Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Hilton Hotels & Resorts
Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | May 31, 1919(as Hilton Hotels) |
| Founder | Conrad Hilton |
| Headquarters | McLean, Virginia , |
Number of locations | 586 hotels (December 31, 2018)[1][2] |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Parent | Hilton Worldwide |
| Website | www.hilton.com/en/hilton/ [26] |
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[1].[5] 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.[1]
Type | Privately held company |
|---|---|
| Industry | Hospitality |
| Founded | May 31, 1919(as Hilton Hotels) |
| Founder | Conrad Hilton |
| Headquarters | McLean, Virginia , |
Number of locations | 586 hotels (December 31, 2018)[1][2] |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Parent | Hilton Worldwide |
| Website | www.hilton.com/en/hilton/ [26] |
Overview
The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills
Hilton Istanbul Bosphorus (1955) was built as the first Hilton hotel in Europe and is currently the longest serving Hilton hotel outside the United States. It appeared in the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963).
Hilton Hotel in Tokyo
Sheffield Hilton
Hilton Colombo, Sri Lanka
Hilton Athens in Athens, Greece
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.[8][9]
Notable events
Conrad Hilton founded the hotel chain in 1919, when he bought his first property, the Mobley Hotel, in Cisco, Texas.[10]
The first hotel to bear the Hilton name was the Dallas Hilton, a high-rise that opened in Dallas, Texas in 1925.[11]
In 1954, at the Caribe Hilton Hotel's Beachcomber Bar in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Ramon "Monchito" Marrero reportedly created the Piña Colada.[12]
The Conrad Hilton Hotel in Chicago figured prominently in the 1968 Democratic Convention police riot[13] that occurred on Michigan Avenue and across the street in Grant Park on August 28. During the riot the demonstrators took up the chant "The whole world is watching", and the hotel's doors were locked for the first time in its history. The hotel suffered minor damage as a result of the violence, as a couple of street level windows gave way under the weight of dozens of protesters being pushed up against them by the police.
John Lennon and Yoko Ono held their first Bed-In for Peace between March 25 and 31, 1969, at the Amsterdam Hilton, in Room 902 (renumbered to Room 702 during renovation). This room became a popular tourist destination.[14]
In the London Hilton bombing of September 1975, a bomb exploded in the lobby of the London Hilton on Park Lane killing two people and injuring 63.
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".[15]
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 (two council workers and a policeman).
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.[16]
On October 24, 1999, the four double columns of the left hand side of the then modern Barbados Hilton in Needham's Point, St. Michael, was collapsed and imploded inwards in just ten to fifteen seconds when the earthquake had rocked Barbados. It was later demolished in May 2005 after they constructed the new Barbados Hilton in January 2005.
In 2004, Hilton Hotels opened their new Kuala Lumpur property in KL Sentral, directly opposite the main entrance to the Sentral Terminal, as the replacement for their former premises in Jalan Sultan Ismail. The latter was the first internationally-run hotel in the city when opening in 1973, and changed management in 2002 (renamed Crowne Plaza Mutiara) before being demolished in 2015 for a (currently on hold) mixed-use development.
In 2009, the company relocated its global headquarters from Beverly Hills, California to McLean, Virginia.
In 2009 Hilton 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.[17]
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.[18]
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.[19]
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.[20]
In June 2016, Hilton opened his first hotel in Estonia and in the Baltic states.[21]
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.[22] In October 2017, Hilton announced it had committed a total of $50m (£37.8m) over five years to its Hilton Africa Growth Initiative to support the continued expansion of its Sub-Saharan African portfolio.
In early 2018, Hilton will be all set to open their first hotel in Bangladesh designed by Mustapha Khalid Palash.
In March 2018, Hilton opened his first hotel in Serbia. It is a four-star hotel located in Belgrade.[23][24]
See also
Sheraton Hotels and Resorts
List of chained-brand hotels
List of hotels