Hilton Worldwide Resorts in Fujairah and Hurghada Lead Deployment of Groundbreaking Platform to Provide Best-in-class Guest Service

Dubai, July 21, 2008 - Hilton Hotels Corporation has now gone live with its proprietary groundbreaking technology platform, OnQ™ in the Middle East & Africa, designed to take customer loyalty within the hospitality industry to new heights.

Launched for the first time in the region at Hilton Fujairah Resort in the U.A.E and Hilton Hurghada Resort in Egypt, OnQ (pronounced 'On Cue') represents an integrated suite of tools that will facilitate hotel operators to improve guest recognition at check-in points, provide enhanced levels of service based on real-time access to guest preferences, information about Hilton HHonors guest reward programme membership status, and past guest stays across all Hilton Family brands.

All 44 Hilton Family of Hotels in MEA and any new openings will migrate to this technology by end 2009.

Waseem Farouk, Senior Director of Information Technology for Hilton Hotels, Middle East & Africa, said: "The multi-purpose platform will help us respond decisively to current market conditions and make informed business decisions based on the revenue maximisation tools built into the system. It will significantly facilitate better guest relations and powerful business intelligence through seamless information sharing across every guest touch point - the hotel front desk, reservations, the HHonors Service Centre and the brand websites.

"OnQ technology provides information to team members on demand - prompting them to act "on cue" to guest preferences and service recovery alerts - delighting customers and helping establish a bond of loyalty to our brands."

Hilton is the only major hospitality brand that has successfully launched such an advanced proprietary system utilising a single, common technology platform across all brands. The intuitive user-friendly design integrates all primary functions of a hotel, including front office, housekeeping, accounting, finance, human resources, night audit, groups and packages, revenue management, as well as forecast management.

Farouk added: "We anticipate greater return intent on the part of our loyal guests, increased market share, and higher profitability year-on-year for our hotels following the implementation of the OnQ system."

Based on the personal profile a guest provides through hotel or central reservations, the Hilton Family of Hotels websites, or through Hilton HHonors membership, a 'Guest Profile Manager' will be created for frequent guests. The 'frequent guest base' comprises HHonors members and guests who have stayed with the Hilton Family of Hotels approximately four times in the past year. The data, combined with guest stay history, will enable front desk team members to recognise guests at check-in and provide personalised services including:

  • Welcoming a guest back if he or she has stayed at one of the hotels in the Hilton Family and is staying for the first-time at one of the sister brands

  • Delivering top four guest preferences

  • Accessing real-time information about an HHonors member's reward status

  • Making requested adjustments to a guest's personal profile

  • Changing a future reservation from the hotel in which a guest is currently staying

The OnQ technology can also address service issues that may have arisen during a past guest stay, resulting in increased service recovery and follow-through dedication to guest satisfaction.

-Ends- 

Note to Editors:
Hilton Hotels Corporation is the leading global hospitality company, with more than 3,000 hotels and 500,000 rooms in more than 74 countries and territories, including 135,000 team members worldwide. 

The company owns, manages or franchises a hotel portfolio of some of the best known and highly regarded brands, including Hilton®, Conrad Hotels & Resorts®, Doubletree®, Embassy Suites Hotels®, Hampton Inn®, Hampton Inn & Suites®, Hilton Garden Inn®, Hilton Grand Vacations(R), Homewood Suites by Hilton®, and The Waldorf=Astoria Collection®.

The company currently operates 44 hotels in the Middle East & Africa - 18 hotels in Egypt, nine hotels in the UAE, five in Saudi Arabia and one each in Oman and Kuwait, plus another ten hotels in Africa and the Indian Ocean.

Hilton Hotels has a signed development pipeline of an additional 16 properties across Middle East & Africa in the U.A.E, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Ghana and Cape Verde.

The Hilton Family of Hotels adheres to founder Conrad Hilton's philosophy that, "It has been, and continues to be, our responsibility to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality."  The company put a name to its unique brand of service that has made it the best known and most highly regarded hotel company:  be hospitable®. The philosophy is shared by all brands in the Hilton Family of Hotels, and is the inspiration for its overarching message of kindness and generosity.

For more information about our company, please visit www.hiltonworldwide.com, and to learn more about our be hospitable philosophy, please visit www.behospitable.com

The Hilton Reservations and Customer Care telephone numbers in the Middle East are as follows:

UAE                  - 8000 20000 11             Qatar                - 800 97103
KSA                  - 800 82000 10               Egypt                - 19009
Bahrain             - 8000 4058                   Jordan               - 00 202 5805927
Kuwait              - 00965 225 6200           Lebanon             - 00 202 5805928
Oman               - 800 788788                 Syria                 - 00 202 5805926 

For further information please contact:
Samantha Wood
Area Director of PR & Communications
Hilton Hotels, Middle East & Africa
Tel: +971 4 365 4886
Fax: +971 4 391 6792
Email: Samantha.Wood@hilton.com

Sana Khan
Senior Account Executive
Tel: +971 4 3613333
Fax: +971 4 3688001
Email: sana.khan@jiwin.ae

© Press Release 2008