Hilton Hotels & Resorts


Hilton Hotels & Resorts is a global brand of full-service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of American multinational hospitality company Hilton.
The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As of December 31, 2018, there were 586 Hilton Hotels & Resorts properties with 215,623 rooms in 85 countries and territories across six continents. This includes 66 properties that are owned or leased with 20,264 rooms, 276 that are managed with 119,594 rooms, and 244 that are franchised with 75,765 rooms. In 2020, Fortune magazine ranked Hilton Hotels & Resorts at number one on their Fortune List of the Top 100 Companies to Work For in 2020 based on an employee survey of satisfaction.

Overview

Hilton Hotels & Resorts is Hilton's flagship brand and one of the largest hotel brands in the world. The brand is targeted at both business and leisure travelers with locations in major city centers, near airports, convention centers, and popular vacation destinations around the world.
Hilton Hotels & Resorts participates in Hilton Honors, Hilton's guest loyalty program. Members who book directly through Hilton-owned channels receive exclusive discounts and amenities such as free Wi-Fi, digital check-in, keyless entry, and the ability to use a mobile app to choose specific rooms.

History

The hotel chain was founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919, when he bought his first property, the Mobley Hotel, in Cisco, Texas. The first hotel to bear the Hilton name was the Dallas Hilton, a high-rise that opened in Dallas, Texas in 1925.
With construction on the Beirut Hilton finished, the hotel was scheduled to open on April 14, 1975, but the Lebanese Civil War erupted exactly one day before the April 13 Grand Opening date. The hotel never opened and was severely damaged during the war, and the building was demolished in the late 1990s. However, a different hotel was established later, under the name "Hilton Beirut Grand Habtoor", in the nearby eastern suburb. Later on, the Hilton Chain bought the Metropolitan hotel directly facing the Grand Habtoor and renamed it "Hilton Metropolitan".
On February 13, 1978, the Sydney Hilton Hotel was the site of one of the few terrorist incidents on Australian soil, when a bomb blast killed three people.
The Hilton Nicosia in Nicosia, Cyprus, was the scene of the assassination of Youssef Sebai, an Egyptian newspaper editor and friend of Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat, on February 19, 1978. The assassination and the hijacking of a Cyprus Airways DC-8 at Larnaca Airport led to the Egyptian raid on Larnaca International Airport by Egyptian forces. The intervention by the Egyptians led to the deterioration of relations between Cyprus and Egypt.
In 1989, Hilton established the Hilton Honors program, Hilton's guest loyalty program.
In 2004, Hilton Hotels opened their new Kuala Lumpur property in KL Sentral as the replacement for their former premises in Jalan Sultan Ismail.
In 2009, the company relocated its global headquarters from Beverly Hills, California to McLean, Virginia, opened its first hotel in New Delhi, India, and opened Canada's tallest hotel at 58 stories, in Niagara Falls, Ontario.
In late 2010, Hilton announced a name change of the Hilton Hotels brand to Hilton Hotels & Resorts along with a new logo design, as part of a rebranding effort for the flagship brand.
In March 2013, Hilton announced that it would be entering Burma for the first time with the construction of a 300-room hotel in Yangon.
In 2015, approximately 20 Hilton Hotels & Resorts properties were inducted into the Historic Hotels of America organization. Among these hotels were Hilton Fort Worth, which hosted John F. Kennedy's final speech, and Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, the setting of the film Blue Hawaii.
In 2016, Hilton N’Djamena opened in Chad. It was the brand's first property in the country and the 100th country Hilton began operations in worldwide. In June 2016, Hilton opened their first hotel in Estonia and in the Baltic states.
In 2017, Hilton announced that it will remain the sponsor for McLaren until 2021. Hilton is one of the oldest sponsor of F1 series and is sponsoring McLaren since 2005. In October 2017, Hilton announced it had committed a total of $50m over five years to its Hilton Africa Growth Initiative to support the continued expansion of its Sub-Saharan African portfolio.
In March 2018, Hilton opened their first hotel in Serbia. It is a four-star hotel located in Belgrade.
In November 2019, Hilton opened their first hotel in Uzbekistan. It is a five-star hotel located in Tashkent.
In 2020, it was reported, that Hilton has partnered with Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Hotels to open a resort and casino in Las Vegas using Hilton's Curio collection' to be opened later that year.