Skift Take
For Hilton, focusing on building direct customer relationships, improving loyalty, and launching new brands will always be top priorities, at least for this year.
There's a "new" Hilton this year.
Now that the company has successfully spun off its timeshare and real estate investment trust businesses, the "new Hilton," as CEO Christopher Nassetta referred to during the call, can be even more aggressive in pursuing the company's strategy going forward.
"[Having the spinoffs] frees us up to double down on our brands, including everything we're doing on Hilton Honors and loyalty," Nassetta said. "It allows us to double down on what we are doing with innovation to continue to make sure everything we do is through the eyes of the customer and making sure that we are ultimately driving more loyalty and more relevance with our consumers and, as a consequence, more market share and more growth. We've always been focused on those things. That's not different. Obviously, it goes without saying … it gives those of us in senior management even more time to focus on those things."
And with that focus, Hilton is entering the new year with a healthy amount of optimism, even though Nassetta admitted, repeatedly, that things could very well change at a moment's notice.
Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2016 Earnings
Earnings were within expectations, topping those of Wall Street, even though the company reported a fourth-quarter loss of $387 million. That loss was attributed to higher costs and a tax expense related to a
