Hilton in $10m ecommerce overhaul

Hilton International is spending $10m revamping its ecommerce strategy over the next three years in an effort to drive more sales online.

The group, which operates the Hilton brand around the world except in North America, has just signed a deal for Cable and Wireless to host and manage its online hotel booking, reservation and ecommerce applications for it 400 hotels.

Hilton International previously shared the web platform used by its American group, Hilton Hotels.

One of the key aims of the move is to increase the percentage of sales through its website. Leslie McGibbon, spokesman for Hilton International in the UK, said the group has set a target of at least 20 per cent of bookings done online over the next five years – up significantly from the three to four per cent it currently does.

"It's the area people are choosing to use to book hotel rooms and flights. And it allows us to offer better customer service," he said.

The platform will also support local languages so that customers will be able to browse, book and pay for a room at any worldwide Hilton hotel in their own language, McGibbon said.

The new Hilton International website is hosted at C&W's data centres in Swindon and Park Royal, London.

Earlier this month silicon.com revealed how another travel dot-com is bucking the downturn by building on its US base to launch in the UK and Europe. Hotels.com predicted that half of its sales will come from outside the US by 2006.