Hilton has revealed that in 2017, the company achieved record-setting growth, unveiled industry-leading innovations, and introduced new benefits for guests and Team Members.
Announced at the 2018 Americas Lodging Investment Summit (ALIS) in Los Angeles this week (Jan 22), the company says 2017 was a year of industry firsts, including the launch of Five Feet To Fitness, Hilton Honors loyalty program partnership with Amazon, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, and workplace innovations that received international recognition.
It was also the year that Hilton introduced a ground-breaking concept – Connected Room – the first truly mobile-centric hotel room that will let guests personalize and control their stays from the award-winning Hilton Honors smartphone app.
“Last year was another pioneering year for our team around the world, with the launch of new technologies, brands, and partnerships that redefine the guest experience,” said Hilton’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Christopher J. Nassetta.
“After achieving record numbers across all development metrics, we look forward to driving even greater momentum as we charge toward Hilton’s centennial anniversary in 2019.”
Hilton’s Chief Financial Officer, Kevin Jacobs, added: “For the third straight year, Hilton recorded its best ever results in net unit growth, approvals, and construction starts.
“We achieved 6.5 percent net unit growth, a record 51,574 net new rooms, and finished 2017 with the highest number of rooms under construction in the industry,” he said.
Hilton’s highlights during 2017 included:
RECORD GROWTH
-Opened more than a hotel a day, creating 23,000 new hotel jobs and adding 399 properties to surpass 5,200 properties globally.
-Signed more than 700 hotels globally, including more than 100,000 rooms for the third consecutive year. Hilton says its existing system and pipeline is now a record 1.2 million rooms, with 345,000 rooms and more than 2,200 hotels in development.
-Finished the year with 21 percent of all rooms under construction globally – the most in the industry and 4.3 times Hilton’s existing market share.
-Extended Hilton’s hospitality to approximately 160 million guests across a record 105 countries and territories.
-Grew Hilton Honors to more than 71 million members, adding 11.5 million new members.
-Opened Hilton’s 5,000th property, the first Tru by Hilton, located in Oklahoma City, continuing what the company says is “the most successful brand launch in industry history and we have since opened eight more properties and have more than 470 hotels in various stages of the development process”.
-Launched upscale collection brand, Tapestry Collection by Hilton, approved nearly 30 new deals, and opened the first property – the Hotel Skyler Syracuse in New York.
-Achieved major regional and brand milestones including the opening of the 100th Greater China hotel with the Hilton Quanzhou, the 200th Asia Pacific hotel with the Waldorf Astoria Chengdu, the 100th Latin America hotel with Hilton Rio de Janeiro Copacabana, 100,000 rooms trading in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa region, and the 500th DoubleTree by Hilton and 900th All Suites property.
-Launched the Hilton Africa Growth Initiative to add 100 properties to Hilton’s Sub-Saharan African portfolio in the next five years.
-Expanded the Luxury portfolio with openings of marquee properties including the Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills, Conrad Fort Lauderdale, and the first Canopy by Hilton in North America at the Wharf in Washington, D.C.
-Completed the spin-offs of Park Hotels and Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations.
CUSTOMER INNOVATIONS
-Unveiled Connected Room, a first-of-its-kind, high-tech room that enables guests to personalize and control every aspect of their stay from the Hilton Honors app. Connected Room is live in one hotel, and will deploy across several more in the coming weeks, scaling rapidly to hotels across the United States in 2018.
-Opened the Innovation Gallery, an incubator and experiential showcase for cutting-edge product developments that will shape the future of hospitality.
-Introduced a revolutionary new guest room, Five Feet to Fitness, an in-room wellness concept that features more than 10 different fitness equipment and accessory options.
-Scaled the industry-first Digital Key technology and its room selection features to 352,000 hotel rooms in more than 2,500 hotels worldwide.
-Launched industry-first benefits for Hilton Honors members including Shop with Points at Amazon.com. Hilton Honors was also the first and only loyalty program to offer members the choice to flexibly combine Points and money for a hotel stay, and allow family and friends to pool their Points for free.
-Announced four new Hilton Honors co-branded credit cards with American Express to provide greater value for Hilton Honors members and further enhance guest rewards.
WORLD’S BEST WORKPLACE
-Named a Top 10 World’s Best Workplace on Great Place to Work’s annual list of 25 World’s Best Workplaces for the second year in a row.
-Expanded our commitment to helping our Team Members be at their best by launching Thrive@Hilton in partnership with innovative startup Thrive Global.
-Named to the 2017 Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For list, which recognizes companies with exceptional workplace cultures. Ranked at No. 26, Hilton increased its position by 30 places over the prior year.
-Expanded the Operation: Opportunity commitment to hire an additional 20,000 U.S. veterans, spouses, dependents and caregivers by the end of 2020 – building on the 10,000 military hires since 2013, exceeding the initial goal two years early.
-Recognized as a Top 50 Company for Diversity by DiversityInc, climbing 12 places over last year to number 30. Hilton was also recognized on six additional DiversityInc lists, including: Top Companies for Mentoring, Top Companies for Supplier Diversity, Top Companies for People with Disabilities, Top Companies for Employee Resource Groups, Top Companies for Veterans and Top Companies for Global Diversity.
-Launched Adoption Assistance and Thrive Sabbatical programs, and announced other industry-leading benefits including Go Hilton Long-Tenured Team Member Travel discount program.
-Ranked No. 1 in the hospitality industry by Forbes and JUST Capital for America’s Most JUST Companies.
-Volunteered more than 265,000 hours across 87 countries during Global Week of Service.
-Included on leading market and sustainability indexes – the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index and The Dow Jones Sustainability Index.
-Recognized (president and CEO Chris Nassetta) with Vital Voices’ “Voices of Solidarity Award” for Hilton’s commitment to empowering women and advancing human rights.
-Strengthened communities with more than $1 million in action grants to support local projects globally. Hilton also issued more than $3 million to support disaster relief across 20 individual campaigns.
-Distributed more than 6 million soap bars and diverted more than 15 million pounds of waste through the largest soap recycling program in the industry.