“So we’re selling a brand yet the product that each guest experiences can be uniquely different from one to the next. So the question is what’s important to our guest given that all their needs and their expectations are different. How can you tell a story such that everyone can be satisfied with the result of their stay at one of our hotels when their expectations are different in all 380 hotels, that are different from one to the next?
“I view that as the significant difference between those kinds of products and this is why I love doing what I do, because there’s never a dull moment. Every day is different, every guest is different, every hotel is different, and yet the goal is to try to develop some semblance of consistency so I can talk to you about what DoubleTree is, how is it different and why should you stay here instead of across the street at the Novotel.”
So what is DoubleTree and why is it different? Greenleaf explains the company follows a set of core standards for DoubleTree, rather than rigid brand standards covering elements such as room size and décor. There are some facilities common to every hotel, including a business centre and fitness centre, and trademarked elements apparent in every hotel; the Wake up DoubleTree breakfast, Sweet Dreams bed; and famous chocolate chip welcome cookie given to every guest upon check-in
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More than 300 million cookies have been given out to date, with a select group of bakeries around the world currently holding the brand’s secret recipe. The cookie has also inspired Cookie Cares, a consumer-focused brand initiative, which Greenleaf reveals is set to be launched in Dubai next month.
The programme varies according to location but most recently, in London, thousands of pairs of chocolate chip cookies were given away across the country to unsuspecting passers-by — intended to be one to share and one to keep.
The initiative was driven by the DoubleTree by Hilton Little Things Index, which found that treating others to a random act of kindness was sixth in a list of little things that made people happy — all part of the DoubleTree philosophy that “the little things mean everything”.
As Greenleaf points out, the DoubleTree portfolio comprises everything from a 40-room resort in the Seychelles to a 1600-room casino resort in Las Vegas, so most important is the service provided — ‘CARE’.
He explains: “The one thread that knits together all these hotels is less about the actual physical product and more about the hospitality or the culture of the DoubleTree brand, which is something we work on very, very hard. The experience that you have with the staff and the teams in the hotels needs to be exceptional, and it needs to be different, and it needs to be ours.
“And we can’t have you finding yourself in a position where you don’t know you’re in a DoubleTree because the service feels like you are in another hotel. We call it ‘CARE’, which is an acronym for ‘creating a rewarding experience’ and the philosophy behind that is not just providing good service — because everyone who is in the hotel business is in the service business, that’s what we all strive to do.
“What we do is we clearly focus on the guest by listening carefully to what the guest is telling us, and adapting to system-wide needs or changes of what DoubleTree is, if we can do that system-wide.
“But more importantly, listening to the guest and what their unique needs are, so that we can serve them when they are here in this hotel. And that goes back to my example earlier — that we are selling 600 different products every night.”
Each hotel is expected to achieve this by building a “community” of staff and focusing highly on both guest needs and employee recognition. The third element of CARE is for the hotels to be involved in the community; either through bespoke projects suited to their neighbourhood’s needs or by implementing Teaching Kids to Care — an initiative “where we offer up to the hotels a handful of examples of how they can become involved in programmes that benefit children in the community”, says Greenleaf.
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