22 facts about Hilton Worldwide in figures
Hilton Worldwide celebrates its presence in 100 countries worldwide, following the launch of the new Hilton N’Djamena hotel in Chad.
Later this month, Hilton Worldwide is also expected to launch an additional mid-scale brand.
To mark this landmark new hotel opening, as well as what Hilton Worldwide are deeming a record year (opening an average of nearly one hotel per day during 2015), Hotelier Middle East takes a look at the hotel group’s success and growth over the last year, with 22 facts in figures you didn’t know about the Hilton brand.
1. The hotel group welcomed over 140 million visitors to its 4,600 properties around the world (which includes owned, managed and franchised hotels and timeshare properties).
2. In 2015, Hilton signed over 100,000 new rooms for development, creating a global pipeline of 275,000 hotel rooms. Half this number are currently under construction, and represent almost 20% of the total hotel rooms under construction globally.
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3. During the last year, over 50,000 gross rooms were added to the company’s portfolio, and 43,000 net rooms, which represents 6.6% growth for the group (managed and franchised).
4. Hilton created approximately 20,000+ new jobs in hotels as a result of new properties (managed and franchised) openings.
5. Hilton converted 14,500 rooms from competitor brands and independent hotels. This number represents nearly 30% of all openings last year.
6. Hilton Worldwide has expanded by more than 50% since 2007. It has also launched three new hotel brands. Between them, these three brands encompass a total number of almost 60,000 rooms (currently in various stages of development).
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7. In the Americas, Hilton Worldwide signed in excess of 500 approvals for development, equally 65,000 rooms. Hilton now operates 100 open hotels in the Caribbean alone.
8. Last year Hilton Worldwide open over 7,000 rooms within Europe.
9. 2015 was the third consecutive year that Hilton Worldwide open more than 5,000 rooms in the Asia Pacific region. Last year also marked a debut for the following Hilton brands in Asia: Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton, Embassy by Hilton and Hilton Hotels & Resorts.
Conrad Hotels & Resorts (under the Hilton Worldwide banner) has a total of 23 operating hotels. It added 900 rooms to the total Conrad room pipeline of over 6,000. This includes the Conrad Shenzhen, China (300 rooms); Conrad San Luis Potosi, Mexico (135 rooms) and Conrad Chicago, USA (287 rooms).
10. Three new Conrad hotel signings in 2015 in China bring the total pipeline of hotels in China up to 11.
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11. Digital Check-in, which allows guests to check in and choose their exact room at more than 4,400 hotels around the world, has been used by guests 8.5 million times since launching in June 2014.
12. Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts has 25 operating hotels. It now has more than 2,000 rooms in the pipeline.
13. Construction has now started on the new Waldorf Astoria Beverly Hills (170 rooms), which will be located next to the Beverly Hilton in LA.
14. Hilton Hotels & Resorts currently has a pipeline of over 55,000 rooms, two thirds of which are currently under construction.
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15. Hilton Worldwide’s Open Doors initiative aims to impact one million youth by 2019. It has already worked with 400,000 young people through apprenticeship schemes, career engagement and life skills training.
16. DoubleTree by Hilton opened 45 hotels and added nearly 14,000 rooms to its development pipeline. Approximately 80% of this pipeline is located outside of North America.
17. Eight new Embassy Suites by Hilton properties opened in 2015. Signings have also been made for this brand in Saudi Arabia, China, Hawaii and St. Kitts.
18. Mid-market brand Hilton Garden Inn is expected to be on track to open its 100,000th room.
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19. Hilton’s loyalty scheme, Hilton HHonors, added six million new members in 2015. This is the brand’s highest number of enrollments ever in a single year. The number now accounts for 50 million members, who represent 52% of the occupancy for the company.
20. Hampton by Hilton is expected to open an additional 400 hotels in the next few years, including the first KSA property, due to open in 2018. Hampton by Hilton also passed its 200,000th room milestone in 2015 and now has a pipeline of more than 50,000 rooms.
21. More than 2.5 million guests downloaded the Hilton HHonors app in 2015.
22. Nearly 100 US hotels installed Digital Key. The app allows frequent guests to bypass the hotel check-in counter and access their rooms directly via the Hilton HHonors app on their smartphones.