Hilton, a leading hotel group, focuses on delivering exceptional hospitality experiences by collaborating with third-party owners and maintaining a strong performance on the New York Stock Exchange. The company emphasizes a reliable and friendly customer experience, adapting to modern demands through the integration of product, service, and technology. Hilton's CEO, Christopher Nassetta, highlights the importance of culture, having transformed Hilton into a top workplace and expanded its brand portfolio from eight to 24 brands. The company addresses over-tourism by promoting lesser-known desti...
What Christopher Nassetta said
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Christopher Nassetta, CEO of Hilton, discussed the company's transformation over his nearly 20-year tenure, focusing on culture, brand expansion, and growth. He said Hilton went from eight to 24 brands, including Spark by Hilton and Waldorf Astoria, with two Waldorf Astoria properties opening in Riyadh within 12 months. Nassetta emphasized Hilton's focus on hospitality and delivering reliable, friendly experiences. On overtourism, he argued it is not a global issue but concentrated in certain destinations, advocating for public-private partnerships to distribute tourism, citing Saudi Arabia as an example of an undiscovered destination. He predicted the biggest change will be using AI and data to enable mass customization, enhancing guest experiences within three to five years. Nassetta also noted Hilton's performance as the best large-cap hotel company on the NYSE over the past five and ten years.
Key takeaways
Hilton expanded from 8 to 24 brands, including Spark by Hilton and Waldorf Astoria, with two Waldorf Astoria hotels opening in Riyadh in the next 12 months.
Nassetta said Hilton has been the best-performing large-cap hotel company on the New York Stock Exchange over the past 5 and 10 years.
Nassetta predicted that within 3 to 5 years, AI and data will enable mass customization in hospitality, transforming guest experiences.
He stated Hilton is investing significantly in technology to enable teams to deliver personalized experiences.
4:31A big topic today when you were talking on stage with your counterparts from different parts of the world and different companies was overtourism. What have you all concluded?
6:36What are the biggest changes you're expecting in the years to come?
Hilton is one of the biggest and most recognizable hotel groups in the world. What is going to be the most revolutionary change is being able to deliver mass customization in a way that the world has never seen. Joining me here today is Christopher Nassetta, its CEO. Hello, Christopher.
Wow, that's a tough question. Hilton's changed a lot and so has the industry. I got here hard to believe almost 20 years ago. And while Hilton was a storied company and very iconic in the industry and to a degree really invented the hotel business as you know it in a modern context, we had spent a number of decades on a path that wasn't probably the best path and had lost our way a little bit. We had sort of let our culture head in a bad direction. Our brands were good but and certainly everybody knows the core Hilton brand but we were not as good as we could be. We were not across all the different segments we needed to be in. From a growth point of view we were sort of middle of the pack or worse. And ultimately as a result of some of those things our performance was not really up to snuff. And so what's changed is all of those things.
To a degree. Well, I think if I look at my history in running businesses, it's a little bit of both. And that's the story of Hilton. It's sort of fixing things and growing things.
Yeah. So, I fixed it by focusing in those four key categories. One, culture. I mean, in the end, we're a business of people serving people. We have to have a great culture. I'm not wearing my pin because they took it off me, but you know Hilton is the number one great place to work in the world right now and that's a real testament particularly in a service industry. So we've built a world-class culture. We've taken the company from eight brands to 24 brands going from Spark by Hilton in the premium economy space to Waldorf Astoria, two of which are going to open here in Riyadh in the next 12 months at the very highest end. We've taken our growth rate from a laggard in the industry to leading the industry in growth and I'm very proud to say as a result we perform really well for our ownership community. The brands all perform well. We don't own the hotels. We work with third-party owners. So, it's really important that we drive performance and importantly as well as our shareholders. You know, we've been over the last five and 10 years, we've been the best of the large cap hotel companies in terms of performance on the New York Stock Exchange. And so Hilton, while has always been an extraordinary company with an extraordinary history, is a very different company and very much on the move relative to where we were 20 years ago.
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Nassetta, C. (2026, May 11). FII Institute 8th Edition: Christopher Nassetta - President & CEO, Hilton [Interview transcript]. FII Institute. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/903135/
MLA
Christopher Nassetta. "FII Institute 8th Edition: Christopher Nassetta - President & CEO, Hilton." FII Institute, 11 May. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/903135/.
BibTeX
@misc{nassetta2026_903135,
author = {Christopher Nassetta},
title = {FII Institute 8th Edition: Christopher Nassetta - President \& CEO, Hilton},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, FII Institute. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {may},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/903135/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
