Beverly Hills, CA -- Hilton Hotels Corp. yesterday said its current hotel development pipeline is the largest in company history, more than 775 hotels totaling 110,000 guest rooms.
About 90 percent of the hotels under development are in the Americas, with an increasing share of future development planned internationally, the company said in its third-quarter report. Hilton expects to add about 250 hotels, totaling 35,000 rooms, to its system next year.
Much of the development is planned in Hilton's mid-scale brands, according to Stephen Bollenbach, the company's chief executive.
"The strategic focus of our company … is facilitating our shift to a more fee-based model by bringing our mid-scale brands to new markets around the world," said Bollenbach. "We are in active discussions with potential owners in many of the world's hottest growth markets and have already introduced Hilton Garden Inns in Germany and Italy and announced plans for Doubletrees in Thailand and China."
Hilton's worldwide system, which includes owned, managed, and franchised hotels, consists of 2,895 properties and 496,504 rooms. The company's brands include Hilton, Conrad, Embassy Suites, Homewood, and Hampton Inn in addition to Doubletree and Garden Inn.
Hilton's announcement follows by about two weeks the announcement of Marriott International that it plans to increase its guest room count nearly 20 percent worldwide over the next three years, by up to 100,000 rooms. Like Hilton, Marriott emphasized international growth.
Both companies are seizing on strong earnings growth in the hotel industry, along with projections of higher room demand internationally brought about by emerging economies and increased global trade.
Hilton reported net income of $117 million in the third quarter as compared with $89 million in the third quarter of last year, a 31-percent increase. The company reported that revenue per available room, or RevPAR, a key measure of productivity, increased in the third quarter nearly 10 percent for its Hilton and Doubletree brands and more than 13 percent for its luxury Conrad brand.
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