Hilton Worldwide's full-service
Doubletree brand only about five years ago had an exclusively American footprint,
but the brand this year for the first time plans to open more hotels outside
the Americas than within, Doubletree global head John Greenleaf said.
Since its international expansion
began in 2008, Doubletree has broadened its footprint to more than 325 hotels
across 32 countries. Recent openings of note include properties in downtown
Toronto, Cape Town, Lisbon, Dubai, Dublin and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Greenleaf
said.
In all, Doubletree opened 50 hotels
last year and has emerged as Hilton's fastest growing full-service brand.
"What's a little different about
Doubletree is, because of the number of conversions we do, some of the
development we do is in the year, for the year," Greenleaf said. "If
we turn up assets that are in good enough condition or the renovations are not
significant enough, we can actually do some conversions fairly quickly."
Unlike some brands, Doubletree
renovations do not require uniform furnishings and fixtures. To spur
development further, Doubletree recently launched a website showcasing
renovations across the brand, showing examples of color palettes, materials and
artwork, Greenleaf said.
"We take them through the
different elements of design to give them some idea about what's different
about a Doubletree and give them a great deal of flexibility as to how they
renovate the hotel," he said. "We have no two hotels that are alike,
so trying to force-feed a design/style into every one of them doesn't really
make for a good fit."
Doubletree's two new properties in
Dublin, for example, both went through full renovations but remain very
different properties. The Morrison is a smaller hotel with about 140 rooms,
while the Doubletree Burlington Road is a much larger conference center hotel.
One common feature Doubletree is
pushing across its properties is its grab-and-go Made Market dining lounge.
With three in place and four in development across its portfolio, Doubletree is
insisting that owners look at it as a food and beverage option when building or
renovating hotels, whether it replaces or works in conjunction with traditional
three-meal restaurants at the hotel, according to Greenleaf.
"It's the option that guests
prefer, and it drives more revenue than a three-meal restaurant," he said.
"We're continuing to refine it and make it as modular as we can so we can
put it in hotels regardless of the size of the market."
On the corporate business side,
Greenleaf said that "business was strong last year, and there's nothing to
indicate that it won't be this year." He added that the brand is beginning
to attract more of an international clientele, given its global growth, and the
brand also is focusing more this year on small meetings and locally generated
business.
Senior sales staff is conducting
training of on-property sales teams to better work with small events, he said.
"With the small meetings packages and pricing that Hilton Worldwide has
rolled out, we can focus on the hotels' ability to customize those to their
local demand generators," Greenleaf said. "We're looking to offer
that up as a way for the hotels to generate more meetings business."