Name: Hilton CEO Says 2019 Will Be 'Reasonably Good Year' for U.S. Economy
Uploaded: 2019-01-02
Duration: 7 min 13 s
Description: Hilton plans to add jobs in 2019 and is opening one hotel every week in China.

[ MUSIC ] Chris, congratulations. This is a milestone year for Hilton. It is indeed. It's the 100 year anniversary since Conrad Hilton opened its first hotel in 1919 and he's been credited for a lot of things but. Promoting travel by opening hotels all around the world. So as you look to the future, what do you think is going to be the next big innovation that Hilton would be famous for? The nice thing about Hilton today, not only did we make it 100 years but we're more dynamic than we've ever been. We are growing faster than we've ever grown, we are innovating more than we've ever innovated In the hundred- year history, we're gonna continue to innovate with our products, with service, with technology, to deliver what is the best experience the customers could hope to find in a hotel experience. And you're taking a lot of those innovations already to Chine where you are I understand opening one hotel a week in China. We are indeed! One third of all hotels under development in China bear the Hilton name. Where are you going with all of this expansion. What is your goal? We need to have brands that resonate with Chinese travelers and where our other travelers from around the world when they go to China. Have something that they can recognize and be comfortable with. And so it's absolutely critical for us to build a very big business in China and build that awareness. How important is size? Do you have to be big to succeed in China? I think we do. We are Today relatively small given our level of flip, and I mean we're approaching 6, 000 hotels in a world, we have 150 in China which is up from five when I got to he company, so astronomical growth, we have 400 more in development, so lot more coming. But I think you know, ultimately to create a network effect, we not only need to have. size but we also have to have the different price points covered. Because again, if you're gonna serve any customer for any need they have and any destination they want to be and you have to have a lot of locations and you have to have a lot of brands because you have to cover a lot of different price points. So I think it is important that we're big. So, how concerned are you that this tough talk between the United States and China could disrupt these big business plans you have for China? Well, of course I'm worried. I think it'd be silly to say that we don't think about it, worry about it. At the moment, we're not seeing any real impact. [ INAUDIBLE ]. But are you seeing any signs that this trade issues are preventing the Chinese people to travel to the US. Not yet, not yet. And. Do you think it's going to happen? It could and not yet. From the people I'm talking to and sort of my sense of the situation on both sides is There will be some form of escalation for a period of time, but ultimately, there will be a trade deal that will get done. Time will tell In the meantime, what is your plan B as all these issues are going on? Are you sort of an oppose Not at all. Situation with all of your expansion plans. Not at all, we are full- steam ahead. As I said, for us, our partners in China are Chinese partners and so as As long as they wanna continue to forge ahead, which they all they seem to want to, we want to. Well, as you know this whole China situation is worrying a lot of people, whether it's investors in the stock market or business leaderss who are planning Had in the way that it's gonna impact our economy in the US. How do you think the US economy is gonna do in 2019? I think 2019 is gonna be a reasonably good year for the US economy. I feel like it's gonna feel. Similar to 2018, when all is said and done. When I talk to our biggest corporate customers, what they say to me is, they read the papers, they watch the news, and it's hard for them not to be a little bit more cautious, but they're still reasonably optimistic. They are still incrementally hiring more people. They are still incrementally spending more on capex. It's not without risk, but I would say generally consistent with the level of optimism I have when I talk quietly to a bunch of our biggest customers. Are you optimistic enough to do more hiring This year at Hilton in a big way. We will definitely be hiring more at Hilton this year. I don't know that I define it as in a big way but we're growing the company in a reasonably big way. I mean we're growing the company from a new unit point of view six or seven percent a year. That's what we did in 2018. That's what we're gonna do in 2019. So we are definitely growing in terms of number of people because we have to. Cuz we have more hotels that we have to open, means more employment. Well I understand you are gonna be launching some new brands. We're here in New York at the Conrad Hilton. This is one of your many brands. There's Hilton of course, but Doubletree, Embassy Suites, many more names that your customers know so well. But when will these new brands roll out? Well we rolled two out recently. We rolled out Motto by Hilton, which is a urban Micro life style but any of this is gonna be spectacular obviously entails for urban environment around the world. We just launched LXR which is a luxury reserve brand to take unique luxury assets around the world and bring them into our system and probably in the next 60 days or so we gonna have another one that I can't Talk about. Is it something that you'd call these are game changers? I certainly think all of our brands fill a white space, I think motto is definitely a game changer, I don't think anybody has done it in the industry at scale. Within the last two years we launched a branch True by Hilton that I think is probably the most game changing, it may not be the most sexy and exiciting But it's in the mid- scale, a sort of $ 75 to $ 90 price point, which is a price point that nobody's really sort of figured out how to do a really good product at scale. And we engineered something that customers love and it's flying off the shelf. Since we're talking about game- changers, let's talk a little bit about Airbnb. What do you think of Airbnb? I think air B & B is a great business. Have you used it? I have not used it. I spent time with the folks that founded air B & B over time. And I think it's a really good business. I think it is fundamentally a different business than the business we're in. So you say air B & B is a good business. Or would you say you've learned by watching the Air BNB story. I've learned bunch of things, they're approach to technology I think is interesting. I think it's a good business because of the sense and it's good for us in this way, The way it de- marketizes travel is a value proposition that allows people to travel that couldn't have traveled or on certain occasions may not have been able to travel to certain places that now can because it makes it affordable. Travel tourism is a big echo system. And I think there is pretty of room for them to be successful and for us to be successful. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Hilton CEO Says 2019 Will Be "Reasonably Good Year" for U.S. Economy

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Hilton plans to add jobs in 2019 and is opening one hotel every week in China.