The story
Founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919, in Cisco.1
Foundation and early years
In 1919, Conrad Hilton purchased his first hotel, the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, and bought additional Texas hotels as the years passed. In 1925, the Dallas Hilton became the first hotel to use the Hilton name. In 1927, Hilton expanded to Waco, Texas, where he opened the first hotel with air-conditioning in public areas and cold running water.
In 1943, Hilton assumed management of the Roosevelt Hotel and purchased the Plaza Hotel, both in New York City's Midtown Manhattan neighborhood. With this pair of acquisitions, Hilton became the first hospitality company to span the contiguous United States. The company was incorporated in 1946 as the Hilton Hotels Corporation and subsequently began public trading of shares on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1947, the Roosevelt Hotel became the first hotel in the world to have televisions in its rooms.
In 1947, Hilton assumed management of the Palacio Hilton hotel in Chihuahua, Mexico, which became the chain's first international property. That same year, they assumed management of four hotels on the island of Bermuda. Hilton International was founded as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1948, just before the 1949 opening of the Caribe Hilton Hotel in Puerto Rico. Barman Ramon "Monchito" Marreno claimed he created the piña colada cocktail at this resort. Hilton purchased The Waldorf-Astoria in New York in the same year.
1950s to 1980s
In 1953, Hilton opened its first hotel in Europe, the Castellana Hilton in Madrid, Spain. The Hotels Statler Company was acquired in 1954 for $111 million in what was then the world's most expensive real estate transaction.
Hilton is credited with several early innovations. In 1954, Hilton created the world's first central reservations office, titled "HILCRON". The reservations team in 1955 consisted of eight members on staff booking reservations for any of Hilton's then 28 hotels. Reservations agents used the "availability board" to track records. The chalkboard measured 30 feet (9.1 m) by 6 feet (1.8 m) and allowed HILCRON to make over 6,000 reservations in 1955. Bookings could be made for any Hilton via telephone, telegram, or Teletype. Later in 1955, Hilton launched a program to ensure every hotel room would include air conditioning. Hilton is also credited with pioneering the airport hotel concept with the opening of the Hilton Inn at San Francisco International Airport in 1959. International expansion continued in this era. From 1955 to 1963, Hilton opened hotels in Turkey, Central America, Canada, Africa, Oceania, South America, and Asia.
In 1965, Hilton launched Lady Hilton, the first hotel concept created specifically for women guests. To appeal to female travelers, many properties offered floors occupied by only women along with distinct amenities for their usage. Between 1970 and 1971, Hilton acquired the International Leisure Company, including the International Hotel and the Flamingo Hotel, which were renamed the Las Vegas Hilton and the Flamingo Hilton. The properties would become the first in the domestic gaming business to be listed on the NYSE. In 1977, Hilton International opened its first property behind the "Iron Curtain" in Communist Europe, the Budapest Hilton. In 1979, founder Conrad Hilton died at the age of 91. Hilton Hotels Corporation later created the Conrad Hotels brand in honor of Hilton.
Hilton Honors (formerly Hilton HHonors), the company's guest loyalty program, was initiated in 1987. In 1994, the Honors surpassed competing hotel loyalty programs by offering members both hotel credit points and airline credit miles. In 1998, Hilton spun off its gambling operations into a separate, publicly held company called Park Place Entertainment (later Caesars Entertainment, Inc.) In 1999, Hilton acquired Promus Hotel Corporation, which included the DoubleTree, Red Lion, Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn, and Homewood Suites brands.
Two chains with one name
The company spun off its international operations into a separately traded company on December 1, 1964, known as "Hilton International Co." It was acquired in 1967 by Trans World Corp., the holding company for Trans World Airlines. As a result, there were two separate, fully independent companies operating hotels under the Hilton name. Because the two chains were contractually forbidden to operate hotels in the other's territory under the Hilton name, for many years hotels run by Hilton International in the U.S. were called Vista International Hotels, while hotels operated by the American arm of Hilton outside the U.S. were named Conrad Hotels. Those Hilton Hotels outside the U.S. were, until 2006, styled as "Hilton International" hotels.
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In 1986, Hilton International was sold to UAL Corp., the holding company for United Airlines, for $980 million. UAL was reorganized as 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 Allegis sold Hilton International to Ladbroke Group plc, a British leisure and gambling company, for $1.07 billion. In May 1999, Ladbrokes was reorganized as "Hilton Group plc".
In 1997, to minimize longtime consumer confusion, the American-owned Hilton and British-owned Hilton International companies adopted a joint marketing agreement, under which they shared the same logos, promoted each other's brands, and maintained joint reservation systems. At that point, the Vista chain was phased out, while Conrad was restyled as one of the luxury brands of Hilton, operating hotels within the U.S. and abroad.
2000s
In 2001, Hilton agreed to sell Red Lion to WestCoast Hospitality.
On December 29, 2005, Hilton Hotels Corporation agreed to re-acquire the Hilton International chain from its British owner, Hilton Group plc, for £3.3 billion ($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. Scandic Hotels was sold the next year on March 1 to EQT AB.
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. At $47.50 per share, the buyout price was 32 percent higher than the closing value of a share of Hilton stock on July 3. The deal was the culmination of a year of on and off discussions with Blackstone. 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, California 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 before the 2008 financial crisis. In April 2010, Hilton and Blackstone restructured the debt with Blackstone invested a further $800 million of equity and the debt was reduced to $16 billion.
Hilton returned to being a public company on December 12, 2013. This second IPO in the company's history raised an estimated $2.35 billion. The Blackstone Group retained a 45.8% stake in the company. The company announced in February 2016 that Hilton would turn its hotel holdings into a real estate investment trust. In February 2016, Hilton announced its intention to spin off its timeshare and real estate businesses, creating three independent public companies. The spin-offs of Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations were completed in January 2017. As of 2018, the company is a fully independent publicly traded company after the exits of Blackstone and HNA. On February 7, 2024, Hilton announced an exclusive partnership with Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
On April 3, 2024, Hilton announced its acquisition of a majority controlling interest in Sydell Group, the owner of NoMad Hotels, aiming to expand the luxury lifestyle brand with up to 100 new NoMad hotels globally.
In June 2026, Hilton Worldwide announced Undergraduate by Hilton, a spin-off of Graduate. The first property is expected to open in 2027.
From Wikipedia’s article on Hilton Worldwide, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.7