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A Halloween Treat Does The Trick For Hilton and Me!

Written by: Eileen McDargh

Article Overview: How to make lemonade from a lemon. Leadership lessons on dealing with unexpected adverse conditions.

A Halloween Treat Does The Trick For Hilton and Me!

This October 31 turned cold, wet and dreary across Chicago and its suburbs. A rotten night for Halloween. And it could have been a lousy night for this business traveler, cheered only by the prospect of conducting an interactive team session the next day for an area bank.
But Halloween evening was anything but cheerless at the 421-room Arlington Park Hilton in Arlington Heights, IL. Creativity, energy, and vision produced an event that not only garnered immediate press and local attention, but is also sure to have long-term residual effects for new business.

Take heed and see what ideas you can extrapolate for your business.
Here's the recipe:
First ingredient: a lemon. In the hotel business that means low occupancy.
Second: a surrounding residential neighborhood with growing families, schools, businesses, and senior citizens.
Third: An empowered and creative director of catering, a town mayor, a eager-to-have-fun-high-energy hotel team from sales, catering and conference services.
Fourth: a dash of courage and a generous dash of money. Mix well with laughter, fun, and childhood fantasy.
The result: a Halloween party for 3000 children, their parents and 150 younger-than-Springtime folks over 65 years of age, an energized work force, tremendous goodwill, increased awareness of the hotel, and lots of press.


But this event did not occur by magic. It first took the Director of Catering, Samantha Agnew, to realize that lemonade could be made from the seasonal low of room count and meeting rooms. The hotel approached senior citizens for their help, offering a free room and dinner for Halloween if the seniors would decorate their hotel door for Halloween, pass out a hotel-furnished pillow case of candy to the children walking down the halls, and take fliers out to the local grade schools to get attendance.
Response was overwhelming. Parking was at such a premium that a shuttle ran excited children and their relieved parents to and from their cars. The third and fourth floors were taken over by senior citizens who decorated not only their doors but themselves. One high-flying grandmother even wore a burlap dress and proclaimed herself "an old bag".
Fifty high school volunteers were fed dinner and then served as guides taking children through both floors. The hotel staff dressed in costume and worked the haunted house, a dozen carnival games, the movies, arts & crafts, and a storytelling session.
The town mayor, Arlene Mulder, greeted the guests in her best Minnie Mouse dress. The hotel's in-house production company, The Meeting House, festooned fixtures with cobwebs, built the sets, and created special effects.

The children were bug-eyed with delight and amazingly well-behaved for all the adrenaline rush that comes from make-believe and "treats".
Did the parents love it? You bet! No worry about rain, darkness, safety, or dangerous play.
And what about the hotel's paying guests? I can only speak for myself. The tiny clowns, brides, animals, spooks, power rangers, Aladdin's, lion kings, cowboys and cowgirls carried me back to a time when I played outside at dark, carried flashlights with Mom & Dad, and warmed my cold hands with hot chocolate. The twins who appeared as Oreo cookies, the miniature Charlie Chaplin (even to his walk), and the youngster who came as a quilted bag of M&Ms assured me that creativity and innovation were not dead.


There are lessons to be gleaned from Hilton's experience. What might you do to involve employees, community, and untapped resources which could generate short, mid-term, and long terms gains? Or are the people with budgetary controls concerned more with what they'll lose rather than what they will gain? What would it take to see possibilities rather than problems? .


As for me, I think I had better call now for my Oct. 31 reservation. This first-time event is, I'm sure, destined to become an annual treat.


© Eileen McDargh, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved. You may reprint this article so long as it remains intact with the byline and if all links are made live.

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Article Tags: agnew, arlington park, business traveler, childhood fantasy, creative director, fliers, generous dash, growing families, halloween evening, halloween party, hotel business, immediate press, interactive team, pillow case, residential neighborhood, residual effects, senior citizens, team session, town mayor, younger than springtime



Related Forum Posts
Jenna Jameson profile - Thanks Kevin - an interesting idea that I will pass on to my writer to research! We do try to keep the focus on true entrepreneurs as supposed to people who generate hype (Paris Hilton et al) but there may be something here to work with!
Area of concentration - Yes, you should work harder on those people. You should train them to be ambassadors for you. Treat them like royalty if they truly are giving and referring lots of business to you. And you should always be looking for new ambassadors. Hope that helps.
Work Hard on 20% Slab - Yes, you should work harder on those people. You should train them to be ambassadors for you. Treat them like royalty if they truly are giving and referring lots of business to you. And you should always be looking for new ambassadors. Hope that helps.
Re: Mother's Day and small business - I have a friend, when he finally focuses, he spends his entire year getting ready for Halloween related stuff. One time I heard about these seasonal stuff and I did experiment using Google Adwords, selling books related ... I can't remember what it was, but I made a surge of sales. I am sure smart folks are leveraging from them. good to see you back everyone, I have been away for a little while... Takuya
Be fresh and alive and attentive - Keep on doing the same old thing and business will evaporate. You have to be fresh and alive and attentive. Find at least 4 reasons to contact your customers every year. Thank-you card, newspaper clipping, birthday card. It's all about them, not about you. Treat the 20% like royalty and schmooze the 80% to milk more business and prospect new business so you can grow by 25% a year for a 5% net growth.


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