-satisfaction-withcosts-and-fees-improves-from-2010-despite-a-decline-in-

overall-satisfaction-125873078.html

J.D. Power and Associates, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (2011, July 21),  retrieved

December 10, 2014, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qln-toS-5E

Keith, Nancy K., and Christina S. Simmers. 2013. "MEASURING HOTEL SERVICE

QUALITY PERCEPTIONS: THE DISPARITY BETWEEN COMMENT CARDS AND

LODGSERV." Academy Of Marketing Studies Journal 17, no. 2: 119-131. Business Source

Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed December 10, 2014).

Litchford, T. (2007, October 10), Microsoft’s foodservice innovation outlook, retrieved

December 10, 2014, from http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2007/oct07/10-

10foodservice.mspx.

Matzler, K., Renzl, B. and Rothenberger, S. (2006), Measuring the relative importance of

service dimensions in the formation of price satisfaction and service satisfaction: a case study in

the hotel industry, Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 6(3), 179-196.

Sampson, S.E. (1996), Ramifications of monitoring service quality through passively

solicited customer feedback, Decision Sciences, 27(4), 601-622.

Sim, J., Mak, B. and Jones, D. (2006), A model of customer satisfaction and retention for

hotels, Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality and Tourism, 7(3), 1-23.

Stevens, P., Knutson, B. and Patton, M. (1995), DINESERV: a tool for measuring service

quality in restaurants, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 36(2), 56-60.

Wisner, J.D. and Corney, W.J. (1997), an empirical study of customer comment card

quality and design characteristics, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality

Management, 9(3), 110-115.