Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta Talks Hotel Pipeline, Loyalty, and More

27.03.2024 - 07:51 / skift.com / Sean Oneill / Chris Nassetta

Hilton has built the largest pipeline of hotels in its history, and its top boss attributes that achievement to the power of the group’s brands.

Christopher J. Nassetta, president and CEO, said in a Skift interview that one out of every five hotels under development worldwide is set to carry Hilton flags. If all of those hotels materialize, Hilton would expand its global market share.

Nassetta chalked up that potential share gain to the group’s brands, which he said have earned a reputation among owners for driving high returns.

The company’s loyalty program is one part of that reputation, Nassetta said. Hilton has more than doubled the number of members of its loyalty program over the past five years. The larger the loyalty program, the lower the costs of customer acquisition for owners, on average.

Nassetta also discussed Hilton’s effort to tame carbon emissions at franchised properties, not just the corporate office. While noting that his company has made progress in reducing emissions across its portfolio, he said the company is leaning on incentives and data-sharing to encourage further energy reductions by franchisees.

Skift: Hilton’s development pipeline was 462,400 rooms as of year-end, an 11% jump year-over-year. Some of your brands are enjoying outsized share gains in pipeline growth. Why?

It’s true that 2023 was a record year for Hilton, with strong top-and-bottom-line results and record growth of our development pipeline.

I’m so proud of our teams for achieving a record year of signings, which allowed us to end the year with the largest pipeline in our history.

And in Q4, we opened more new rooms than any other quarter in our history.

These are significant milestones that show the momentum of our business in a period of phenomenal growth.

The truth is that the industry remains highly fragmented globally, with major hotel brands representing a fraction of the global hotel market. There is so much opportunity ahead for increased global scale, and we’re proud to be leading the industry with one in every five hotel rooms under construction globally set to fly a Hilton flag.

While there are megatrends behind the expansion of the hospitality industry, at Hilton we firmly believe the power of our brands accelerates our growth. Owners know our distinctive, premium brands, loyalty value proposition, and commercial engines drive higher returns for them.

In 2023, we launched two brands that will expand our portfolio into new territories and bring new guests into our Hilton family — and both are growing at an astonishing pace.

With LivSmart Suites by Hilton, we tap into the road warriors who never stopped traveling during the pandemic—the traveling nurse or long-term construction crew—who need