Hilton Hotels today unveiled an employee simulation called Ultimate
Team Play, a training game for the
mid-priced Hilton Garden Inn brand, which utilizes Epic Games’ Unreal
Engine 3 technology.
Created by Virtual Heroes, which has created solutions for
the U.S. Secret Service, Duke Medical Center and other institutions, Ultimate Team Play puts hotel team
members in various scenarios aimed to replicate real guest situations. Users
will have to decide what the best course of action will be to fulfill a guest’s
request and complete a specific job task within a limited time. Their immediate
or non-immediate actions toward guests will directly affect the mood of the
guest as well as the hotel’s SALT (Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking) scores.
“We’re excited to introduce
a game-based program to enhance training for team members as well as make it
fun and I want to acknowledge David Kervella who oversees the training programs
for Hilton Garden Inn for spearheading and researching this capability,” said Adrian Kurre, senior vice president, Hilton Garden
Inn. “Ultimate Team Play allows our hotel team
members to play their hotel specific role and show them how their various
actions directly affect the guest and the hotel. Including SALT was key because
it really emphasizes to the entire team that no matter what role they have or
what job they do, each person ultimately affects the guest’s
overall hotel experience.”
With the primary focus of the game being on guest
interaction, Ultimate Team Play uses a branching dialogue system so users
will select their level of guest interaction from a list to best determine
which response best suits each situation, while not neglecting specific hotel
duties, such as answering phones.
The initial interactive game will be beta-tested in select Hilton
Garden Inn locations in which team members will play the role of a front desk
service agent. The full interactive game version set to launch to all locations
in January 2009 will include positions in housekeeping, food and beverage,
engineering/maintenance and front desk.