Barcelona Business School students recently met with Hilton executives at their five-star, beachfront hotel in Barcelona to learn about the international company´s operations. Executives discussed a variety of topics with the students, including the management of the front desk, events, restaurants, finances and executive services. They also showed students their premium facilities, outlined the marketing of their high-end services and described the type of international managers they pursue.
“Here you have to know about everything,” Hilton Diagonal Mar Managing Director David Ecija explained to students when describing his daily assignments. “And you have to exceed expectations. If they ask me for 100%, I give them 105%.”
Ecija said he focuses on the quality of the service, the well-being of his customers and employees and the generation of profit. He also said he works to boost his competencies as a general manager, including his ability to communicate plans, build relationships, analyze information, make decisions, develop the business and lead his team.
Executives showed students the different rooms the hotel provides its guests, including their new relaxation room for busy executives, which Hilton is instituting throughout Europe. The amenities in this spa-like room include a whirlpool bathtub facing a plasma TV. Students also enjoyed a tour through the hotel´s hanging pool terrace and fully equipped executive lounge overlooking the city. Hilton Diagonal Mar opened its doors in 2005. The company´s other locations in Spain include Madrid, Mallorca, Toledo, Valencia and another hotel in the upper part of Barcelona.
