Skift Take
Hilton's MO? We're doing just fine — but it couldn't hurt to add a few more brands, either.
At Hilton Worldwide's Investor Day on Dec. 8, Jim Holthouser, Hilton's executive vice president of global brands, revealed that while the company is very happy with its repertoire of 13 hotel brands, it isn't ruling out the possibility of adding more.
In fact, Holthouser identified five "white spaces for potential future brands" for shareholders: a luxury soft brand collection, a luxury lifestyle brand, a "Hilton plus" brand, an upscale soft brand collection, and an urban microtel brand.
The announcement was somewhat surprising, given that Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta has thrown a bit of shade on its biggest competitor, Marriott, for having too many brands that are similar to each other.
During Hilton's third quarter earnings call, he said. "We are very focused on having pure-bred brands that are leaders in their individual segments, that have clearly defined swim lanes, that have premium market share and, as a consequence, help us drive industry leading organic net unit growth. That’s our strategy. Others have taken different paths... As for what Marriott or anyone else is doing, I think you need to ask them about it.”
If Hilton does go ahead with adding these new brands, the company will have to emphasize not only each brand's distinctiveness, not just within the Hilton family of brands, but industry wide.
Holthouser acknowledged this during his presentation, saying, of Hilton's existing brands: "Every brand has its own unique swim lane. And these swim lanes are global. Our intention is to develop brands that have global application. They're all not global today, [but] at some point we intend for them to be."
He also made a pointed remark, in obvious reference to Marriott, saying: "Unlike a lot of our competitors, we don't have brands that sit right on top of each other or that share the same position, that are fighting each other for the same customers. Quite frankly, that confuses everybody."
Whether Holthouser's statement is entirely true is somewhat up for debate (ask yourself if you can easily distinguish the differences amon
