| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hospitality, Hotels |
| Founded | Cisco, Texas (1919) |
| Founder(s) | Conrad Hilton |
| Headquarters | 7930 Jones Branch Drive, McLean, Virginia, U.S. |
| Number of locations | 3,750[1] |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Christopher J. Nassetta, President and CEO |
| Revenue | $8.162 billion USD (2006) |
| Employees | 135,000+ |
| Parent | Blackstone Private Equity |
| Website | Hilton Worldwide |
Hilton Worldwide (formerly, Hilton Hotels Corporation) is a global hospitality company. It is owned by the Blackstone Group, a private equity firm. As of July 2011 Hilton brands encompass 3,750 hotels with over 600,000 rooms in 84 countries.[2] Hilton is ranked as the 36th largest private company in the United States by Forbes.[3]
The company owns, manages, and/or franchises a portfolio of brands which includes Waldorf Astoria Hotels and Resorts, Conrad Hotels & Resorts, Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Doubletree (DoubleTree by Hilton), Embassy Suites Hotels, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn and Hampton Inn & Suites, Homewood Suites by Hilton, Home2 Suites by Hilton and Hilton Grand Vacations.
It was founded by Conrad Hilton in Cisco, Texas and was headquartered in Beverly Hills, California from 1969 until 2009. The company moved to Tysons Corner, unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, near McLean in August 2009.[4][5] [6]
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Conrad Hilton founded the original company in 1919 with one hotel in Cisco, Texas. The Hotel's name is Mobley Hotel.
The Hotels Statler Company was acquired in 1954 for $111,000,000 in what was then the world's most expensive real estate transaction.
The company separated its international operations into a separate traded company on December 1, 1964, known as Hilton International Co.. In 1967 Trans World Corp., the holding company for Trans World Airlines, acquired the separated company. In 1986 it was sold to UAL Corp., the holding company for United Airlines, who became Allegis Corp. in an attempt to re-incarnate itself as a full service travel company encompassing Westin Hotels and Hertz rental cars in addition to Hilton International and United Airlines. In 1987 after a corporate putsch, the renamed UAL Corp. sold Hilton International to Ladbroke Group plc, a British leisure and gambling company, which in May 1999 adopted the name Hilton Group plc.
As a result, there were two separate, fully independent companies operating hotels under the Hilton name. Those Hilton Hotels outside the US were, until recently, styled as Hilton International hotels. In addition, for many years hotels run by the Hilton Group in the US were called Vista International Hotels, while hotels operated by the American arm of Hilton outside the US were named Conrad Hotels. The Vista chain has been phased out, while Conrad is now restyled as one of the luxury brands of Hilton (along with The Waldorf-Astoria Collection) and operates hotels within the US, as well as abroad. To minimize consumer confusion, the American and British Hilton companies, from the 1990s onwards, had a joint marketing agreement under which they shared the same logos, promoted each others' brands and maintained joint reservation systems.
In 1971, Hilton acquired International Leisure Company, including the Las Vegas Hilton and Flamingo Hilton.[7]
In 1998, Hilton spun off its gaming operations into a separate, publicly held company called Caesars Entertainment (formerly Park Place Entertainment).
In 1999, Hilton acquired Promus Hotel Corporation, which included the Doubletree, Red Lion, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, & Homewood Suites brands.[8]
In 2001, Hilton agreed to sell Red Lion to WestCoast Hospitality.[9]
HHC was granted the naming rights to the George R. Brown Convention Center in late 2003. The Hilton Americas in Downtown Houston, Texas, is connected to the convention center.
On December 29, 2005, Hilton Hotels Corporation agreed to re-acquire the Hilton International chain from its British owner, Hilton Group plc, for GBP 3.3 billion (or $5.71 billion). As well as bringing the two Hilton companies back together as a single entity, this deal also included Hilton plc properties operating as Conrad Hotels, Scandic Hotels and LivingWell Health Clubs. On February 23, 2006, the deal closed, making Hilton Hotels the world's fifth largest hotel operator in number of rooms.[10] Hilton Group PLC (headquartered in the UK) then renamed itself Ladbrokes plc.
On March 1, 2007, Scandic Hotels was sold to EQT V Group.[11]
On July 3, 2007, Hilton Hotels Corp. agreed to an all-cash buyout from The Blackstone Group LP in a $26 billion (including debt) deal that would make Blackstone the world's largest hotel owner.[12] The deal was the culmination of a year of on and off discussions with Blackstone.[13]
The private equity group said it would combine cash from its real estate and corporate private equity funds to buy all outstanding Hilton shares for $47.50 each, a 32 percent premium over the July 3 closing stock price.
In October 2007, Christopher J. Nassetta was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of Hilton.
In February 2009, Hilton Hotels Corp., announced that its headquarters were moving from Beverly Hills to Fairfax County, Virginia.
While Blackstone saw an opportunity to streamline the company and push Hilton's expansion overseas when Blackstone pursued Hilton in 2006 and 2007, the buyout saddled the company with $20 billion of debt just as the economy was turning down. The debt had very liberal terms, so there was no danger of default, but when travel slowed, the company suffered. In April 2010, Hilton and Blackstone restructured the debt. Blackstone invested a further $800 million of equity and the debt was reduced to $16 billion.[14]
Many of Hilton's properties are franchised to independent operators and companies. This business practice has proven successful in rapidly expanding the various Hilton brands to markets all over the United States. Franchisors must follow strict brand standards in order to maintain a licensing agreement with Hilton Worldwide. The Hampton Inn brand is virtually 100% franchised with the minor exception of a few properties that are corporate managed for various reasons. All franchised hotels are regularly inspected by a Quality Assurance Team to enforce brand standards and consistency.
The practice of franchising is popular within the Hospitality industry among most major hotel chains, especially among smaller brands with a fare number of locations that are not feasible to be each corporate owned and managed by the company. Competitor companies such as Marriott International and Starwood follow a similar business model that focuses on franchising as a rapid expansion method.
Most of Hilton's flagship properties, airport properties, and largest resorts however are corporate managed.
Hilton HHonors is Hilton's guest loyalty program in which frequent guests can accumulate points and airline miles by staying with the various Hilton family of brands. The Hilton Honors program is one of the largest programs of its type[15] with over 29 million HHonors members. The program has partnerships with most major airlines where guests can "Double Dip" and accumulate both points and airlines miles simultaneously with their hotel stay. Similar to frequent flyer programs there are various tiers of membership which guests can reach depending on the amount of stays and points accumulated annually, the higher the tier the more benefits members receive. The membership tiers are as follows:
Diamond VIP is the highest tier level, these members receive benefits such as access to the Executive Level lounge at Hilton Hotels, Guaranteed 48-hour reservations, a dedicated "Diamond VIP Desk" which members can call for priority reservations and travel planning, a dedicated VIP check in line at larger hotels, best available room pre-assignments, and special in-hotel amenities such as room upgrades and arrival amenities.
Conrad Hilton features as a major character in the third season of Mad Men as lead character Don Draper creates a series of ad campaigns for Hilton Hotels. The Drapers travel during one episode to the Cavalieri Hilton in Rome, though the scenes were actually shot at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.
At the rotating wheel space station in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, visitors can stay at a Hilton hotel. Hilton's logo appears prominently in the space station's lounge.
Many actual Hilton hotel properties around the world have also been featured in various Hollywood films.
The popular Hilton Honors guest loyalty program was featured in the 2009 film Up in the Air as means of product placement in which various characters present their branded Hilton Honors membership cards to check in to Hilton hotels throughout the film.
According to Careerbliss.com, Hilton Worldwide ranked the first Happiest Companies in America for 2012 got score 4.36 from 1 to 5. The survey looked at job reviews from more than 100,000 employees such as characteristics like work-life balance, company culture and reputation, and the relationships underlings have with their bosses.[16]
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