A Report on Hilton Hotel: Covid-19 Impact, Strategies, and Theories

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Hilton Hotel and the broader hospitality industry. It examines the financial and operational challenges faced by the hotel chain, including revenue losses, staff reductions, and the need for new safety protocols. ...Read More

Assessment brief 1

Executive summary
In this report stated about a luxury hotel called Hilton hotel and resort. This was being
chosen because it operates around the glob. In this particular report impact of Covid on Hilton
hotel had been discussed besides this how the hotel overcome the loss caused by the pandemic
had mentioned in this report. Advertisement, notes to stockholder, social media of the hotel had
collected as the evidence that how much effect of Covid has implemented on the profit and
revenue of the hotel in the particular year. This report described the various organizational
theories such as classic theory and decision making theory along with this, report showed that
how this theory helps the hotel to manage its staff, employees and helped Hilton to overcome the
loss suffered from Covid and by other situations. Except this, report has elaborated various
implications of culture from the organisation and communication perspective as well.
Table of Contents
Executive summary......................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Impact of Covid-19 on hospitality industry.................................................................................4
Monitoring the external communication of the company............................................................6
Organisational theory ................................................................................................................10
Implications of culture from both an organisational and communication perspectives............12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Business environment is one of the major element consisting of several internal and
external factors which is very necessary for the companies to be study or analysed while
operating their business operations. Covid-19 is also an important element of the external
business environment which affect the business of almost all the companies and the world at a
broader level. With the outburst of Covid pandemic the working culture and the mode of
operation of the all the companies related to every sector has almost changed completely. The
mode of communication of the companies with the world and its customers has also evolved in
the form of changing the trend of advertisement or social media along with releasing the notes
referring to stakeholders. The classical organization theory along with its outcomes and
implication has also changed due to Covid pandemic. This report will discuss, one of the
significant and recent event which includes Covid along with its impacts over the industry and
company's internal and external working or performance. This report will also highlight about
the impact of Covid on external communication modes along with the impact of culture from
both the company's and country's perspective.
MAIN BODY
Impact of Covid-19 on hospitality industry
Covid-19 is one of the biggest pandemic of the world affect the hospitality industry and
its related companies at a very wider scale. It would be not wrong to said that the whole industry
has ruined and affected severely in terms of heavy losses and high percentage of sales loss.
Covid and its post impacts in the form of lock-down has lead to the shutting down of the
companies. The jobs of the employees had lapsed which also created the situation of
unemployment in every industry specially the hospitality industry where the business of almost
all the companies reached to end or in the shutting down stage.
Since, the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic the whole company Hilton has shaken up at a
greater extent. The companies faced various difficulty while operating its business in the form of
incurring losses or retaining the trained and efficient employees in it (Huang, 2020). Because, of
Covid company faces severe financial difficulty in maintaining its business and retaining its
staffs. Thus, company not only incurs financial loss but also incurs human resource loss which
occurs because employees themselves left the company.

Hilton also incurs high loss during the period of lock-down where everything was
stopped in order to protect the world form Covid. Hilton being a hospitality sector would also
restrict to operate its services due to the various precautionary guidelines of the government
which has put a major impact over the company.
The impact of Covid was usually the same in every country with a slight variation in
intensity. Since the Hilton operates its business in different countries including the India, China
or USA and due to this it was affected in different form or with different intensity as per the
situation of different countries (Baum and Hai, 2020). However, it would be right to said that the
ultimate impact of Covid over the Hilton and hospitality sector was very high in comparison of
the various other sectors.
Also, this sector was majorly dependent on tourist and tourism. And due to the imposition
of restriction by the government of different countries regarding the tourism and transportation
facility, restricted the movement of tourist in every country which has put a double impact over
the hospitality industry in terms of decreasing the sales and profits because of loosing of high
percentage of customers.
Due to declining trend of tourism and hospitality sector, Hilton faces many difficulties
because the mode of operating the business was very different in comparison to during and post
Covid situation (Jones and Comfort, 2020). Hilton when it was operating its business before the
Covid pandemic was very different in comparison of the post Covid situation like now the Hilton
have to make and allot a separate investment regarding the health and safety of its employees as
well as for its customers which not only raises its financial investment but also increases the
precautionary concentration towards the situation.
Apart from that the trend of operation was also changed in the form of adoption of
digitalization which has changed the entire working of Hilton and various other companies of
hospitality industry. Right from the trend of booking the rooms in hotel till the mode of payment
was fully changed due to Covid and with the changing trend of digitalization which means that
now the Hilton and hospitality sector providing the facility to their customers by which they can
book their rooms and avail the services of hotel just from the single click over the websites or
through various online modes. Not only the way of booking but the way of making the payment
is also changed which includes the increasing trend of digital money or the payment through
digital mode instead of cash which was not only adopted due to the trend of digitalization but it

also comes in force as a precative mode against Covid situation (Breier, 2021). Through the
adoption of this changes by the Hilton in its working not only saves the customers but the
employees working in company and industry will also be safeguarded against the negative
impact of Covid.
Overall it would be right to said that the Covid-19 has disastrously affected the Hilton
and the whole hospitality sector in every possible terms right from finance till the human
resource.
Monitoring the external communication of the company
Selection of three sources of the external communication:
Advertisement, social media and notes to stakeholders.
External communication:
External communication is the flow of information between the company and the other company
which is present in the external environment. The examples of which can be the customers,
investors, government, suppliers, investors etc.
Comparing and contrasting the information from three sources with regard to event which
affected the company, across three countries:
notes to stakeholders:
Stakeholders are very important for the company. They are the people who can affect the
company or the business operations can affect them. They participate in the decision-making
process of the company.
Hilton continuously have stakeholder engagement to take their feedbacks, expectations, priorities
etc. feedbacks from the stakeholders will help the company to know the issues or problems
which is necessary for the sustainable growth. The company has come up with the strategy in the
name of travel with purpose which shows the good leadership as the leaders are continuously
engaged with the development of this strategy. The corporate responsibility strategy is the goal
of 2030 of the company (Stakeholder engagement, 2019). But after this pandemic company have
to shift or delay their goals because of covid 19 company has faced huge losses as the footfall of
the guests almost stopped because of the lock down which was worldwide. In India the lock
down was almost for 3 months which negatively affect the company as a result company has to
fire their employees from the job because of no income.

In the country like China promoters are advised that the activities are carried by considering all
the covid measures. Company has informed to the stakeholders that all the local or national
government guidelines related to the pandemic has to be followed. Here company is doing its
CSR by donating in the pandemic and company also doing sanitization. Company is also
following all the WHO guidelines. In USA company has even postponed the meetings because
of the social distancing measure. In the three country like China, India and USA company is also
spreading awareness about how to save your family from corona and along with that they have
also distributes masks and sanitizers at free of cost. In these countries company is avoiding
physical meetings and circulating all relevant information to the stakeholders through text
messages or calls.
Company is regularly updating the website and doing all the necessary announcements through
print media or radio (Koyama, 2020). Company is also using social media for circulating all the
information and activities which the company is doing in this pandemic. In India, China and
USA company is giving knowledge to the owners of their new sustainability programs. Through
the newsletter of internal owner company is providing all the necessary news. In China where the
lock down was not for more than two months so their the company has started working and
welcoming their guests. They had done complete sanitization of the hotel and done all things
which are said by the government under their guidelines. They also take feedbacks from the
clients so that the company can know that where is the area for the improvement. The
engagement by the supplier is also their. Their employees are strictly informed that they have to
work according to the guidelines and taking care of this situation because no carelessness will be
tolerated by the company. Employees have to wear masks all the time and the use of sanitizer
after every work done by them.
Advertisement:

Advertisement is the promotional activity which is done by the company in order to increase the
sales of the product or services. Advertisement can be done in many forms. Nowadays digital
marketing is more trending.
Hilton is doing celebrity ad campaign with the aim to increase the sales. They are also
approaching advertisement agents for this. Through this the company is getting content for the
Instagram and snapchat because of the digital marketing campaign which the company has done
in India by which the company has get double digital growth and due to this pandemic company
is using online platform for marketing and promotional activities. Doing promotion online is cost
effective and saves time and corona virus has given the push to the digital marketing as now
every company is doing ad through digital platforms. In USA company found that doing
promotion traditionally via television, radio or newspaper are becoming more expensive and
company also have scarcity of fund as due to covid the sales of the company drastically reaches
downward. Hilton has launched the app through which the guest can now directly book hotel.
Consumers find it very easy and it can be said that by adopting advanced technology company
benefited (Marketing dive., 2021). In China company has converted many manual services into
automatic. Example now if the guest want to order something they need not call on reception
they had provided tab so by using that the guest can directly place order anytime without any
problem.
Nowadays people are tech friendly, so they enjoy using advanced technology and this also
helpful in maintaining social distancing as the staff of Hilton will not directly coordinate with the
Illustration 1: Advertisement by Hilton
Source: Hospitality net., 2020

guest, but they are using technology for their needs fulfilment. Hilton has started global
marketing campaign it main aim is to reconnect the people with travel because travelling is loved
by people. For this the company had done survey in USA in which they found that people are
missing travelling like anything hence experiencing travel deficit. In the new campaign company
has come up with attractive offers and promotions. Firstly this campaign is launched in China
and because of its success in China, it has launched in USA. In their survey the company also
found that people are eagerly waiting to travel, they are only waiting this covid to get over.
Company is using digital marketing in all these three countries and creating creative
advertisement so that people again started visiting their hotels. The company has come up with
new protocols for their consumers under which they get safety and hygiene without
compromising on their comfort level. Company is providing rewards and bonus points on their
cards to the customers so that this can help the company to get the future bookings. The company
is also giving the option of early check in and late check out in this pandemic so that their guests
do not hurry. It can be said as the good strategy adopted by the company in order to increase the
profits.
Social media:
Illustration 2: Facebook page of Hilton
Source: Kaitlin murphy, 2020

Social media is the platforms which let the people to share their views or opinions. Social media
is based on internet and help in the communication through electronic media. Examples of social
media platforms are Facebook, whatsapp, twitter etc.
Hilton is using social media platforms for their promotional activities as the company found that
social media is used by many people so promotion done through social media is best if the
company want to target the audience and because of this pandemic the trend of using social
media has grown. Many people made their account on social media whose account where not
there before pandemic which can become the potential customer for the company. In the
countries like China, USA, India company is improving guest experience by listening to them via
feedbacks. Through Social media giving feedbacks to the company has become easy and it also
helps the company in solving the query of their guests in less time. This is the pandemic time so
everyone is advised to maintain social distancing via social media no protocol for social
distancing is broken as it is the virtual thing (Chang, Ku and Chen, 2019). Company is doing live
on social media platforms and addressing their viewers by showing that how much hygiene they
are maintaining and guidelines of WHO is properly following by the company. This is improving
the brand image of the company.
Company should post regularly on social media platforms. Posting regularly will help the
company in many ways like customer will not forget about the company because he or she is
regularly seeing the feed by the company. Social media also have comment section on which the
customer can write their views and experience they get from the services provided by Hilton.
Positive reviews will help the company in getting new customers and building promising brand
while negative reviews will also help the company as company will know their area of
improvement which earlier was not known. Through social media platforms company found an
opportunity in the country like India. They found that if they lower the prices then they can beat
the competition and because of this pandemic the spending power of the consumers also
decreased and lowering the prices will surely attract more customers.
Company found that after the pandemic majority of the customers are reviewing the website of
the company before visiting. This will get the rough idea to the customer that what type of
services they are providing. Effective website will help the company in creating brand loyalty.
By using social media company can give ad and target customers in the developing countries like
India and in the developed countries like USA and China.

Organisational theory
Organisation refers dimensions of relationship, organisational structure designs,
formalisation, specialisation, complexity, size and goals of the company. Hilton is a luxurious
hotel and resort which is operating in many counterspies including, India, China and US as well.
But there are some organisational theories which can be implemented to increase the
profitability.
The classic theory
This theory believes that organisation is a machine and employees are the components
of that machine (Baum, 2020). This theory put more focus on the formal structure of Hilton. The
management of this hotel is very much concerned with the division of the work and tasks, and
make group for performing the work in the group and it has been formed as per the similarity in
the skills, eligibility and talent of the employees so the hotel can achieve its target on time. This
theory focuses on the division of responsibility as well. It is known by the traditional theory, with
the help of this theory Hilton can find out its errors and drawbacks, after knowing this they can
try to eliminate them so that it didn't put more impact on the profitability and business. This
theory helps the hotel to put little more focus on the technology they are using so that it will
provide benefit to the employees and will help them to enhance their efficiency.
The decision-making theory:
Decision-making is the very important function in the organization and which is mostly taken by
the managers of the company. Decisions mostly move in hierarchy form. Hilton has taken many
decisions due to covid 19 (Emma Hilton, 2017). They announced that proper sanitization should
be their in hotel and any carelessness regarding this will not be tolerated. As it is said that
effective decisions will help the company in achieving the objectives. In this theory it is said that
the person who is making decisions compromise on many things and compromises are done
because of the objectives or goals of the company.
The decision-making process should be rational. In Hilton the decisions are made by considering
all the aspects and also the policies of the company. The company even involve their employees
in the decision-making process because they think that taking views and opinions of employees
while making decisions will help the company in getting innovative and creative ideas. It is
considered as the most important theory because wrong decision can negatively impact the
company and it is even seen that wrong decisions also become the reason for shutdown of the

company. So this is also the reason that the final decisions are in the hands of superiors only
because they have more knowledge and experience.
Impact of Covid
The proliferation of Covid has impacted Hilton internally as well as externally. First of
all the revenue and the profit of this hotel fall down due to the lock down, social distancing, and
staying at home. As the hospitality industry has fully dependent on tourist, in the absence of
tourist this hotel faced financial issues and downfall in the revenue. Due to the stoppage in
revenue this hotel laid off its employees in most of the countries where it is operating because
the hotel has to remain shut for three to four months in almost all the countries. It has impacted
externally as well now consumers are concerned about the safety and looking for proper
sanitized hotels and they try to visit such hotels where the rush is less. They are doing booking
through online so it becomes necessary for the hotel to update its website and provide all the
necessary information related to check-in, opening hour details and are they following proper
safety measures or not. Due to this pandemic, Hilton has to deliver contactless services to its
customer whether they are staying in the hotel or want to enjoy lunch or dinner at the restaurants.
For the precaution, they have to make section or space for hand sanitizer at the entrance and on
the exit. Apart from this, they have to be careful with the health of the worker specially chief so
that the infection don't get spread (Filimonau, 2020). As this hotel has presence in many
countries it has to follow the new guild-lines and protocols of the government. It is the
responsibility of the hotel that they show the accurate and correct information on their website,
like how many rooms are vacant, it should not convey misinformation in the public.
Implications of culture from both an organisational and communication perspectives
Culture from the organization perspective among three countries:
Every country have different culture and their culture can affect the operations of the business.
Indian culture affected the company as Indian believe in relationship development. If company
want to do good business in the country then they have build relations with the people and try to
solve all conflicts immediately which comes. The people who live in India believe in religion
more than any other country people (Shreve and et.al., 2019). So religious factors can also affect
the company. In India the superior are not criticized and subordinates agree what they said by the
boss. It is not alright all the time because if the subordinate is not agreeing with but in the
meeting they agree but after the meeting they are not implementing what is said to them and

because of this pandemic implementation of lock down has affected the sales of the company. In
India the lock down is for very long time which reduces the revenue of the company. The
working culture of Hilton has changed slightly after pandemic, company is ensuring that their
employees are following proper covid 19 guidelines while working.
The culture of China is very strong and it is business oriented so it is the scope for the company
to get more profits. Chinese government have such policies and international engagement which
attracts global company to enter the country. Chinese market can be said as the emerging
markets and in this country company can get their target audience. It is said that China have
many business opportunities. Chinese are always open to adopt innovative products so the
company is planning to provide innovative services then they can pitch Chinese land.
In USA their citizen are very particular about time and their salary have to paid on hourly based
which is not in India. In India salary is fix and most of the time it happens that company do not
pay for overtime but in USA it is the norm that company have to pay for overtime. It is said to be
the most advanced country so company have the advantage to get the advanced technology faster
while operating in this country. Advanced technology will help the company in gaining the
competitive advantage.
Culture from the communication perspective among three countries:
Effective communication is very important for the successful business. If there is no
communication barrier in the organization then also cultural differences can be the hurdle for the
business success. Americans believe in self-improvement and helping others. The people of USA
volunteer their services for social causes. They give donations and help needy and in USA
English is spoken by majority of people so there will be no communication barrier which are
their in other country because of ullage difference (Villanti and et.al., 2017). They participate
completely while doing communication. They are also called as the good listener. American
always smile even if they are meeting strangers they will smile at that time also. Hilton should
train their employees to better communicate with Americans because this can help the company
in getting more business.
Hilton can face language barrier because English is not spoken by many people in India.
Communication will affect the company externally and internally. Communication will help the
employees in better understanding and also increase the morale of them.

In china and in other countries as well company has started doing communication virtually
through voice calls or video calls because of maintaining the guideline of social distancing.
Company is avoiding physical meeting.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that, the business environment and its element in the form
of Covid has affected the company or industry at a drastic level. The whole business of the
companies has moved in the direction of closing. It has also leads the whole economy in the
situation of unemployment where on the one hand companies looses their efficient employees
due to the stoppage of the business while on the other hand some employees themselves left the
job as per the situation and risk element. The mode of communication of the companies have
also changed in the form of advertisement, social media connection or press releases by which
companies communicate with their stakeholders. Organizational theory is applied which are the
classical theory and decision-making theory. In classical theory employees are considered as a
machine and their feelings are mostly ignored by the organization and in decision-making theory
it is saw that mainly managers are involved in the decision-making process but Hilton also
involve their employees in the decision-making to get creative ideas. Implications of culture
from both an organizational and communication perspectives. It is discussed that in all the three
countries the culture of there is affected company. Sometimes it helps in increasing the profits
and sometimes profits reduces because of that.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baum and et.al, 2020. Organisational Emergence–Interdisciplinary Perspectives against the
Backdrop of the Digital Transformation. mrev management revue.31(1). pp.31-54.
Baum, T. and Hai, N.T.T., 2020. Hospitality, tourism, human rights and the impact of COVID-
19. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Breier, and et.al., 2021. The role of business model innovation in the hospitality industry during
the COVID-19 crisis. International Journal of Hospitality Management.92. p.102723.
Chang, Y.C., Ku, C.H. and Chen, C.H., 2019. Social media analytics: Extracting and visualizing
Hilton hotel ratings and reviews from TripAdvisor. International Journal of
Information Management. 48. pp.263-279.
Emma Hilton, C., 2017. Unveiling self‐harm behaviour: what can social media site Twitter tell
us about self‐harm? A qualitative exploration. Journal of clinical nursing. 26(11-12).
pp.1690-1704.
Filimonau and et.al, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and organisational commitment of senior
hotel managers. International Journal of Hospitality Management.91. p.102659.
Huang, and et.al., 2020. Understanding the impact of COVID-19 intervention policies on the
hospitality labor market. International Journal of Hospitality Management.91.
p.102660.
Jones, P. and Comfort, D., 2020. The COVID-19 crisis and sustainability in the hospitality
industry. International journal of contemporary hospitality management.
Koyama, M., 2020. Hilton L. Root: Network Origins of the Global Economy: East vs. West in a
Complex Systems Perspective.
Shreve, J. and et.al., 2019. A personalized prediction model to risk stratify patients with acute
myeloid leukemia (AML) using artificial intelligence.
Villanti, A.C. and et.al., 2017. Social media use and access to digital technology in US young
adults in 2016. Journal of medical Internet research. 19(6). p.e196.
Online
Stakeholder engagement, 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://cr.hilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Hilton-Stakeholder-
Engagement.pdf>
Hospitality net., 2020. New Advertising Campaign from Hilton Hotels & Resorts Showcases
Global Guest Experiences.[Online]. Available through:
<https://www.hospitalitynet.org/news/4056910.html>
Marketing dive., 2021. Hilton doubles down on successful celebrity campaign. [Online].
Available through:<https://www.marketingdive.com/news/hilton-doubles-down-on-
successful-celebrity-campaign/562351/>
Kaitlin murphy, 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://kaitlinbrittmurphy.weebly.com/blog/marriott-vs-hilton>
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