Hilton Worldwide Resorts today launched new features on its website, www.hilton.com/worldwideresorts, making it the first upscale hotel chain website to offer seamless 360 degree virtual walks to customers wishing to view resorts before booking a holiday.  Visitors to the website also now benefit from several new features including three and seven night special packages available at 45 resorts, ‘Our Best Rates. Guaranteed.’, new mini resort brochures and pre-arrival welcome packs to download, a new video of Hilton Worldwide Resorts and a new on-line brochure ordering facility.
Philippa Gould, Director of Product Development, Hilton International, comments: “Buying a luxury resort holiday is a big commitment for our guests. We are delighted to extend our total resort experience to the holiday selection stage by enabling customers to take a virtual walk around the many of our resorts before they decide to book. With these virtual walks, the new special packages, ‘Our Best Rates. Guaranteed.’, and new mini brochures and video features, we have made choosing a Hilton resort holiday even easier. They all combine to provide customers with easy access to a wonderful choice of holidays, to a great selection of information and to the best available rates.”

New On-line Virtual Tours

Previously customers could view up to ten panoramic images of the resorts. Now visitors with high-speed Internet access “arrive” at the resort with a click of the mouse and can take a virtual walk to their room, stop to visit the spa, check out the dive centre, the restaurants and bar or even take a quick stroll along the beach. More than 20 of the 45 Hilton Worldwide Resorts featured on the website offer virtual tours and the screen size is around four times larger than an average web cam for a much more detailed view of the resort. Hilton Worldwide Resorts expects more of its resorts to offer this service before the end of the year. Link to www.hiltonworldresorts.com/mauritiustour.php to see an example virtual tour.

New Special Packages

The new Hilton Worldwide Resorts Resort Activity Package, comprised of three or seven night special packages, offers holidays to suit every taste. The packages include activities and special rates at a choice of 45 exotic resort destinations. Customers can choose from packages offering spa and well-being treatments, golf lessons, dining options, excursions, fishing trips or water sports. Each resort offers its own unique package and the activities included vary from resort to resort. Once customers have taken a virtual walk around their chosen resort, they can simply select the ‘special offers’ button for that resort and be taken immediately to the special package details. Alternatively, customers can download the complete Resort Activity Package price guide which details all 45 resort packages. www.hiltonworldresorts.com/priceguide.pdf

Our Best Rates. Guaranteed.*

When guests make a room booking, Hilton guarantees that they will receive the best possible rate, providing it is booked via a Hilton website, Hilton Reservations Worldwide, or direct with a Hilton hotel or resort.. If a cheaper rate is found elsewhere within 24 hours of the booking, Hilton will match the lower rate and will also:For hotels inside the USA, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico (other than Caribe Hilton and Ponce Hilton), give guests a US$50 American Express Gift Cheque.
For all other hotels, Hilton will match the lower rate and give guests a rebate of US$50 or local equivalent upon check out.

The Hilton Worldwide Resorts website, designed specifically for the leisure traveller, was originally launched in 2002 and updated by Neuxpower in April 2004. Resorts can be found by location or by the type of holiday experience desired, including diving, romantic, spa, golf, family or all-inclusive.

The site also tailors pages to suit the visitor, showing spa oriented photography to visitors interested in spa destinations and also listing all the resorts guests have previously visited, during that session visit, to assist them with decision making.

Hilton Worldwide Resorts is an upscale, global resort network with a collection of 47 resorts, located in exotic places, making up the world’s largest global choice. Currently, 34 resorts are operated by Hilton International, 11 by Hilton Hotels Corporation and two by Conrad. The network spans 21 countries and seven regions including the Americas, Arabian Gulf, Asia-Pacific, the Caribbean, Egypt, Europe and the Indian Ocean. New resort openings planned in 2004 include Thailand, Indonesia, Croatia, the Philippines and the Caribbean.
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