Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT)

Hilton runs a hotel system of 9,158 properties and 1,351,351 rooms across 143 countries and territories as at the end of 2025, and the filing describes it as one of the largest global hospitality companies. It was founded in 1919. The brand portfolio spans luxury, lifestyle, full service, focused service and all-suites hotels, plus timeshare brands. The guest loyalty programme, Hilton Honors, had 243 million members at the end of 2025, 15 percent more than a year earlier. There are two segments: management and franchise, and ownership.

Almost all of it belongs to somebody else

Of the 9,158 properties, only 46 sit in the ownership segment, with 15,287 rooms. Another 873 properties and 264,760 rooms are managed for third-party owners, and the remaining 8,239 properties and 1,071,304 rooms are franchised or licensed. Under management contracts Hilton operates hotels for the benefit of third parties who own or lease them and the associated personal property, and it often employs the staff at those locations, particularly in the United States. Under franchise contracts it licenses only its intellectual property, brand names, trademarks, service marks and operating systems: it does not own, manage or operate those hotels, does not employ the people working there and has no legal responsibility for their employees or liabilities. It inspects franchised hotels periodically against brand standards, approves the location and facility plans for new franchised hotels, and issues property improvement plans that existing franchisees must satisfy to stay in the system.

The brands, by size

Hampton by Hilton is the largest single brand at 3,195 properties and 359,886 rooms, almost all of it franchised. Hilton Garden Inn follows at 1,124 properties and 165,782 rooms, then DoubleTree by Hilton at 715 and 160,138, and the core Hilton Hotels & Resorts brand at 622 properties and 228,611 rooms, which is the largest by rooms after Hampton. Below those sit Homewood Suites by Hilton at 559 properties, Tru by Hilton at 338, Embassy Suites by Hilton at 270, Spark by Hilton at 228, Curio Collection by Hilton at 196 and Tapestry Collection by Hilton at 192. The luxury and lifestyle end is much smaller in unit terms: Conrad Hotels & Resorts at 50 properties, Canopy by Hilton at 48, Waldorf Astoria Hotels & Resorts at 39, Graduate by Hilton at 35, LXR Hotels & Resorts at 18, Motto by Hilton at 10, Tempo by Hilton at 6, Signia by Hilton at 5, Outset Collection by Hilton at 2 and NoMad at 1. A further 114 properties with 20,404 rooms sit under the timeshare brands Hilton Club, Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Hilton Vacation Club.

Where the money comes from

The management and franchise segment earns management and franchise fees from third-party hotel owners, licensing fees from strategic partners including co-branded credit card providers and strategic partner hotels and Hilton Grand Vacations, and fees for managing the hotels in the ownership segment. The ownership segment earns from nightly room sales, food and beverage and other services at consolidated hotels.

Hilton Honors

The programme awards points for each stay at leased, managed, franchised and timeshare properties, and at strategic partner hotels when booked through Hilton's own channels, redeemable for free or discounted room nights and other goods and services. Points can also be used with strategic partners including American Express, airlines, rail and car rental companies, Amazon and Lyft. Members booking through preferred Hilton channels get a payment slider that lets them mix points and money in nearly any combination, a member discount and free standard Wi-Fi, plus contactless check-in, room choice and digital room access through the Hilton Honors app.

The pipeline

The development pipeline stood at 3,703 hotels and about 520,500 rooms at the end of 2025, after 1,073 hotels and about 139,200 rooms were added to it during the year. Net room additions to the operating system were about 81,100, which the filing puts at 6.7 percent net unit growth. Pipeline hotels were under development across 129 countries and territories, including 26 where Hilton had no existing hotels, with almost half of the rooms under construction and more than half outside the United States. The filing states that nearly all of those rooms will join the management and franchise segment when they open, and that the pipeline will require minimal capital investment from Hilton itself.

From Hilton's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing