Hilton President and CEO Chris Nassetta reached back to COVID days to give context to some of the lodging company’s newest initiatives to alleviate the financial stress its hotel owners have endured.
During the company’s second-quarter earnings call, Nassetta promulgated programs that he said aimed to help owners lower costs, strengthen hotel profitability and improve returns. “If you think about the lead up to COVID, looking at 2017, 2018, 2019, you had conditions in the industry that were not great. You had very low top-line growth and higher growth in expenses. It wasn’t as high as it got post-COVID; nonetheless, margins were sort of going backwards. It made it very challenging. It was quite a difficult operating environment for owners,” Nassetta said.
The hotel industry outlasted COVID, but hangover persisted, as Nassetta remarked, referring to negative top-line growth paired with expenses that are growing at a higher clip, ultimately subsuming large pieces of revenue. Stubbornly high inflation has exacerbated the effect. “We listen to these things,” said Nassetta, who prior to becoming chief at Hilton was the CEO of Host Hotels & Resorts, a hotel REIT.
Hilton is rolling out specific programs it hopes will alleviate some owner tension, including a reduction on loyalty program fees, and Hilton Rise, a program that provides program fee discounts when hotels deliver what Nassetta called an “an excellent guest experience.” Hilton is also taking a more flexible and bespoke approach to renovations and PIPS, balancing owner investment with guest expectations and hotel performance. During COVID, investment in the industry was otherwise deferred due to the pernicious nature of the pandemic. Hotel companies have tried clawing it back. “Our owners are investing a lot of money, but we basically want to set it up so that if you if it’s a good experience for the customers, you get through the gate,” as Nassetta called it, meaning without having to spend heavily on CapEx and soft-good improvements. He said roughly half the system right now in the U.S. is getting the full benefit the initiatives. “These owner profitability initiatives are enabled and accelerated by the power of our proprietary technology platform, which allows us to innovate faster, scale more effectively, and deliver greater value across our entire network,” Nassetta said
The programs, Nassetta said, were not to be construed as any premonition that the hotel industry was headed for further disquiet. In fact, Nassetta was quite bullish, and Hilton’s Q2 numbers and guidance provided him cover. “Things are going in a really good direction, where my belief is owners are going to get margin growth,” he said. “You see it in the results year to date, and what we’re guiding into next year.”
Net income was $482 million for the second quarter, while system-wide comparable RevPAR increased 3.9% compared to the same period in 2025. Hilton approved 42,900 new rooms for development during the quarter, bringing its development pipeline to 541,300 rooms as of June 30, 2026, representing growth of 6% from the same time a year ago. It added 24,100 rooms, resulting in 21,600 net additional rooms for the second quarter, contributing to net unit growth of 6.1% from June 30, 2025. As a result, Hilton said it is guiding its RevPAR forecast up for full-year 2026 to an increase between 3% and 3.5% on a comparable and currency neutral basis compared to 2025.
Room openings were up 50 percent from the first quarter of 2026, with notable openings including the Conrad Athens The Ilisian, marking the debut of the brand in Greece and the Slohh by Roach Bengaluru, Curio Collection by Hilton, marking the debut of the brand in India. It also opened the first three Apartment Collection by Hilton properties since the brand’s launch earlier this year in Salt Lake City, Austin and Atlanta.
Its biggest announcement during Q2 was the signing of Waldorf Astoria Miami Beach, in partnership with the Reuben Brothers, who Nassetta called “big believers” in the Waldorf Astoria brand. They must be: The brother also own Waldorf Astoria Admiralty Arch in London, scheduled to open later this year. Of total signings in the quarter, 35% were in luxury and lifestyle.