8.0 Implementation

During the investigation of the Hilton Brisbane, three main issues were identified – a too narrowly focused target market, human resources and marketing. In order to improve these areas and provide greater value to the customer, it is recommended the following be implemented.

8.1 Narrow focused target market:

As indentified in the analysis of the target market, the Hilton Brisbane’s focus has been on corporate customers, while neglecting the more profitable market segment of domestic tourism. As domestic tourism contributes to 65% of total tourism industry in Australia, the Hilton should also target this market segment to strengthen its market position (Datamonitor, 2008 c). It is recommended that the Hilton refurbish their non-executive rooms, general facilities. In addition, certain marketing campaigns should be implemented to address this market, which will be further discussed in marketing recommendations.

Generally the Hilton Brisbane has all the necessary resources to implement these recommendations, namely budget and supplier alliances. The availability of refurbishment funds is evident the previous spending of $16 million on other renovations, therefore the budget has to be merely reallocated (Hilton Hotel Corporations, 2009;ASIATravelTips.com, 2004). Furthermore, being a franchise of the Hilton Hotel Group, the Hilton Brisbane would also have access to many companies, who have contributed to the refurbishment of other Hilton Hotels through provision of amenities and fittings. By addressing this weakness in outdated facilities, the Hilton Brisbane will better uphold an image of quality and excellence to ensure customer satisfaction.

8.2 Human Resource Management:

In addition, the Hilton Brisbane is faced with the problem of high staff turnover and customer complaints regarding the poor quality of service. To once again uphold the Hilton’s reputation for quality and excellence, to attract new customer while retaining the old customer base and ensure high customer value, it is essential for the Hilton Brisbane to address these two issues. These HR problems should be addressed by providing more comprehensive inductions and continual training for employees, specific employee incentives, both monetary and non-monetary, and by following the global trend of outsourcing for services such as cleaning. Furthermore, the use hospitality and tourism student interns during the main season and encouraging their return through incentives such as future job prospects would also aid the retention rate as well as the quality of service, while providing a service to the community.

Once again the resources required for these recommendations are available to the Hilton Brisbane through the Hilton Hotel Group. Internationally the Hilton Group has implemented a variety of courses for employee training from SkillSoft as well as software such as Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management Suite to streamline hiring processes (CBS Interactive, 2009). If the Hilton Brisbane were to implement such programs available through the Hilton Group and also take on certain incentives used by the Hilton internationally, it will be able to successfully address their weakness of human resource management, while making the Hilton experience more enjoyable & worry-free for customers.