Hilton President/Chief Executive Officer Chris Nassetta discussed the hotel giant’s record-breaking year for hotel development, the drivers behind its loyalty programme’s growth, and how it’s trying to tame its carbon emissions. Nassetta said that one out of every five hotels under development worldwide is set to carry Hilton flags. If all of those hotels materialise, 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 programme is one part of that reputation, Nassetta said. Hilton has more than doubled the number of members of its loyalty programme over the past five years. The larger the loyalty programme, 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. Record pipeline 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 develo.