Winner of the 2024 HM Award for best Economy Hotel, Hilton Garden Inn Busselton is enjoying continued success in 2025 with demand from domestic and international travellers and the MICE market.
Speaking exclusively to HM, Hotel Manager, Des Shanks, shares an insight into the first 18 months in business.
As an internationally branded hotel in the Busselton and Margaret River region, how important is the Hilton name in attracting guests, particularly international travellers?
Guests love to be able to trust in an experience. Across Hilton’s many brands, the hotels within each uphold a set of standards that give travellers peace of mind and consistency. Through interfaces like the Hilton Honors app, guests might be attracted to or made aware of destinations that have never crossed their mind before. Often when people know what to expect, they’re more willing to try something new, so having a Hilton property here makes it very attractive to guests who recognise the name and brand.
What about the Hilton Garden Inn brand is resonating with travellers, in your experience? And what hallmarks of the broader Hilton brand have been retained in the Hilton Garden Inn offering?
At its core, Hilton’s goal is to spread the light and warmth of hospitality. This is demonstrated across all of the Hilton brands, but Hilton Garden Inn (HGI) is the home of ‘bright-hearted’ hospitality. Our team members go above and beyond for our guests to create memorable experiences, and time and again the feedback we have about team member interaction comes out in guest reviews. Overall, the HGI Brand is about bright common spaces, modern and helpful amenities and being able to relax on the property. Convenience is key to our guests, both leisure and business and we want to make their stay as effortless as possible so that they can enjoy their visit to Busselton.
Nominations are now open for the 2025 HM Awards – enter by August 31.
Tell us about the impact the hotel is having on the local community in terms of employment, tourism and economic benefit?
The hotel employs 42 team members who live in and engage with the local area, we are involved in supporting local events and support many charitable endeavours and we are continuing to attract guests to Busselton itself. The City of Busselton has worked hard with operators to develop the foreshore precinct around our iconic jetty, and we now have a globally recognised hotel brand right here for guests to stay in, in the heart of the action, making Busselton an attractive destination to visit.
Tell us about the typical guest demographic at this hotel?
We’re generally quite well spread across the board. Busselton has become a huge leisure destination but that brings with it development opportunities that see an uptick in corporate travellers as businesses expand into the region. We are also seeing a good mix of international and domestic guests in our region with the accessibility now of the airport and the direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne.
With its meeting spaces and close proximity to Busselton Airport, how is the hotel performing in terms of corporate travel and attracting MICE business to the region?
The proximity to the airport is key when it comes to convenience for interstate corporate travellers and MICE business. We do well in conferences of circa 40-100pax with our meeting space allowing our guests an unmatched vantage point of the famous Jetty. The completion of Saltwater (Busselton’s Arts and Entertainment centre) should see more conferences coming into our region helping the local businesses and economy as well as delivering more room nights to our region.
Tell us about hotel performance and your outlook for the remainder of 2025.
Occupancy levels are strong, and whilst its seasonal in a tourism town we average out well over the year. Winter in our region is a little slower as travellers seek those warmer destinations, however there are plenty of events happening in our region in winter to keep other travellers wanting to come and experience our region.
What exciting plans or strategies are in the works for the remainder of 2025?
We are now 18 months into our operation, and we are continuing to enhance and tweak our product to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience for our guests. A big focus for our hotel for the remainder of the 2025 is around driving our F&B business through bespoke wine dinners, collaborations with amazing producers in region and offering products & services that not only our in-house guests can enjoy, but also giving our locals value and consistency in our food and beverage space.