Hilton headquarters checking out; hotel chain to move from Beve...

Hilton Hotels Corp., long a fixture in Beverly Hills, said good-bye on Wednesday to 90210.

[Setting it Straight]

This should really come as a surprise? In a time where California is sliding into the cesspool, all the politicians can come up with is "TAX THE HELL OUT OF THE PEOPLE AND CORPORATIONS! MORE MORE MORE!!!" If any of the chambers of commerice, politicians, or bureaucrats think this is the end, think again. In another piece I wrote inc ommentary response to the Daily News Article about more people moving out than into California, I said that its people are fed up with this crap and they're leaving for better endeavors. Well the same can be said for its businesses as well. No business wants to be taxed to death and railroaded with supporting broken fixtures. The article says that 500 people work at the HQ and they won't comment on how many are making the move. Let me educate you to how this sort of thing works: A corporation announces they're leaving the state. They already have rosters of people separated into the "Must Have" "Would Like to have" "Not necessary if they decline" and "No way". Very few people make the MUST HAVE list. They're absolutely dire to the corporate structure. Very few people make it into the Would like to have. Most fall into Not necessary and No way. Out of 500, 25-30 at most 10 at the least. That leaves on a conservative estimate 475 people now out of work. Not bad if it was just them that was leaving. However business and corporations are blowing up all over. Add 475 to the thousands that are also skilled and unemployed, and then you have a dire situation. Then remaining businesses can set peanut wages and if you don't like it, then they can give the job to the person who will take it. On the other side of that coin, the same thing is happening to wherever Hilton lands itself. Already the ravenous wolves where Hilton HQ can end up no doubt, are throwing incentives and ribs packed with meat to get them to come to their city and state. 475 jobs can boost the economy of an already depressed area and their politicians are looked at as heroes for bringing in business. How stupid is all of this I ask you? Apparently Beverly Hills doesn't see the problem. Maybe they will when more stores close on Rodeo or business pull out. Maybe Century City can cry when their building complex is all but empty. Or better yet when other businesses pull out of downtown LA while all the politicians are scratching their heads, wondering why anyone would want to leave this pompous, overtaxed, and overblown states to reduce their liabilities by 50%.

[West Valley Dave Smith]

They should take that hose Paris with them. Maybe she can get a White House internship.

[ALL AMERICAN HAWK]

ANOTHER COMPANY VACATING A SINKING CALIFORNIA.
MORE JOBS LOST--MORE PEOPLE VOTING WITH THEIR FEET.
THE EXODUS IS INCREASING AT A FASTER RATE.SOON ALL
THAT WILL BE LEFT ARE SODOMITES,THE WEALTHY AND
ILLEGAL ALIENS.RIP CALIFORNIA!

[El Lay Roadkill]

Years from now when we find no meaningful jobs or major corporations located in this State, Californians will be scratching their heads wondering what happened. Meanwhile our elected officals who created this anti-Corporate climate in California which caused these mass desertions, are deafingly quiet. They know that if they manage to fly under the radar for now they will be long gone by the time the voters in this State wake up.
This is truly a death by a 1,000 cuts.

[Setting it Straight]

El Lay Roadkill wrote:

Years from now when we find no meaningful jobs or major corporations located in this State, Californians will be scratching their heads wondering what happened. Meanwhile our elected officals who created this anti-Corporate climate in California which caused these mass desertions, are deafingly quiet. They know that if they manage to fly under the radar for now they will be long gone by the time the voters in this State wake up.
This is truly a death by a 1,000 cuts.

Amen to that. Lower property prices, cheaper gas, easier goods, they all seem real great at a time like this. But remember when experts said that in the long run, they can hurt you? That's because it shifts the base of wage earners to a lower service industry. Without a diverse classification background of jobs, there's only so many Star Bucks positions, super market positions, gas station positions, etc. that can be filled. Even people spending on service industry for that cup of coffee, need to work for a company to earn that dollar, that goes into that cash register and tip jar.

He's right on the silence radar avoidance. Then what happens is those politicians go off to be even bigger screw ups like Delgadillo trying to run for Attorney General after trying to cover up his wife's driving a city vehicle, getting into an accident, covering it up, and not fessing and paying until he was caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Even better yet, his hand with the Worker's Comp files that Chick is suing hasn't been exposed yet either. I wonder how everyone in LA is going to feel when they find out how fraud ridden that is. That's why Delgadillo is fighting to keep that under wraps. Once it's exposed, even he won't be able to get a job at Star Bucks.

[Jack]

ALL AMERICAN HAWK wrote:

ANOTHER COMPANY VACATING A SINKING CALIFORNIA.
MORE JOBS LOST--MORE PEOPLE VOTING WITH THEIR FEET.
THE EXODUS IS INCREASING AT A FASTER RATE.SOON ALL
THAT WILL BE LEFT ARE SODOMITES,THE WEALTHY AND
ILLEGAL ALIENS.RIP CALIFORNIA!

Why don't you take yourself to some place where ignorance is bliss and hate is welcome...your GOP government could have done some thing about illegals and did nothing..now, the problem is too big...as for the Sodomites....you make me sick...you think the South, land of ignorant racists has no gay and lesbian people....get a clue....

[ALL AMERICAN HAWK]

TO JACK-- I HAVE ALREADY TAKEN MYSELF AND MY
FAMILY OUT OF THE CALIFORNIA CESSPOOL AND IT'S
NOT THE SOUTH.

[Halkshaw]

Los Angeles is no longer the Encomic hub of America. The new Mayor took care of that. Business is a Republican thing and the Mayor is on the wrong side. The State is the same way their nobody to talk to in this whole State who who can be positive about the Business out look. The Democrats have condemned the whole State maybe the whole Country with their Credit Card approach to paying for Government. It will not work. It will take 300 years to pay for the Obama plan. The State of Ca. is insolvent there is no way to get out of this mess. They need to cut a 1/3 of the budget now they need to cut 1/2. Their just like a woman with a crdit card and the husband trying to earn aliving. You can change that to read how ever it is for you. The fact is their is no way the state can keep spending with out money. the big companies are afarid the State will go after them and they are leaveing. Just the Ca. State income tax for the Co. all it employees moving is a raise for all.

[JoshRodman]

I applaud the fine intelligent leaders of the Hilton Hotel Corp....Why shoudl they stick around and watch California disinegrate under the weight of the fascist fools in Sacramento.

They earned the respect of their shareholders. Why should fine American Company be destroyed in service to the racist chicanos and aging hippies who are destroying our State in the name of the once proud Democrat Party. Voting for this bunch has proven to be an act of civic suicide.

Electing so many who have no pride in the State or sense of obligation to our future could have ended no other way. Best wishes to the fine citizens of the Hilton Corporation.

[Halkshaw]

The Global Companies are afarid the State will try and tax their global profits as a way to save the State. Every time one of these companies leave they take their jobs with them.

[John Chavez]

Study your history. Cuba, Rhodesia, Venezuela, Haiti, and now California.......A busniness owner would have to be crazy to willingly stay in our ever diminished "progressive" paradise.

We have the highest State taxes in America, are rated as one of the WORST States to do business, and face a devastating $42 Billion dollar deficit. We elect idiots and anarchists to State and County political office and earned our status as the stupidest, most irresponsible, citizens in America.

If Americans were smart and perceptive enough to start a successful company they are certainly far too sharp to let it be destroyed by Marxist/Socialist/Anarchists who are decimating our future in the name of the once proud State Democratic Party!

[Setting it Straight]

Well it's six months since the article came out. Since then the California economy has gone to hell in a hand basket, people are unemployed in massive droves, businesses are moving out, and there's no relief in sight. I wonder how BH feels now since when they commented that they weren't worried about Hilton leaving? I'm sure they're pooping bricks now and so is much of CA. This what one gets when a state mistreats businesses and expects them to burden themselves with the financial screw ups of politicians. Balancing budgets on the backs of businesses gets them moving alright, it's just out of state and not the direction the California Legislature thought.

[Mouthy Granny 80]

I love Paris

[WhatDa]

ALL AMERICAN HAWK wrote:

ANOTHER COMPANY VACATING A SINKING CALIFORNIA.
MORE JOBS LOST--MORE PEOPLE VOTING WITH THEIR FEET.
THE EXODUS IS INCREASING AT A FASTER RATE.SOON ALL
THAT WILL BE LEFT ARE SODOMITES,THE WEALTHY AND
ILLEGAL ALIENS.RIP CALIFORNIA!

Sodomites??? Why is everyone picking on Paris? So she likes a little back door action. And front door and doggie door and...

[BOUT-TO-BE-JOBLE SS]

We would like to take this opportunity to update you on the future direction of HRCC. HRCC is a critically vital component of the value proposition Hilton provides to its customer and owners – particularly during challenging economic times like these. However, HRCC also represents a significant portion of our marketing and sales expense so it is important that we continuously look for opportunities to improve both our service delivery and cost performance.
Over the past several months, the HRCC team, assisted by experienced consultants, has researched many alternatives in order to improve our performance along both of these dimensions. Through this review process we’ve focused our efforts in three distinct areas:
Utilizing technology and automation to more efficiently handle certain types of customer inquiries
Utilizing outsourcing options, where sensible, to decrease the cost of voice and back office customer contacts – while maintaining high levels of customer service
Reinvesting to drive incremental revenue through our interactions with customers, with a greater emphasis on up-selling.
We are now ready to begin implementing the initial stages of the plan that was developed through the detailed review process. Throughout the plan, we have instituted many check points in order to evaluate the customer impact and cost effectiveness of any changes to our model. As we reach those check points, we will continue to communicate the results as well as our decisions around next steps in the process.
The first stage will involve the introduction of an IVR (Interactive Voice Response system) to the beginning of the calls to our 1-800 HRCC call centers), in order to help us segment and prioritize call types. With this IVR approach, customers will be allowed to indicate whether they wish to book a reservation, to request information, or to reconfirm or cancel an existing reservation. These simple “non revenue” calls will be routed to an automated system for handling. Customers who chose at any time during the call not to use the automated system will go directly to a live agent. In this initial stage, which will begin in mid to late August, all calls to book a reservation will continue to be routed to our existing HRCC centers.
The second stage will involve utilizing third-party vendors to handle a select portion of our calls. We are engaging the services of several world-class outsource vendors throughout this process. Each of the vendors we have selected provides significant experience in the customer contact center business and serves many other companies in the travel and hospitality sector. We will utilize these vendors’ call center facilities in Manila, Republic of the Philippines. Strong English skills coupled with operating efficiencies provide an opportunity for us to reduce costs while maintaining customer service levels equivalent to our domestic operations.
Effective immediately, HRCC has assigned Amanda Wu, our Tampa UK Reservations Manager, to oversee these offices on location in the Republic of the Philippines.
Part 1

[BOUT-TO-BE-JOBLE SS part 2]

Also, as part of the start up of these facilities, our U.S. based Training and QA teams will be onsite to ensure the hiring, training and performance standards are in line with our expectations. As these specific assignments are identified, we will begin publishing opportunities to all of you.
Our intent is to begin this stage with a small segment of our non-revenue calls in late August. We have developed a comprehensive scorecard for monitoring the quality level of these calls, and we will closely gauge customer satisfaction and increase calls sent to these vendors only when we are confident that our service expectations can be met. Throughout the 4th quarter we will also test additional call types and back-office transactions to determine the extent to which we utilize these vendor services in the future.
The final stage in our process will involve re-investing a portion of expected savings into additional revenue generating activities. In this phase we will test various changes to HRCC protocol, staffing models and training processes to focus our agents on maximizing revenue on each call. Examples of this reinvestment include the Upsell Incentive currently offered in all of our domestic offices as well as the Revenue per Reservation Incentive which is now being piloted in the Tampa office (with hopes to expand to other offices). More information on our efforts in this stage will be provided as we progress.
We know that you take great pride in selling and servicing the Hilton Family of Hotels and we appreciate your continued support as we implement these enhancements together. Our commitment to you is to keep you informed of our progress on a regular basis. Please keep up the great work. We look forward to being back in touch soon.

[Jeem]

This had nothing to do with The State of California. Hilton was bought last year by Blackstone and the new CEO is originally from this area of DC. Paris has nothing to do with this company.

[WhatDa]

Jeem wrote:

This had nothing to do with The State of California. Hilton was bought last year by Blackstone and the new CEO is originally from this area of DC. Paris has nothing to do with this company.

except frequently checking in for a poke or two.

[amsat]

I agree with you!
Todd DiRoberto
http://biz.clush.com/ToddDiRoberto