How it started

Hilton is a world leader in the hospitality industry and despite the industry being rocked by the pandemic, the company is bouncing back by investing and growing properties across the world.

More specifically, based on current and future growth projections, Hilton has prioritized the CALA (Caribbean and Latin Americas) region as a growth market. To drive market growth in this area, Hilton aims to leverage its Hilton Honors loyalty program. However, Hilton had limited insights into the specific motivators and behaviours of CALA consumers. This made it challenging to determine whether its U.S.-focused offering would resonate with this audience at all, and to what extent a tailored approach to the Honors program was necessary to optimize engagement in this region.

How we inspired change

To help Hilton tailor its loyalty program to CALA consumers, we conducted a multi-country research study, engaging over 3,000 travellers across the region.

The study involved several key components:

• Online survey: using a MaxDiff approach, respondents were asked to repeatedly select the most and least important items from groups of five. This allowed us to rank the items from most to least important and determine an “anchor” threshold.
• Segmentation: we further broke down respondents based on factors like hotel preferences, reasons for enrolling in the loyalty program, booking habits, etc. This segmentation created distinct behavioural clusters, offering more actionable insights for Hilton’s strategy.
• Analysis and communication: to ensure quick implementation, we worked as a team to deliver a concise, shareable report. This report highlighted the most critical insights, ensuring Hilton stakeholders could effectively translate findings into actionable steps for program optimization.

How it lives on

Through this study, we uncovered critical insights about the CALA region, providing Hilton with a roadmap for future research topics such as: how to keep Hilton Honors members engaged once enrolled, how to best tie in local areas and cultures into their offerings and more.

The insights not only support human-centred initiatives but also made Hilton consumers feel heard and understood. All of which will lead to increased loyalty and growth for the brand.

Curious for more on Hilton? Watch this interview with Talene Taab, Vice President and Brand Leader – Home2 Suites.