During its second-quarter earnings call with analysts on July 24, 2019, Hilton’s President and CEO Chris Nassetta announced the intended launch of two new brands over the next couple of years, with the first to roll out within six months.
Nassetta neither alluded to potential names for these new brands nor did he disclose many details, other than the market segments they are intended to serve, telling analysts that both will operate in the lifestyle space.
Nassetta elaborated on these brands now in-development: “One…is a very large-scale opportunity on a global basis, which I would say is sort of upscale lifestyle. I would describe it as sort of a click above Hilton Garden Inn for a more urban, mixed-used, higher-end development opportunity.” Targeting specifically urban markets would set this new chain apart from the company’s other brands in the upscale category, such as Hilton Garden Inn and Homewood Suites.
The CEO reportedly intends the timing of the first new launch for, “sometime in the next six months, as we refine the product, service delivery and bring a number of development deals to the table,” and noted that, “We have already soft-launched it with our development community. The reception has been spectacular.”
The second upcoming brand, expected to debut sometime within the next “couple of years”, Nassetta described as geared more towards the luxury lifestyle market, explaining that it’s a concept Hilton has been considering for roughly a decade, although focused on other projects, thus far.
The luxury sector has been a major focus for Hilton in recent years, a priority which earnings reports reveal is paying off. The company’s luxury segment is being forecasted to grow by over fifteen percent this year, with the hotel giant on track to deliver more luxury properties in 2019 than in any previous period during its 100-year history.
Within the past year, Hilton has already introduced three new brands, with the Motto by Hilton unveiled in October 2018, followed by LXR and Signia Hilton in early 2019, which boosted its brand portfolio count to seventeen. With the addition of these two unnamed brands in the works, that number will soon become nineteen.
