Business Wire

VA-HILTON

15.12.2020 18:02:13 CET | Business Wire | Press release

Share
In a Year Like No Other, Hilton Grows to Milestone 1 Million Rooms and Responds to Pandemic with Innovations for Guests, Positive Impact for Communities

In a year when the travel industry faced challenges like never before, Hilton (NYSE: HLT) weathered the storm by staying true to its founding purpose – to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality. As the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented challenges for the travel and tourism industry, Hilton developed industry-leading guest innovations, reached significant growth milestones and continued to positively impact communities around the world.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201215005839/en/

Even as the company faced the biggest test in its 101-year history, Hilton’s resilient, capital-light business model enabled it to organically reach its 1 million room milestone in the fourth quarter.

Three of the hotels that helped the company cross this important threshold paint a picture of Hilton’s global growth story: Hilton Garden Inn Umhlanga Arch in South Africa, illustrating the company’s expansion into Africa; Tru by Hilton Savannah Airport , showcasing the power of the fastest-growing new brand in Hilton’s portfolio; and the Hilton Garden Inn Guizhou Maotai Town in China, helping deliver on the company’s ambitious growth goals in the APAC market.

Meanwhile, Hilton’s overall development pipeline remains strong, with 2,640 hotels and more than 408,000 rooms globally*.

“It’s been a year unlike any other, but even in the face of incredible challenges, our Team Members and owners have proven that travel is an unstoppable force for good,” said Chris Nassetta, president & CEO, Hilton. “Thanks to their grit and determination, Hilton has made a difference in the lives of so many and positively impacted communities at a time when our hospitality is needed more than ever – and together we look forward to creating even more meaningful memories in the year ahead.”

Throughout 2020, Hilton, in partnership with its hotel ownership community, has found innovative and meaningful ways to adapt to the changing needs of its guests, Team Members and communities:

Guest Experience

The pandemic rapidly changed guest behavior, priorities and concerns. Hilton responded with start-up style speed, grounded in more than a century of hospitality know-how to provide reassurance to travelers.

Among the innovations:

  • Launched Hilton CleanStay TM , an industry-defining standard of cleanliness and disinfection in collaboration with RB, maker of Lysol and Dettol and in consultation with Mayo Clinic
  • Redesigned meeting and event experiences and set new standards for event cleanliness and customer service with the launch of Hilton EventReady with CleanStay TM
  • Modified cancellation policies and took a number of steps to provide even more flexibility for Hilton Honors members including status and Points extensions
  • Created opportunities for Hilton Honors members to respond to the global pandemic by donating their Points to convert into cash and send directly to organizations including World Central Kitchen , Clean the World , Project Hope or Direct Relief
  • Provided alternative remote working options through the launch of WorkSpaces by Hilton in the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom
  • Continued to provide contactless guest experience options through the free Hilton Honors app , enabling guests to personalize their experience with the ability to choose their rooms, check-in and out digitally and use their phones as digital keys. Guests have now used Hilton’s Digital Key to open more than 100 million doors worldwide
  • Inspired travelers to make new memories with the global launch of our insights-driven marketing campaign, “To New Memories ”
  • Revealed, for the first time ever, DoubleTree by Hilton’s official chocolate chip cookie recipe so guests could create an at-home version of this iconic travel treat

Response to Communities

Hilton continued to find inventive ways to address some of the most critical, immediate needs of the communities where it operates.

  • Partnered with American Express to donate up to 1 million hotel room nights across the U.S. for frontline medical professionals leading the fight against COVID-19
  • Expanded partnership with American Express through a $1 million contribution from American Express to World Central Kitchen , to provide healthy, freshly prepared meals to the frontline healthcare professionals who stayed at Hilton properties in cities across the U.S. during the coronavirus pandemic
  • Revealed 2020 Hilton Effect Foundation Grants and reached more than $1 million in global COVID-19 community response efforts
  • Extended Hilton’s hospitality to help the travel industry come together to overcome the global pandemic including sharing countless stories of teams around the world supporting each other and helping their communities
  • Supported Hilton Team Members searching for virtual and remote volunteer opportunities, including during its annual Hilton Effect Week volunteer event and through innovative partnerships with groups including Clean the World, Meals on Wheels and more
  • Remained committed to the company’s Travel with Purpose 2030 Goals to cut the company’s environmental footprint in half and double its social impact investments worldwide. These efforts led to Hilton being named the global industry leader in sustainability for the second consecutive year on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices

Continued Global Growth and Expansion

Hilton kept dreams of traveling alive by opening exciting new properties around the world. All the while, the company advocated on behalf of owners, many of whom are small businesses, who struggled with the travel decline.

Response to Team Members

2020 saw Hilton go from being named the #1 Best Company to Work for in the U.S. to, weeks later, having to furlough thousands of Team Members due to the impact of COVID-19 on travel and tourism. At every turn, the company leaned into its values to navigate these tough decisions.

  • Activated Hilton’s Team Member Assistance Fund to support Hilton Team Members who have been directly impacted by COVID-19 or have a family member impacted by the virus
  • Reversed its recruitment engine to connect Team Members impacted by furloughs and layoffs with access to more than a million job opportunities through the Hilton Workforce Resource Center
  • Launched a new Hilton Alumni Network portal with access to relevant career opportunities, resources, news and information
  • Committed to an expedited recruitment process for Team Members who reapply for future roles when conditions allow
  • Extended Team Member Hilton Honors status and access to Go Hilton, Hilton’s industry-leading Team Member travel program, for departing Team Members, and offered improved Honors status to current Team Members
  • Continued to earn recognition as a top workplace, even as the pandemic continued, including being named to the top spot on the 2020 list of Best Workplaces in Greater China
  • Recognized the heroic actions of frontline Team Members with the creation of a new Hospitality Heroes Award
  • Listened to Team Members and relaunched the network of eight Team Member Resource Groups committed to building communities across the organization, and introduced a Courageous Conversation series to foster meaningful dialogue to bring about lasting change in the midst of an evolving social justice landscape

To learn more about Hilton, please visit: newsroom.hilton.com .

* Unless otherwise indicated, all hotel data reflects Hilton’s third quarter 2020 announcement (November 4). More information can be found on Hilton’s Investor Relations website.

About Hilton

Hilton (NYSE: HLT) is a leading global hospitality company with a portfolio of 18 world-class brands comprising more than 6,300 properties and more than one million rooms, in 118 countries and territories. Dedicated to fulfilling its mission to be the world’s most hospitable company, Hilton has welcomed more than 3 billion guests in its more than 100-year history, earned a top spot on the 2020 World’s Best Workplaces list, and was named the 2020 Global Industry Leader on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices. In 2020, Hilton CleanStay was introduced, bringing an industry-defining standard of cleanliness and disinfection to hotels worldwide. Through the award-winning guest loyalty program Hilton Honors, the more than 110 million members who book directly with Hilton can earn Points for hotel stays and experiences money can’t buy, plus enjoy instant benefits, including contactless check-in with room selection, Digital Key, and Connected Room. Visit newsroom.hilton.com for more information, and connect with Hilton on Facebook , Twitter , LinkedIn , Instagram and YouTube .

Link:

ClickThru

About Business Wire

Business Wire
Business Wire
101 California Street, 20th Floor
CA 94111 San Francisco

http://businesswire.com

Subscribe to releases from Business Wire

Subscribe to all the latest releases from Business Wire by registering your e-mail address below. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Latest releases from Business Wire

Sparxity Closes Series A, Bringing Total Funding to $90M10.11.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release

Strategic funding accelerates next-generation sparse-native AI computing, building upon an existing commercial ecosystem and proven silicon Sparxity, a leader in sparse-native computing, today announced the close of its Series A, bringing cumulative funding secured by its team to $90M. The round was led by ICM HPQC Fund and joined by investors such as Lockheed Martin Ventures, GlobalFoundries, GS Futures, Cloudberry Ventures, TGFS and the EIC Fund. The financing also includes angel investments from TIME100 AI leaders Richard Socher (Recursive Superintelligence) and Nancy Xu (Salesforce-acquired Moonhub), alongside continued support from Atlantic and Silicon Catalyst. The funding will accelerate the development of specialized chips for fine-grained dynamic sparsity, targeting up to 44× faster AI inference in ultra-sparse models, bringing greater energy efficiency by computing only what matters. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.

Transition Industries Selects Technip Energies as PMC Partner for Pacifico Mexinol Ultra-Low Carbon Methanol Project10.11.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release

Transition Industries announces the selection of Technip Energies as its Project Management Consultancy (PMC) partner for the Pacifico Mexinol project, located in Sinaloa, Mexico, which is expected to become the world's largest ultra-low carbon chemical production facility. Once operational, the facility will produce annually approximately 350,000 metric tons of RFNBO (Renewable Fuel of Non-Biological Origin) methanol and 1.8 million metric tons of ultra-low carbon methanol from natural gas with carbon capture, helping meet growing global demand through a lower-carbon production model. “We are pleased that Technip Energies has joined the project team and will bring their global project management expertise to our landmark industrial development project in Mexico. Technip Energies was selected for their project management expertise, technical know-how and execution capabilities,” says Diego Martinez, Transition Industries Chief Operating Officer. The project will use existing infrastruc

Telia Estonia trials Adtran 50G PON technology to prepare for next-generation broadband services10.11.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release

News summary: Telia Estonia is preparing its fiber network to support the next generation of residential and business broadband services Trial of Adtran’s 50G PON solution establishes a practical path to higher-capacity access over existing infrastructure Project will validate how 50G PON can operate alongside GPON and XGS-PON services, enabling phased network upgrades Adtran today announced that Telia Estonia, part of Nordic and Baltic telecommunications operator Telia Company, is trialing its 50G PON technology as the next step in the evolution of its fiber broadband infrastructure. Building on its deployment of Adtran’s fiber access platform, the proof of concept (PoC) will evaluate how 50G PON can coexist with existing GPON and XGS-PON services on a common network infrastructure. The trial will help Telia Estonia prepare for future residential and business connectivity requirements while providing a practical framework for introducing higher-capacity services as market needs develo

Vasion® Fall Release Eliminates Dark Documents and Makes Operational Documents AI Ready10.11.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release

New release puts AI agents, workflows and print into one control center for IT IT-Governed Document AI: Vasion Intelligence (beta) lets IT set guardrails up front while empowering users to easily create human in the loop workflows. Zero Trust Gap: A survey of 500+ U.S. IT leaders reveals print ranks last in Zero Trust coverage at just 16%. Live at Microsoft Ignite: Demos and benchmarking will run November 17–21 at Booth 5509. Vasion, the Intelligent Document Automation company, announced its fall release, which captures the context behind operational documents and makes them ready for AI without IT giving up control. Vasion will demonstrate it at Microsoft Ignite, November 17-21, in San Francisco, booth 5509. This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20261110362305/en/ Vasion® Fall Release Eliminates Dark Documents and Makes Operational Documents AI Ready “Every company runs on operational documents: the invoices, claims,

Nebul Adopts NetApp Novus to Power Sovereign AI Infrastructure10.11.2026 14:00:00 CET | Press release

Neocloud pioneer selects the fastest storage on the planet, NetApp Novus, architected to enable its file system to grow to support zettabyte-scale AI factory operations NetApp® (NASDAQ: NTAP), the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, today announced that Nebul, a European AI-native cloud provider, is the first neocloud to adopt NetApp Novus™, its new high-performance architecture designed to deliver the fastest storage on the planet. Nebul is building the Intelligent Cloud, a sovereign platform integrating accelerated infrastructure, enterprise data services and production AI capabilities. Novus, now generally available, is designed to maximize utilization for millions of GPUs and is architected for up to 100 TB per second of aggregate throughput. Moving quickly to adopt the groundbreaking technology, Nebul and NetApp are exploring new opportunities to help organizations achieve AI-powered advantage and unlock greater value from their data. Bringing together Nebul’s sovereign AI se

In our pressroom you can read all our latest releases, find our press contacts, images, documents and other relevant information about us.

Visit our pressroom
World GlobeA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.HiddenA line styled icon from Orion Icon Library.Eye