Multigenerational Travel: How Hilton Grand Vacations Builds for Groups

Glenn: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. It’s your hospitality friend Glenn here in Las Vegas, Nevada. The ARDA spring conference. Conference. And I found myself Derek DaSalvia. He’s the EVP and chief customer officer. Yeah, I got that right. Hilton Grand Vacations. How you doing, buddy? Good man. How are you? Good to see you. Great to meet you. I’ve been having so much fun at this conference. Really getting exposed and learning about timeshare. So as chief customer officer, I think it’s going to be a really cool conversation because one of the things I’ve learned is the average timeshare owner is getting younger and younger. They’ve got a lot of different needs and desires. How are you delighting them time and time again through experience?

Derek: [00:00:39] You know, for us at Hilton Grand Vacations is something that’s always hot on our radar as we look at the generations now coming into the marketplace, a lot of what you’ve heard here through this week is, you know, we’re customizing our products and our offerings and what that really looks like in today’s environment. And we’re also thinking forward of, hey, you know, those generations move into a different life stage and new generations start coming in. We want to make sure we’re on the forefront of the transformation of that, that product and that business practically.

Glenn: [00:01:03] What does that mean?

Derek: [00:01:05] So, you know, one of the things we look at is, okay, so we got great resorts, great rooms, great destinations all over the world. But what else comes with the membership? So we’re really focused on experiential, different member benefits, different things to do outside of the vacation. Stay. Right. And really that holistic envelope around vacation ownership.

Glenn: [00:01:20] That makes a whole lot of sense to me because a lot of times people want the experience first and then they go where that experience is. So it’s natural for you to try to expand beyond your doorways. I’m thinking about a property you have right over there. Yeah, across the street, gorgeous building. And there’s a lot of experiences to be had. And one of the things I’m thinking of is if you’re an owner, you could probably get access to certain things here that might be more complicated and difficult otherwise.

Derek: [00:01:47] Yeah. You know, that’s a great example. So our marquee property here, Laura, you know, we get a lot of events that go on every year in the Vegas market. But our marquee event every year is F1. I know. So what a great opportunity to come stay in an amazing resort, great accommodations and have that whole experience for that week here with F1. Yeah. And to your point, we do that in different experiences in different markets. But I think that’s what the differentiation uniqueness is of our platform is it’s you can go and experience different things and live in the moment where you are.

Glenn: [00:02:13] Yeah. And it has to be that way, I think because you are competing against every other travel experience that’s out there, and younger people in particular want to have that access. They want to have that bragging rights. They want to be able to do things they couldn’t have been able to do. So that makes a whole lot of sense to me. So how does that experiential focus turn into capturing the consumer’s imagination before they even stay with you that first time, and they make that purchase?

Derek: [00:02:41] You know, I would actually go back to something you said about competing. We compete against ourselves. So we’re always pushing ourselves to do a better, bigger, better, bigger or more intimate. So I think from the consumer side and capturing that experience is really helping the consumer and educating the consumer on what that experience looks like, what it can be, how it’s different, what’s in each market. But listening, you know, I always tell everyone, we got to listen to the consumer. Let them tell us where they want to be in that moment.

Glenn: [00:03:05] Yeah. It’s funny because like, I’m the journalism side, people have always been like, hey, you know, you wrote that article. I’m like, all I did was like, listen and then write what was said. So you guys just listen and then just do what they say. And that probably eliminates a lot of problems.

Derek: [00:03:19] You know, it’s, it’s, I always say it’s simple, but simple isn’t always easy.

Glenn: [00:03:22] That is absolutely right. So how do you turn this simple into an experience that’s perceived as effortless for customers?

Derek: [00:03:31] You know, it’s really around. We want the customers to be able to book their vacations, really understand the experience that’s out there, book it seamlessly, simple. Make it all come together as one vacation experience, and that there shouldn’t be any friction between those destinations, those milestones.

Glenn: [00:03:45] So I’ll ask an open ended question. What about multigenerational travel?

Derek: [00:03:49] Yeah, multigenerational travel is big for us. I mean, look, you know, the essence of the vacation ownership industry is just that the unit size, the differences. Studios, one bedrooms, two bedrooms, three bedrooms. So we want to have multiple accommodations. I think the underlying system of the points allow people to book multiple units, shorter stays, longer destinations and then layer in when you have those experiences going on in market. So for example, we could have a customer come in for two weeks, and then one week their family is going to join them and they go out and do some experiences. What will the other week? They want to do something different. So we take the responsibility and stewardship of that extremely serious.

Glenn: [00:04:21] What are you most excited about right now in your role focusing on customers in this part of hospitality?

Derek: [00:04:27] I would say it’s a timely question. Right now, my big focus is the end to end consumer journey and not in the moment, but what that looks like going forward for multi years and forward and thinking about, you know, how do we become the providers of that dynamics of vacations? And what becomes complicating is when you think about all the generations coming into market and those expansions happening, their needs are very different. Yeah. So we need to make sure we’re checking off all the boxes. You can’t do everything for everybody.

Glenn: [00:04:53] No. And if you try to do everything for everybody, you wind up doing nothing for anybody, right? So you have to have a sharp focus, I think, and then excel within that sharp focus.

Derek: [00:05:03] Absolutely. And you can’t manage the scope. No you can’t. Very difficult.

Glenn: [00:05:07] Anything else you want to add?

Derek: [00:05:08] Yeah. I would just say, you know, for anyone out there listening and really curious about this industry in particular, and then what those experiences look like, look us up@hub.com. And it’s a, it’s a great opportunity for people to really enjoy some special moments.

Glenn: [00:05:21] Great, I love it. I’m going to continue following this story because as we enter into more complicated economic times, timeshare is proving resilience. I saw it after 2001. I saw it after the Great Recession. We’re going to see it again. So when you’re investing, think about that. He’s Derek. I’m Glen. We’re still at Arda. See you all later. Bye.