Conrad Hilton: The Great Life of a Great Man. Biography of Conrad Hilton Respectable politician John Warner
Motivation: self-foundation, will, source of motives, center
Conrad Hilton
Sun in Cancer
You are truly devoted to home and family, hardworking, caring and dreamy. Although you are quiet and diligent, it is very important for you to know what others think of you. You want to be needed by others, and through real concern for people, you can overcome your natural modesty. You love to cook, host and collect. If the need arises, you can intrigue to achieve the goal, and this goal is emotional security. You should always have a quiet place where you can go away from others, as you overreact to outside influences.
Elizabeth Taylor
Sun in Pisces
You are compassionate and tolerant, kind to others and do not want to offend anyone. You do not always make decisions quickly, overcoming your need to escape from difficulties. You are creative, spiritual and often mystical. You are a pleasant person with charm. You easily find yourself in submission to someone and love animals.
Emotions: sensitivity, susceptibility, impressionability
Conrad Hilton
Moon in Gemini
Your emotional side requires variety and novelty, not consistency and depth of feeling. You are more impressed by thoughts than by feelings. Your sense organs serve first of all the mind, and only then the emotions. This increases your capacity for constant observation and reasoning. Your mind is fickle and sometimes unsystematic, but you can absorb a huge amount of little things. You love action and movement, both physical and mental. Your intuition is not very developed, and you are more likely to observe. You quickly accumulate impressions that you can express with words. For your psychological stability, your inclinations are very important, as well as the need to do several things at the same time. You are more interested in the events taking place here and now than in the past. Since you are captured by changeable feelings, you very quickly waste your strength, rushing in different directions, which causes nervous tension. You know how to please others, and sometimes, for the sake of your own well-being, you even resort to cunning. Your restless nature is constantly looking for something new.
Elizabeth Taylor
Moon in Scorpio
Your emotions are intense and often based on strong desires. You are impatient, subject to mood swings and prone to gloomy reflections. You are vulnerable, you can be jealous and even vengeful person. You judge others too quickly and feel the need to quietly manage people. You cannot stand resistance and do not interfere in other people's affairs, but sometimes out of kindness you go for it. You are good at responsibilities, have great potential and entrepreneurial spirit. Although harsh and impulsive, you are self-confident and able to succeed. Usually you get what you want. Since you are jealous, proud and possessive, this position of the Moon does not promise harmony in marriage. The most important thing for you is to learn to forgive and forget, to control your strong, deep feelings.
Intelligence: mind, reason, mind, speech, communication
Conrad Hilton
Mercury in Leo
You are prone to dramatization and, when thinking about something, always involve your heart. You are a dreamer and an idealist, and your connections are usually romantic. You are full of dignity, inner refinement and always strive to create a good impression about yourself. You want to be considered an authority, you are able to solve problems, but sometimes you neglect the details. You are ambitious and perform tasks well.
Elizabeth Taylor
Mercury in Pisces
You have psychic abilities and a finely developed intuition, you love to learn and eagerly absorb knowledge, and do not study textbooks. You have an excellent memory, you are thoughtful, romantic and poetic. Sometimes you hide what you really think, and are frank only with close friends or relatives. This position of Mercury indicates duality, which leads to internal contradictions. And if you add to this that you easily succumb to other people's influence, then it is not at all surprising that you often change moods and are too sensitive. You are very vulnerable. A harmonious environment is very important to you, as your reactions are more subconscious than conscious. You try to be an erudite person. Use your many talents and natural wit to combat your potential flaws.
Harmony: measure, conjugation, sympathy, coherence, values
Conrad Hilton
Venus in Gemini
You are generous, friendly and impartial. You need freedom. You want to have an intellectual partner who, if possible, has a sense of humor. You like to wander around the world, you are literate and poetic. Perhaps you will marry early. You have good manners, good relations with relatives and neighbors, you love your family. By nature, you are curious and try to experience literally everything that life offers you.
Elizabeth Taylor
Venus in Aries
You are a restless, passionate, inspirational person who tends to overwhelm others and your aggressiveness can cause people to leave you. Since you are naturally open and enthusiastic, you excel in all social situations. People like you and can be creative. You can marry early or hastily and not always behave decently.
Activity: will, initiative, effort, leadership-subordination
Conrad Hilton
Mars in Aries
You are courageous, independent, like to dominate. You are a brave and domineering person, You cannot stand routine work and hardly compromise. You are aggressive and full of initiative. Always want to be "behind the wheel". Your enthusiasm inspires other people, often you act as a leader. Maximum success will come to you only when you learn to direct your energy and develop patience and compassion in yourself,
Conrad Hilton family
Daughter - Francesca.
03.01.1979
Conrad Hilton
Conrad Nicholson Hilton
American Entrepreneur
Founder of the Hilton hotel chain
American entrepreneur. Founder of the Hilton hotel chain.
Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, USA. The boy grew up in the family of a grocery store manager. After graduating from college in 1908, he entered the institute, where he received the profession of a mining engineer. Returning home, Konrad helped his father in the store, and when the latter was elected a deputy, he was his assistant.
With the outbreak of World War I, Hilton volunteered for the front. After demobilization in 1918, he began an independent life. Doing business became his main interest. Soon he created a bank that went bankrupt. Further, Hilton made several more attempts to create banks, but to no avail.
By chance, in 1919, he arrived in the small town of Cisco, Texas, where he stayed at the Mobley Hotel, more like a rooming house. Some observations prompted Hilton to enter the hotel business, and Conrad decided to buy this hotel.
Within a year, Conrad had made every meter of his hotel earn by increasing the number of beds and placing glass showcases at the entrance with the necessary little things: newspapers, magazines, razor blades, toothbrushes and more. The new Hilton business went well. Just a year later, he acquired three more hotels, and in 1925 the Dallas Hilton, Conrad's first own hotel, opened.
Soon Hilton began to receive invitations from all over Texas to build and manage hotels. Further, his fortune was already growing with a progression of one hotel per year. The empire expanded, and Conrad even managed to get through the Great Crisis of the 1930s with minimal losses. During this period, the entrepreneur learned to support his business during a period of economic instability, and soon hotels with his name could be found throughout the country. Hilton not only built its own, but also gradually outbid competitors' hotels.
In 1946, the Hilton Hotels Corporation was established. This hotel chain became the largest in the United States, and the corporation's turnover grew so much that in 1949 Conrad was able to buy the most luxurious hotel in New York, the Waldorf-Astoria, fulfilling his old dream. That same year, the first hotel outside America opened in Puerto Rico.
As a result, by the 1960s, Hilton Hotels became the most technologically advanced hotel chain in the world, with about a hundred hotels worldwide, while continuing to grow, and Conrad himself became a multimillionaire.
In 1966, at the age of 78, Konrad stepped down from the management of the corporation, passing the presidency to his son Barron, but remained chairman of the board of directors until the last day. "In retirement" he took up charity work, and he also liked to speak to students. Hilton also organized a Catholic foundation in his name and provided a college of hotel and restaurant management at the University of Houston.
The famous hotelier, the maestro of the hotel business, Conrad Hilton died on January 3, 1979 in the city of Santa Monica, USA. The funeral was held in a quiet, family circle.
The businessman left behind not only a huge fortune. Hilton brought the hotel business to a completely new stage of development, and his initiatives have now become world standards. It was Konrad who was the first to introduce the system of gradation of hotels according to the “star” type and the concept of “standard set of services”, which is the same for all the hotels of the company, and was the first to open the practice of selling essential items in hotel lobbies, developed a system of discounts.
Conrad Hilton family
First wife - Mary Barron (married in 1926).
Three sons - Nicholas, Barron and Eric.
Second wife - Zsa Zsa Gabor (married in 1942), actress.
Daughter - Francesca.
Third wife - Marie Franziska Kelly (married in 1976).
Now everyone knows that there are hotel chains with the same name and the same level of service all over the world - be it London, Paris, Moscow or the Cayman Islands. But the first hotel chain was created by the American Conrad Hilton, who gave all his hotels his own name and offered them a standard set of services. It was he who first came up with the idea of assigning "stars" to hotels (by analogy with cognac) and was the first to start selling everything that customers might need in the halls of their hotels.
In June 1919, Conrad Hilton, who was then 31 years old, arrived in the Texas town of Cisco. He recently experienced the bankruptcy of his first enterprise - a bank that did not last a year. After its liquidation, Konrad still had $5,000 left, and he was going to open a new bank or, if possible, buy a suitable one. But very soon his plans changed. In search of lodging for the night, he went to the local hotel Mobley. The banker-loser was struck by the people crowding in the lobby, who literally fought for free rooms. Crowds of clientele are the real dream of any businessman, Hilton thought at that moment. But the owner of the hotel was not at all happy with such pandemonium, and it turned out that he was not averse to selling his 60-room Mobley. This was enough to make Hilton forget about any banks forever. A few days later he became the owner of his first hotel, and six years later he opened the first hotel of his name in Dallas - the Dallas Hilton.
Ensign.
Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1887, in San Antonio, New Mexico. His father, August, immigrated from Norway and his mother, Marie, from Germany. My dad ran a general store in San Antonio that generated enough money to build a spacious house with bedrooms for each of his eight children.
But the entire established family world almost collapsed during the economic downturn of 1907. Revenue at August Hilton's store had shrunk so much that his family had to save even on food. At the family council, it was decided to rent some rooms to guests. Who first came up with this idea, no one knows, but it was 20-year-old Konrad who had to look for clients, who every evening offered this impromptu motel to passengers at the local station. For a clean room, dinner and breakfast, guests were charged only $1. Everyone was happy, the small family run house helped the Hiltons survive the depression, and soon their general store was profitable again.
Conrad received a thorough education to please his father. Following graduation from the local college, St. Michael Conrad was sent to the New Mexico Military Institute. The father believed that education should guarantee a firm position in life. Konrad trained as a mining engineer, but did not work a day in his specialty. Returning home, he began to help his father in the family business. And when in 1912 his father was elected to the lower house of the New Mexico State Legislature, he took 24-year-old Conrad as his assistant.
The work of an assistant to a deputy was prestigious, but gradually it began to become boring. Therefore, no sooner had the United States entered World War I in 1917 than he volunteered for the army. Hilton fought in Europe in the rank of second lieutenant of the quartermaster service, approximately corresponding to our ensign. Konrad served in Europe until the very end of the war in 1918, but during these three years the situation at home changed dramatically. His father died in a car accident, and Hilton began an independent life.
Hostel owner.
Conrad had no doubt that he should become an entrepreneur. And since he had to thoroughly study banking legislation while working with his father in the state legislature, Hilton decided to organize his own bank, which, as we already know, did not last even a year. But its founder, with $5,000 saved from creditors, decided to try his luck in the outback. The search for a suitable county town led him to the town of Sisko, located in the oil-bearing province of Texas. And there, Hilton finally found his life's work, deciding to spit on his career as a financier and bought a small hotel instead of a bank.
Acquisition of the Mobley Hotel cost Hilton not so cheaply. In addition to his own $5,000, he had to borrow $15,000 from friends and also take out a bank loan for $20,000. Now everything depended on Conrad himself.
Mobley's main clientele were workers from the nearby oil fields, who rented rooms only for eight hours of sleep. The rooms cost $1 and $2.5 per night. And although Hilton himself called Mobley-type hotels nothing more than "bedrooms", they were somewhat reminiscent of his first hotel experience in organizing a family boarding house during the depression of 1907. The first thing Conrad did in his hotel was to increase the number of beds in order to eliminate the seething crowd waiting for the night. Then he came up with the idea to entertain the visitors with something, while, preferably, for his own benefit. To do this, he placed several showcases around the columns in the lobby, in which every little thing was sold - from newspapers and magazines to clothes brushes and toothpaste. Hilton later said that each column brought him $8,000.
To the surprise of friends and family, who knew how quickly Conrad's bank went bankrupt, business at Mobley was going just fine. A year later, Hilton bought another hotel in the town of Fort Worth, and then two more smaller hotels. By 1924, Hilton had 350 rooms and enough money to build his first hotel from scratch.
First Hilton.
Conrad decided to break out of the countryside and build the first hotel of his name in the Texas capital of Dallas. Many years later, when Hilton became a recognized authority in the hotel business, and simply rich and famous, one of the journalists asked when exactly he realized that he was rich. Conrad quite seriously answered: "When I spent the night on the benches in the park." And although Hilton spent his entire life sleeping on benches only in a figurative sense, he was thinking about creating a global business empire when he opened his first failed bank.
The grand opening of the 325-room Dallas Hilton took place on August 2, 1925. Interestingly, the rooms in it were not much more expensive than in "Mobley" - $ 1.5 and $ 3 per night. By this point, Hilton was opening about one hotel a year in Texas.
Having built the house, Konrad felt himself firmly on his feet to think about procreation. The following year, 38-year-old Hilton married for the first time - to Mary Barron. Mary bore him three sons - Nicholas, Barron and Eric.
The happy life did not last long and ended with the stock market crash of 1929. Then 80% of American hotels went bankrupt. Konrad fought to the end, imposing a austerity regime and trying to get new loans out of the banks. To save his business, Hilton closed three of the eight hotels, but that didn't help either. In 1930, he secured a $300,000 loan from the Moody family conglomerate of companies (who owned an insurance company, banks, newspapers, hotels, and even a baseball team) against all of his hotel assets. But the crisis dragged on and in December 1931 Hilton lost ownership of his Hilton Hotels company. It was a complete disaster.
It's only the beginning.
Interestingly, Hilton was saved by the same Great Depression that ruined him. Hotels weren't a big-time business at the time, and no one in the Moody family-owned National Hotel Company had any idea what to do with eight more money-losing hotels. In general, there was no one to sell them, it was a pity to close them. Therefore, the new owners offered to buy Hilton Hotels to Hilton himself. He was put in charge of the company with an annual salary of $ 18 thousand. Having received a financial respite, Conrad began to buy back hotels named after himself. Three years later, in 1934, he received back three hotels and a new loan secured by them in the amount of $ 95 thousand. To make independence more complete, Konrad divorced his wife at the same time.
From that moment on, wiser and surviving the last major recession in US history, Hilton went on to build the worldwide company that was already in his dreams. And the tactics of acquisitions have not changed, just the hotels have become larger. For fifteen years, Conrad painstakingly bought up competitors' hotels and built new ones.
The main changes took place inside the Hilton hotels. Conrad made something like "McDonald's" out of them - in all hotels the client was met with a standardized set of services. There was even an advertisement in which a taxi was depicted with a single inscription: "To the Hilton." In order to "equalize" his hotels even more, Konrad was one of the first to designate the class of the hotel with asterisks - like cognac. Another know-how of Hilton was the following: all purchases in hotels were made in advance, based on an analysis of demand and taking into account upcoming events. No customer requirement should come as a surprise.
Conrad himself soon earned the nickname enthusiastic dealmaker ("enthusiastic businessman") for his indefatigable energy in studying competitors. When he was going to buy a hotel, he personally studied the situation. For example, I watched how many men and women enter and whether they smile when they leave the hotel, what is the size of the lobby, and even how many light bulbs are on in front of the entrance and how many of them burned out.
After the end of World War II, the turnover of his company grew so much that in 1949 he was able to fulfill the dream of his life (he constantly carried a photograph of this hotel in his purse) by buying the most luxurious hotel in New York - the Waldorf-Astoria. That same year, the first Hilton opened outside the United States. It was the 300-room Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico. And in 1954, Konrad paid $111 million for his main competitor in the technological equipment of hotels - the Statler Hotels chain. At that time, this transaction was the largest real estate acquisition in the United States.
Quiet joys.
By the early 1960s, the Hilton had become the most "technological" hotel chain in the world, and its expansion was unimpeded. By the end of the 1960s, Conrad had about 40 hotels in the United States and the same number outside of them. The Hiltons have become a natural fixture in London, Rome, Caracas and Barbados. In 1964, Hilton spun off all "overseas" assets to the Hilton Group, which from that moment owns the right to the Hilton brand outside the United States and Mexico.
Conrad himself retired from running the company in 1966 at the age of 78. Management passed to his son Barron. A year later, Conrad Hilton's autobiography "Be My Guest" was published. After that, he indulged in the quiet old man's joys of a self-satisfied multimillionaire. For example, Konrad loved to speak to students at the opening of the hospitality departments. He also organized a Catholic foundation in his name and generously handed out prizes. Three years before his death, Hilton married a third time. He died on January 4, 1979 in Dallas, where he once built his first Hilton. He was then 91 years old.
Conrad bequeathed his entire fortune to the Hilton Foundation. And his son Barron spent another nine years to challenge his father's last will. So control of the American part of the Hilton empire still belongs to his family.
Fundamental principles of work.
1. The client should be offered as many services as possible for free.
2. Everything that the client may need should be sold at the hotel.
3. Money should bring the entire space of the hotel.
1. "Standard offer" of services, uniform in all Hilton hotels.
2. "Star" gradation of hotels - by analogy with cognac.
In war as in war.
The way Conrad Hilton works with clients is like a well-prepared military offensive. The guest of his hotels in the room was met by an impressive range of free options and services: from a TV (a rarity in the 1950s) to shampoo. The comfort of the guests was achieved by the well-coordinated work of the home front workers. Everything that customers might need, Hilton demanded to buy in advance. Those had only to call the administrator and demand, for example: "It's cold. I want a heater." Finally, Hilton believed that the whole space of the hotel should bring money. And he always set up counters in the lobby of his hotels where you could buy a bunch of necessary things: from the morning newspaper to threads and buttons. Now this Hilton "battle tactic" for the client has become an industry standard.
Conrad Nicholson Hilton (Conrad Nicholson Hilton; 1887 - 1979) was an American entrepreneur and investor. Company Founder Hilton- a global hotel chain.
Hilton was born December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, New Mexico, USA. His father, August Halvorsen "Gus" Hilton, was a Norwegian immigrant with his own grocery store, and his mother, Marie Genevieve, was from a devout Catholic American family of German origin. Hilton was the seventh child in their family.
Hilton trained at the New Mexico Military Institute, St. Michael's College (now Santa Fe College), and the New Mexico School, now New Mexico Tech. He was a member of the international Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. When he turned 21, he took charge of his father's shop, but quickly became disillusioned with the monotony of the business. During this time, he developed his entrepreneurial skills. Seeking new opportunities, Hilton joined the Republican Party and was elected to New Mexico's first state legislature in 1912, when the territory became an official U.S. state. He served two terms before leaving politics. During World War I, Hilton served in the US Army. After serving two years, he was sent home due to the death of his father.
Hilton's mother, having been brought up in the canons of the Catholic Church, instilled in Conrad a love of prayer, whenever he was troubled or alarmed by something: whether it was upset from the childhood loss of a beloved pony, or serious financial losses during the Great Depression. His mother continually reminded him that prayer was the best investment he would ever make.
Hilton's first purchase was the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, where he went during the oil boom to open his bank. But his plan to invest in a bank in an oil booming city fell through, and that's when he checked into the Mobley Hotel. Here he saw the potential of this institution and having bought it immediately began repairs. He saw exactly where the mistakes were made in the management of the hotel and immediately began to correct the situation, increasing efficiency. Soon the hotel had a restaurant and a dance hall, as well as an innovation by Hilton, not previously seen in any hotel, a newsstand located in the lobby of the hotel. All his efforts were aimed at meeting the needs of the client. Hilton believed that the hotel staff is responsible for the happiness and comfort of each guest.
Within a year, Conrad's investment paid off in full, so he continued to buy hotels throughout Texas. With the company's proceeds, he bought the Melba Hotel in Fort Worth and the Waldorf Hotel in Dallas. In 1925, Hilton leased land in Dallas and built his first high-rise hotel, the Dallas Hilton, at a cost of $1 million. From that moment on, Hilton set, and I must say, successfully coped with the task of building a hotel every year. The Dallas Hilton was followed by the Abilene Hilton in 1927, the Waco Hilton in 1928, and the El Paso Hilton in 1930. Hilton built his first hotel outside of Texas in 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the Andaluz Hotel. During the Great Depression, Hilton lost several of its hotels and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The new owners offered him to buy the hotels and left him as a manager. Over time, Hilton bought his hotels and continued to build new ones. In 1946, he founded the Hilton Hotels Corporation, reorganized as the Hilton International Company in 1948.
In the 50-60s. the international expansion of the Hilton hotels continued in leaps and bounds. The Hilton Company was the world's first international hotel chain. Hilton owned the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the most luxurious Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, which Conrad dreamed of buying for a very long time. In 1954, he bought the Statler hotel chain and renamed them the Hilton.
The first overseas Hilton hotel appeared in the city of Madrid in Spain in 1948, after which the Hilton Hotels International company was created. He continued to develop both directions, both domestic and foreign. Ultimately, he had 185 hotels in the United States and 75 overseas hotels.
Conrad Hilton died on January 3, 1979 at the age of 91 and was buried at Calvary Hill Catholic Cemetery in Dallas, Texas. He left most of his wealth to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which he established in 1944 for charitable purposes.
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Add commentsIt is unlikely that the parents of Conrad Hilton, the youngest of eight children in a grocer's family, could have imagined that their son's idea of renting out several rooms in the house to guests would become fateful. And at 31, their unlucky son, who dreamed of becoming a banker, but failed in banking, will buy his first hotel. And after 11 years, he will become the owner of his own network of eight Hilton Hotels.
In August 1925, seven years after buying his first hotel, Hilton opened his own hotel, the Dallas Hilton. And then every year his hotel business grows by one or two establishments. In 1929, as a result of the economic crisis in the United States, most hotel owners, including the Hilton, went bankrupt. By this time he had eight hotels - three of them happened to be closed. Even a loan did not help, two years later Hilton was left with nothing - the Hilton Hotels company passed to the creditor.
However, Hilton Hotels soon returned to its creator. Initially, Konrad was appointed manager, and by 1934 he managed to buy back three hotels. Since then, a period of active development of the hospitality empire of Conrad Hilton began, which grew, ruthlessly absorbing competitors and moving into the world market. 
In 1949, Hilton managed to fulfill his cherished dream by buying out the most luxurious New York hotel, the Waldorf-Astoria. The businessman did not stop there, and in 1954 the financial world was shocked by the news of the largest deal in US history. Conrad Hilton acquired Statler Hotels for $111 million, which at the time was Hilton Hotels' biggest competitor. By the end of the 60s, Hilton had more than 40 hotels in America and about the same number outside of it. In 1964, Hilton divided the company into two parts: the first owned Hilton establishments located in the USA and Mexico (Hilton Hotels), the second - all the rest (Hilton International).
Successful know-how
Hilton was an innovator, and this played an important role in the formation of his empire. It was Hilton who introduced the "star" gradation of hotels by analogy with cognac - the more stars, the higher the level of the hotel. The integration of hotels into the gambling business is also his merit. Gambling houses have always attracted a large number of people, and Hilton decided to take advantage of this by combining the hotel with a casino. Opening an airport hotel was Hilton's idea.
Service above all else
The main thing that brought the success of the Hilton hotel chain was innovation in the field of service and marketing. The corporation was the first to install specialized souvenir and gift kiosks (Hilton Country Store). Hilton personally studied the needs and preferences of his eminent clients. So, one of the actresses adored alpine violets, so they always decorated the room with them before her arrival. And the 31st President of the United States, Hoover, loved mints, and when he arrived at the Hilton, he found them in his room. No less carefully Conrad Hilton collected information about competitors. He even earned the nickname enthusiastic dealmaker ("enthusiast businessman"), as he often personally paid visits to competitors' hotels, studying the reaction of customers and considering the internal situation.
Since 1959, the company began to open specialized hotels at airports, which offered the appropriate package of services for air passengers and airline flight crew.
In 1994, Hilton became the first hotel chain in the world to have all properties equipped with automatic opening, closing, locking and blocking of entrance doors.
Another innovation was the reward system for regular customers - the Hilton Honors program, as well as the system of a nationwide club resort holiday. Then a revolution in the hotel services market was made by a joint project of sea cruise holidays with the Festival Cruise company.
In addition, Conrad Hilton was the first hotel operator to introduce a franchise system, for which in 1965 a subsidiary, Hilton Inns, was created.
Back in 1973, Hilton Hotels was the first in the global hotel business to introduce the Hiltron information and reference system - with its help, the client could remotely obtain information about availability and book rooms along with rail and air tickets. The effectiveness of this system turned out to be above all expectations - it successfully worked for 26 years, and only in 1999 it was replaced by a more modern one - the Central Reservations System, which united more than 500 hotels around the world.
In 1985, the corporation began operating another system - the marketing Answer * Net, which connected all regional offices and hotel complexes in the United States into a single network. And a decade later, the first in the industry launched the www.hilton.com Internet portal and, with the support of American Express, its own Hilton Optima credit card system.
In 2002, Hilton's empire became one of the initiators of the creation of a unified network booking system WorldRes, which, in addition to Hilton itself, included the resources of two other leading players in the resort and hotel business - Accor and Six Continents.
The most daring innovation was the integration of the Hilton hotel business into a neighboring area - the gambling industry. This alliance began in the late sixties, when two unusual hotels were built in the recognized gambling capital of America, Las Vegas - Las Vegas Hilton and Flamingo Hilton. Unlike all others built earlier, they were also gambling establishments. Prior to that, hotels in Las Vegas were built separately, casinos were built separately.
The combination of living with the game assumed an additional system of service and various bonuses for customers. For example, restaurants and bars were placed right in the gambling halls, and each new guest was given free gambling chips for a certain amount. The innovation was so successful that in 1987, as a result of a series of transactions, Hilton International merged with the British industrial group Ladbroke Group, whose main activity was just casinos, bookmakers, lotteries and sweepstakes. The association later became known as the Hilton Group.
The British gaming empire saved the corporation's hotel business during the crisis associated with the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001. After them, for the entire global hotel business (as well as air passenger, tourism, and many others), the era of prosperity of the late 1990s - x was replaced by a period of decline. Because such disasters lead to the fact that people are less willing to travel, fly on planes and stay in hotels, but the craving for gambling in such times, on the contrary, only intensifies - when everything in the world is unstable, there is a growing hope of increasing one's wealth with the help of fortune.
In Kyiv, the opening of the Hilton flagship hotel has been postponed yet again. With a high probability, we can assume that in Ukraine the operator will move to regions with budget hotels - the capital market is already saturated with expensive hotel establishments.
After the death of Conrad Hilton in January 1979, the company was taken over by the Hilton Foundation. This is exactly what was stated in the will of the founder of the company. However, one of his sons challenged his father's last will, and nine years later the American company returned to the Hilton family. And in 2006, Hilton Hotels Corpotarion acquired its former other half of the Hilton Group. After 42 years, the company again became a single entity. A few years ago, a rebrand was carried out, and today the company created by Conrad Hilton is called Hilton Worldwide.
Hilton Worldwide has over 3,800 hotels in 88 countries. The company has several brands: Hampton by Hilton (economy class hotels), Hilton Garden Inn (mid-range hotels), DoubleTree (high-quality hotel brand) and Hilton (high-quality hotels). Under franchising agreements, the company works with almost 1,500 hotels around the world.
