The hotel built by Hilton. Conrad Hilton: The Great Life of a Great Man Conrad Hilton Success Story

Now everyone knows that there are hotel chains with the same name and the same level of service all over the world - be it London, Paris, Moscow or the Cayman Islands. But the first hotel chain was created by the American Conrad Hilton, who gave all his hotels given name and offered them a standard set of services. It was he who first came up with the idea of ​​assigning "stars" to hotels (by analogy with cognac) and was the first to start selling everything that customers might need in the halls of their hotels. Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born on Christmas Day, December 25, 1887, in San Antonio, New Mexico. His father, August, immigrated from Norway and his mother, Marie, from Germany. Conrad had no doubt that he should become an entrepreneur. He was attracted to banking (while working with his father in the state legislature, he had to thoroughly study banking legislation). But the first attempt to organize his own bank was not successful. And during the second attempt, the decision to become a hotelier suddenly came. It happened in 1919 in the small town of Cisco, Texas. Acquisition of the Mobley Hotel cost Hilton not so cheaply. In addition to his own $5,000, he had to borrow $15,000 from friends and also take out a bank loan for $20,000. Now everything depended on Conrad himself. To the surprise of friends and family, who knew how quickly Conrad's bank went bankrupt, business at Mobley was going just fine. A year later, Hilton bought another hotel in the town of Fort Worth, and then two more smaller hotels. By 1924, Hilton had 350 rooms and enough money to build his first hotel from scratch. Soon Hilton was buying up hotels that did not show promise and turning them into gold mines. HILTON hotels provided sparkling clean rooms, these hotels had motivated employees who provided exceptional service to guests. The HILTON organization has created a unique system for minimizing costs and maximizing service - the likes of which have never been seen before. PERSONAL LIFE Conrad Hilton was not so successful. First wife Mary Barron left Hilton during the crisis, apparently not believing that he would be able to get out of the quagmire of financial failure. Hilton had three sons by his first wife, Mary Barron: Conrad Jr., William Barron, Eric Michael. He also broke up with his second wife, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who spent huge sums on clothes and jewelry. From his second wife, Za Za Gabor, Conrad Hilton had a daughter, Francesca. However, failures in marriage did not prevent Hilton from having offspring; in his long life he became the father of eight children. Conrad Hilton retired from running the company in 1966 at the age of 78, passing his life's work to his son Barron. A year later, Conrad Hilton's autobiography, Be My Guest, was published. The multimillionaire continued to lead an active lifestyle: he spoke to students, worked in his foundation, and married for the third time. He died on January 4, 1979 in Dallas, where he once built his first Hilton, at the age of 91. Conrad bequeathed his entire fortune to the Hilton Foundation. Son Barron had to spend nine whole years to challenge his father's last will and keep control of the American part of the Hilton empire for the family. Barron Hilton (Paris' grandfather)
Barron Hilton himself married Marilyn June Hawley back in 1947, with whom they were together until her death in 2004. In this long marriage they had eight children: William Barron Hilton, Jr., Hawley Anne Hilton, Stephen Michael Hilton, David Alan Hilton, Sharon Constance Hilton, Richard Howard Hilton, Daniel Kevin Hilton, and Ronald Jeffrey Hilton. The 79-year-old patriarch of the Hilton clan, Barron Hilton, was beside himself when the tape of Paris' sexual pleasures hit the Internet. And her recent 23-day jail sentence seems to be the last straw. "He was, and still is, very unhappy with how Paris got the Hilton name dirty," says Jerry Oppenheimer, author of the Hilton family biography. Grandpa Hilton, the only family member left with a significant stake in the huge hotel empire, has signaled that he is going to give about $ 2 billion, which he received from the immediate sale of his company to Blackstone, to charity. The money will go to the Conrad Hilton Foundation, the founder of the family business. Conrad Hilton Jr. was born July 6, 1926. Brother of Barron Hilton. He and his stepmother Zsa Zsa Gabor were in an intimate relationship, even before his father's divorce from Gabor, which he later publicly admitted. In 1950 he married Elizabeth Taylor, in 1951 the marriage was annulled. Conrad Hilton Jr. and Elizabeth Taylor In 1958 he married Patricia McClintock, in this marriage they had two children. In 1962, at 43, he died of a heart attack. With actress Betsy von Furstenberg (1951) Richard Hilton (1955) is the most famous of the eight sons of Barron Hilton and the father of the notorious Paris. In 1978 he graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in Hospitality and Restaurant Management. Rick got his start in the real estate business when he joined Eastdil's New York office. He specialized in securing the participation of institutional investors and pension funds in various real estate transactions. In 1984 he formed Hilton Realty Investment. For the past 25 years, Rick has specialized in residential real estate sales in the Los Angeles communities. In addition, he is an exemplary family man and father of 5 children! David Jacques Pierre Cogordan Hilton (born 1973), who did not know the identity of his true father until 2008. Paris Hilton (born 1981) Nicky Hilton (born 1983) Barron Nicholas Hilton (born 1989) Conrad Hughes Hilton (born 1994) Older brother Paris Younger And finally, this is what the hotel built by Conrad Hilton in 1939 looked like. And one of the many hotels in our time

Who would have turned 80 on February 27, and whose biography remains one of the brightest and richest in Hollywood history, was one of the first actresses to draw attention to her turbulent personal life no less than to her magnificent acting career. Taylor married eight times, she had seven husbands. And at the same time, the "incomparable Liz" managed not to lose the love of the puritanical American public, which in those years was condemning the novels of even the most beloved actresses with married men. She was called "the most beautiful woman in the world", she was forgiven for what others paid with their careers. Taylor herself, being very emotional and addicted, each time, going down the aisle, promised that now stormy romances are over forever.

From childhood, under the scrutiny of film studios, who became famous at the age of ten, young Liz did not realize that the studio bosses, with the help of the mother of actress Sarah Wormbrodt, were trying to completely control her life, including relationships with men. The first serious romance of seventeen-year-old Taylor happened to a young and promising American football player Glenn Davis. Their meeting was planned, but the young people themselves did not suspect this, and a year after they met, Davis proposed to the chosen one. It seemed that everything was going well: everyone was happy - Davis, who was fascinated by the young actress long before the meeting, Liz, who wore a golden soccer ball around her neck and sincerely believed that she had met her only love. Representatives of the MGM film studio then decided that they had gained complete control over the wayward young star. However, the producers realized that they were mistaken when, shortly before the scheduled announcement of the engagement, Taylor left Davis for a young millionaire, twenty-eight-year-old William D. Pauley Jr., son of the US ambassador to Peru and Brazil. William insisted that after their marriage, Liz leave her career and devote herself to the family, and Taylor did not seem to mind. But it never came to a celebration - Elizabeth agreed to a role in the film "A Place in the Sun", which caused the anger of Paulie, who was remembered as the man who laid the foundation - it was he who gave Taylor the first diamond ring.

Young Taylor's first romance, which led to marriage, began when she was 18 years old, and the 24-year-old heir to the Hilton empire, Conrad Nicholson Hilton Jr., became the chosen one of the star.

Nicky Hilton, wealthy heir and spoiled playboy

In 1951, Taylor went to England to play the role of Rebecca in Ivanhoe, where she met her second husband, the famous British actor Michael Wilding. 39-year-old Wilding was the complete opposite of the eccentric Nicky Hilton. Calm and courageous, he conquered Liz with self-confidence, and soon the actress moved her chosen one to the USA, where he received a lucrative contract from MGM. In February 1952, the actors got married.

Wilding, who was twenty years older than his wife, brought long-awaited stability to Taylor's life, and with her second husband, Liz gave birth to two sons: Michael Howard in 1953 and Christopher Edward in 1955. During the five-year marriage of Wilding and Taylor, Elizabeth worked hard, while Michael allowed himself to refuse promising projects and often gave gifts to his wife, paying them from her own fees. Liz bought for her husband expensive cars and even a yacht, Wilding was very fond of their sons, but the couple spent so little time together that it soon became clear that they "have nothing to say to each other." In 1957, the actors divorced, and Taylor later admitted that she "was not mature enough" for Wilding. After breaking up with Elizabeth, Michael was married twice more.

Happiest Marriage to Mike Todd

Taylor married producer Mike Todd three days after her divorce from Michael Wilding in February 1957. For the sake of her third husband, Elizabeth converted to Judaism, which she practiced until the end of her life. The marriage of Taylor and Todd, who was 24 years older than his wife, was both scandalous and very emotional, and later, recalling Mike, the actress called this union the happiest in her life. Todd gave his wife diamonds, houses and yachts, and Liz said that she was ready to follow her husband to the ends of the world, forgetting even about her career. "Elizabeth has a docile nature. If she starts to lose her temper, I just give her some small diamond for 80 thousand dollars, and for a few days there is peace and tranquility in the house," Todd said. In August 1957, the couple had a daughter, Elizabeth Francis.

Thanks to Todd and his connections in Hollywood at the time, Elizabeth got the best roles - with the participation of her husband, Taylor played in "Giant", "Raintree County" and "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof", which became iconic for the actress.

Taylor and Todd's marriage lasted 418 days. On March 22, 1958, Mike flew his Lucky Liz plane to New York City, where a reception was to be held in his honor. The aircraft was caught in a thunderstorm and crashed in New Mexico, killing the four passengers on board. Taylor, who remained at home due to illness, upon learning of the tragedy, said only: "It is a pity that I did not fly with him." Todd's best friend Eddie Fisher later recalled in his memoirs that the only thing left of Mike was his wedding ring, which was placed in the coffin at the funeral.

Exemplary family man Eddie Fisher

After the death of Mike Todd, Taylor could not recover for a long time, finding solace in alcohol. Next to Elizabeth was constantly the best friend of her deceased husband, one of the most popular performers of the 1950s, Eddie Fisher. America's favorite, teenage idol who served as a witness at the wedding of Taylor and Todd, was married to actress Debbie Reynolds. The couple had a second child, and after some time it became known that Fisher's friendship with Taylor grew into a romance. This relationship cost Elizabeth several awards and the love of journalists and the public, which turned Taylor from an icon and an object of adoration into a malicious destroyer of the family hearth. However, Debbie Reynolds, in an interview, paid tribute to her rival, saying that she understands her husband, who could not resist the most beautiful woman in the world.

The wedding of Taylor and Fisher took place on March 12, 1959 in Las Vegas, and Fisher immediately replenished his wife's diamond collection by presenting her with a luxurious bracelet. Eddie was a truly exemplary family man, unlike Liz's previous husbands. Not only did he not make scenes and did not cheat on his wife, but he watched over her health, which had deteriorated after Todd's death, and was calm about the whims and mood swings of the famous wife. Being close to Fisher, Taylor was able to pull herself together again and pay enough attention to her career. The actress starred in the films Suddenly, Last Summer, which brought her record fees and nominations for the Golden Globe and Oscar, and Butterfield, 8, for which Taylor received her first Oscar statuette. Immediately after that, in the summer of 1960, she began work on the film "Cleopatra", on the set of which she met her fifth husband, the performer of the role of Mark Antony Richard Burton, an affair with which became the longest and most stormy in Taylor's life and one of the most legendary and discussed throughout the history of Hollywood.

"Romance of the Century" with Richard Burton

On the shooting of "Cleopatra" in Rome, Richard Burton came with his wife and two children. Seeing his partner in the film, he also said that "the most beautiful woman in the world" Elizabeth Taylor is not to his taste. However, the director of the film, Joseph Mankiewicz, said about what was happening on the set that, looking at Barton and Taylor, he felt "locked in a cage with two predators", so strong was the chemistry that arose between the actors. Soon the romance of the two stars was no longer a secret, and despite the fact that Eddie Fisher and Barton's wife Sybil pretended not to notice what was happening, not a day passed without the newspapers supplying the public with new details of the relationship between Elizabeth and Richard. Outraged by the romance of two married stars, the audience demanded to deprive Taylor of American citizenship and permission to enter the country. Under pressure, Richard Burton at one of the press conferences was forced to say that he was not going to leave his wife. After these words, Taylor, moreover, crushed by harsh criticism of her performance in Cleopatra, tried to commit suicide. After the film's release, Barton made a pivotal announcement. "I want to marry Elizabeth Taylor and I will. No buts, no ifs," he told reporters. Liz and Richard divorced their spouses and married on March 15, 1964 at the Ritz-Carlton in Montreal. For the fifth time, Taylor married in a yellow chiffon dress, adorned with an emerald and diamond brooch presented by Barton on the actress's 32nd birthday. Taylor arrived almost an hour late for the wedding, and her future husband joked that she would "even be late for the Last Judgment."

All ten years that the marriage of two world celebrities lasted, their names did not leave the pages of newspapers. The relationship between Taylor and Burton was truly passionate: their life was filled with both emotional declarations of love and luxurious gifts and constant quarrels up to assault, betrayal and alcohol scandals. "In my poor and miserable youth, I dreamed only of such a woman. And now, when the dream sometimes visits me again, I reach out and understand that she is next to me. If you have not met or did not know her, you have lost much in life," Barton wrote of his wife. Richard presented to Elizabeth. Taylor gave her husband cars and works of art.

The producers sought to capitalize on the popularity of the most talked about couple in Hollywood and offered the spouses one joint project after another. During their marriage, Taylor and Barton starred in eleven films together, the most famous of which was Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, for which Taylor received her second Oscar and Barton was nominated for best actor.

Until the very divorce in 1974, the relationship of the actors was filled with constant parting and reconciliation. “I know that I am a terrible liar, but believe me, I never betrayed you. I love you too much,” Barton wrote in one of his letters to his wife. And yet, ten years after the wedding, the couple announced the final break.

Shortly after the divorce, Taylor began an affair with car salesman Henry Winberg, and Barton, after a series of intrigues with young actresses, announced his engagement to the Yugoslav Princess Elizabeth. But, as it turned out, the ex-wife did not agree with his plans, and in October 1975, Taylor and Barton got married for the second time. Living together for the actors turned out to be even more difficult than without each other, and the remarriage lasted only nine months - in February 1976, Richard and Liz broke up forever. Many years later, Richard Burton admitted that the main role in his life was the role of the husband of Elizabeth Taylor. The actress, who maintained a relationship with her ex-husband until his death, said that they "from the very first sight in Rome were always madly in love with each other."

Respectable politician John Warner

In 1976, Elizabeth Taylor first married a man who had nothing to do with the world of cinema and creativity in general. Moreover, the chosen one of the actress politician John Warner admitted that before meeting his future wife he had not seen a single film with her participation. By that time, Taylor began to act in films less, switching to television, and projects with her participation were collecting ever smaller ratings. The actress took an active part in her husband's election campaign, and thanks in large part to her, Warner was elected to the US Senate. Despite her husband's success, it was a difficult time for Taylor. “I felt depressed, often without even knowing what to do with myself. I began to drink catastrophically a lot and stopped limiting myself in food. With a huge amount of food, I seemed to be trying to make up for everything that was so lacking in my life. But what was the most terrible “I didn’t have a drop of self-respect left, and nothing saved it,” Taylor later wrote in the book Elizabeth Takes Off. While Warner was busy with work and was constantly at meetings and meetings, the actress was left to her own devices. Despite her attempts to be an exemplary wife of a politician, Liz was forced to go to the clinic, where she was helped to cope with addiction and recover. After treatment, Taylor was offered a role in Lillian Hellman's production of Chanterelles, which was very popular. Having regained her health and returned to work, the actress filed for divorce, and in November 1982, Taylor and Warner ceased to be husband and wife.

Larry Fortensky, last husband of the brilliant Liz

After her divorce from John Warner, Taylor was free for nine whole years - before her marriages were concluded a few days after her divorce from her previous husband. In 1991, 59-year-old Liz once again ended up in a rehabilitation clinic, where she met 39-year-old builder Larry Fortensky, who was also treated for alcohol addiction. The star's relationship with a new lover developed rapidly, and already in October 1991, Elizabeth and Larry got married. The celebration was held in Neverland - the famous estate of a close friend of actress Michael Jackson. Hollywood celebrities Eddie Murphy, Liza Minnelli, Macaulay Culkin came to the eighth wedding of the legendary Taylor, and in total 160 guests were invited to the ceremony. The bride wore a pale yellow dress by Valentino, who called Taylor his muse.

The last marriage of the actress lasted five years - in 1996 she divorced her eighth husband.

In addition to the stormy romances and marriages that the whole world discussed, Elizabeth Taylor also had male friends in her life who supported her during the next break or criticism that fell upon the actress. Even in her youth, she met Clift Montgomery, whose attachment she carried through her whole life. The actors starred together in the film "A Place in the Sun". It was Montgomery, with whom Liz never had an affair, who taught her a serious attitude to the profession and consoled her after an unsuccessful marriage to Nicky Hilton. "If I could marry you, dear, I would do it without hesitation, if only to wipe the nose of this fool. But this way I will only make you even more unhappy," said Clift. When he had a terrible accident in 1956 that disfigured his face, Liz was the first to come to him and pulled the broken teeth from the actor's throat, which saved him from strangulation. Monty, as his fans called him, remained a true friend of Elizabeth until his death in 1966. The fate of Clift, after the accident addicted to alcohol and drugs, journalists called "the longest suicide in the history of Hollywood."

Another close friend of Taylor was the "King of Pop" Michael Jackson, whom she met in the 1980s on the basis of charity. , and she was urgently hospitalized in a clinic in Los Angeles. “I love Michael with all my heart, I don’t know how I will live without him. We had so much in common, and we were so devoted to each other. My life was empty,” Taylor said then.

Interest in the personal life of Elizabeth Taylor, filled with declarations of love from the best men in Hollywood, mind-blowing gifts and violent scandals, does not fade even after the death of the actress. In 1999, in response to a question about what she would ask her to write on her grave, Taylor replied: "Here lies Elizabeth. She hated being called Liz. But she lived a life."

Prepared by Bella Adzeeva

I'm proud to be an innkeeper, I'm proud

Three thousand years of history behind you.

Our craft originated before there was

The Bible is written. Long before the pharaohs, before

How Samson met Delilah in the Sektor tavern

Gaza, long before the Greeks and Romans already existed

Caravanserai. Two thousand years ago Horace called

Us deceitful shinkars, and today from Houston to

New York, from Paris to Tokyo our managers

They are known as the fathers of cities.

Conrad N. Hilton

To date, there are not many people who have never heard of a chain of upscale hotels Hilton. Many people know the fact that a certain Conrad Hilton stood at the origins of their creation. It was he who came up with the idea of ​​assigning "stars" to hotels, and it was he who first opened the practice of selling essential items in hotel lobbies.

Over 2.5 thousand hotels, clubs and recreation centers in 75 countries of five continents and about 2 thousand gambling establishments and bookmakers with more than 600 thousand clients in 160 countries of the world. The number of employees is over 70 thousand people. Financial turnover - about 9 billion pounds. All of the above refers to one transnational company, the name of which is known to almost everyone. This is a Hilton company.

Conrad Hilton born in San Antonio on December 25, 1887, his parents were immigrants from Europe. Arriving in America, the elder Hilton opened a general store that provided a livelihood for the entire fairly large family. However, in 1907, during the economic crisis, August Hilton almost went bankrupt. The family was saved by the idea of ​​renting rooms in their capacious house to temporary residents. To date, it is no longer possible to find an answer to the question of who first came up with this saving idea, but it was Konrad who had to search for guests. Thanks to this undertaking, the family quite successfully survived the period of the Great American Depression.

Trying to please his father, Conrad received a good education and after graduating from college he continued his studies at the military institute in New Mexico. Returning home after studying, Conrad began to help his father in the maintenance of the store. Some time later, Conrad's father became a deputy, and he took his son as his assistant. Despite the prestige of the work, she quickly got bored with the younger Hilton and he, as soon as the First World War, joined the army as a volunteer.

While Conrad served, his father died in a car accident, and the younger Hilton, after demobilization, had to start his post-war life on his own, practically from scratch.

After going through bankruptcy at the age of 31, Conrad Hilton moved to the small town of Cisco, Texas. After its liquidation, Konrad still had $5,000 left, and he was going to open a new bank or, if possible, buy a suitable one. But very soon his plans changed. In search of lodging for the night, he went to the local hotel Mobley. The banker-loser was struck by the people crowding in the lobby, who literally fought for free rooms. Crowds of clientele are the real dream of any businessman, Hilton thought at that moment. But the owner of the hotel was not at all happy with such pandemonium, and it turned out that he was not averse to selling his 60-room Mobley. That was enough to make Hilton forget about banks forever.

And after a couple of days, he already became the owner of his first hotel, having bought it from the owner

Acquisition of the Mobley Hotel cost Hilton not so cheaply. In addition to his own $5,000, he had to borrow $15,000 from friends and also take out a bank loan for $20,000. Now everything depended on Conrad himself. Mobley's main clientele were workers from the nearby oil fields, who rented rooms only for eight hours of sleep. The rooms cost $1 and $2.5 per night. And although Hilton himself called Mobley-type hotels nothing more than rooming houses, they were somewhat reminiscent of his first hotel experience in organizing a family boarding house during the depression of 1907. The first thing Conrad did in his hotel was to increase the number of beds in order to eliminate the seething crowd waiting for the night. Then he came up with the idea to entertain the visitors with something, while, preferably, for his own benefit. To do this, he placed several showcases around the columns in the lobby, in which every little thing was sold - from newspapers and magazines to clothes brushes and toothpaste. Hilton later said that each column brought him $ 8 thousand. To the surprise of friends and family, who knew how quickly Conrad's bank went bankrupt, things were going just fine in Mobley. A year later, Hilton bought another hotel in the town of Fort Worth, and then two more smaller hotels. By 1924, Hilton had 350 rooms and enough money to build his first hotel from scratch.

A year later, Conrad Hilton purchased another hotel and two small hotels. It was around this period that he came up with the idea of ​​how to entertain visitors, and with a good profit for himself. He placed several showcases in the hotel lobby, where they sold all sorts of useful little things. This business also brought him a good profit. And, as a result, a few more years later, Conrad Hilton created the first hotel of his own name.

From that moment on, Hilton never doubted that his main business was the hotel business. At one time, he studied banking well, which later served him a good role.

His 325-room Dallas-Hilton hotel opened in August 1925. By this time, Hilton opened at least 1 hotel in Texas annually, and when asked by journalists about when he first felt rich, he invariably answered that in those days when he spent the night in the park on a bench. Of course, this was just a joke.

Standing firmly on his feet, 38-year-old Hilton decided to get married. His chosen one was Mary Barron, who later gave birth to three sons. However, the idyll did not last long. After the stock market crash of 1929, he had to close his hotels. Despite the austerity received and a large loan, it was an absolute collapse. As a result, he lost ownership of his company.

Curiously, it was the same notorious Great Depression that saved him, which contributed to his ruin. The hotel business became unprofitable and the new owners of the Hilton empire tried to get rid of their purchases. They were bought by Conrad Hilton himself, who by that time was working as a manager in one of his former hotels. During the same period, he divorced his wife.

From that moment on, wiser, having survived the last major economic downturn in US history, Hilton continued to build his worldwide company, which was already in his dreams. And the tactics of acquisitions have not changed, just the hotels have become larger. For fifteen years, Conrad painstakingly bought up competitors' hotels and built new ones.

The main changes took place inside the Hilton hotels. In all hotels, the client was met with a standardized set of services. There was even an advertisement that showed a taxi with a single inscription: To the Hilton. To even more equalize his hotels, Konrad was one of the first to designate the class of the hotel with asterisks - like cognac. Another know-how of Hilton was the following: all purchases in hotels were made in advance, based on an analysis of demand and taking into account upcoming events. No customer requirement should come as a surprise. Conrad himself soon earned the nickname enthusiastic dealmaker (enthusiastic businessman) for his indefatigable energy in studying competitors. When he was going to buy a hotel, he personally studied the situation. For example, I watched how many men and women enter and whether they smile when they leave the hotel, what is the size of the lobby, and even how many light bulbs are on in front of the entrance and how many of them burned out. After the end of World War II, the turnover of his company grew so much that in 1949 he was able to fulfill the dream of his life (he constantly carried a photograph of this hotel in his purse) by buying the most luxurious hotel in New York - the Waldorf-Astoria. That same year, the first Hilton outside the United States opened. It was the 300-room Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico. And in 1954, Konrad paid $111 million for his main competitor in the technological equipment of hotels - the Statler Hotels chain. At that time, this transaction was the largest real estate acquisition in the United States.

By the early 1960s, Hilton had become the most technologically advanced hotel chain in the world, and its expansion was unimpeded. By the end of the 1960s, Conrad had about 40 hotels in the United States and the same number outside of them. Hiltons have become a natural fixture in London, Rome, Caracas and Barbados. In 1964, Hilton spun off all of the overseas assets into the Hilton Group, which has since held the rights to the Hilton brand outside the United States and Mexico. Conrad himself retired from running the company in 1966 at the age of 78. Management passed to his son Barron. After that, he indulged in the quiet old man's joys of a self-satisfied multimillionaire. For example, Konrad loved to speak to students at the opening of the hospitality departments. He also organized a Catholic foundation in his name and generously handed out prizes. Three years before his death, Hilton married a third time.

Conrad Hilton died at the age of 91, having bequeathed his entire fortune to the Hilton Foundation, but his son challenged this decision and the business remained in the family as before.

But the main innovations of the Hilton hotel chain saw the light after his death - when the world entered the electronic era. Following the precepts of the founding father, his followers were the first to be able to occupy all the profitable niches that opened up, mainly due to the fact that work on the electronization of Hilton hotels and related infrastructure began long before the emergence of the now well-known concepts - e-business and IT technologies. Today, competitors are forced to rush through stages of technological restructuring that Hilton has long since passed. Back in 1973, Hilton Hotels was the first in the world's hotel business to introduce the Hiltron information and reference system - with its help, the client could remotely obtain information about availability and book rooms along with rail and air tickets. The effectiveness of this system turned out to be above all expectations - it successfully worked for 26 years, and only in 1999 it was replaced by a more modern one - the Central Reservations System (CRS or Hilstar), which united more than 500 hotels around the world. In 1985, the corporation began operating another system - the marketing Answer * Net, which connected all regional offices and hotel complexes within the US. And a decade later, the first in the industry opened the Internet portal www.hilton.com and, with the support of American Express, its own system credit cards Hilton Optima. In 2002, the Hilton empire became one of the initiators of the creation of a unified WorldRes network booking system, which, in addition to Hilton itself, included the resources of two other leading players in the field of the resort and hotel business - Accor and Six Continents. Finally, the company recently successfully announced another innovative service solution - WLAN access based on Symbol Technologies wireless switches. This communication complex was first tested in the Frankfurt Hilton Hotel and immediately gained popularity with the administration and customers.

The main principles of Hilton hotels to this day are the following undeniable postulates:

1. The client must receive the maximum number of services free of charge.

2. Everything the client needs must be on sale at the hotel

3. Absolutely the entire space of the hotel should bring money.

The book "Be My Guest", written by Conrad Hilton, is still a kind of Bible for all hotels.

Biography, life story of Conrad Hilton

Conrad Hilton
Conrad Hilton
Birthday: 1887, USA
Date of death: 01/03/1979, USA

For the first time, all the attributes of a modern hotel appeared in this hotel chain - air conditioning, Internet booking, automatic locks in the doors of rooms. But the main innovation was the unification of the hotel and the casino

Grocer Adventurer

When future hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel, he already had several business failures behind him. Having received an engineering degree, he did not work in his specialty for a single day, but immediately went headlong into financial adventures. They only brought disappointment to Hilton - each new undertaking invariably burned out, and everything had to be started from scratch. Although he showed business acumen as a child: when he helped his father in the family grocery store, sales went up sharply. But Conrad himself dreamed of more than just a job as a grocer in the American outback, which was his hometown San Antonio at the end of the last century. The boy saw himself at the head of a prosperous bank, a famous financier who turned over millions.

And only at the age of 31, Conrad Hilton accidentally stumbled upon a case that brought him the long-awaited millions, and turned his name into a legend. In 1919, he once again found himself broke and wondering how to put together start-up capital for new banking scams. And then Hilton bought the idle Mobley Hotel in the Texas town of Sisco. This shabby inn with ridiculous columns on the facade could only be called a hotel if you had the imagination. However, Hilton was not deprived of just fantasy - and a special, entrepreneurial fantasy. He made not only the hotel itself profitable, but even its columns, surrounding them with glass showcases with goods necessary in any hotel: newspapers, magazines, razor blades, toothbrushes and much more. As the owner of the hotel later calculated, each column brought him an additional $8,000.

CONTINUED BELOW

famous hotelier

Success inspired Hilton, and he, forgetting about the banking business, decided to take a closer look at the previously unknown hotel business. And, apparently, he saw considerable prospects in him. In 1925, he opened the first hotel in Dallas under the brand name Hilton, which became the cornerstone of the famous hotel empire. It grew stronger, expanded and with minimal losses went through the difficult years of the Great Crisis, when Hilton, in whose veins the blood of tight-fisted Scandinavians and Germans flowed, had to save literally on everything, including even his own salary.

In 1946, the Hilton Hotels Corporation was established and became a public corporation. At this time, Hilton expanded its business far beyond Texas, after buying and leasing several luxury hotels, the hotel chain became the largest in the United States.

And in 1949, the first hotel abroad was opened - Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico. On this occasion, Conrad Hilton founded a new company (operating in parallel with the first) - Hilton International, engaged in promoting his brand outside the United States.

Today there are Hilton hotels in almost all countries of the world. Over the past quarter century, the hotel industry of “Papa Conrad” has replenished with a number of luxury hotels, led by the oldest and one of the most famous hotels in New York, the Waldorf Astoria (in 1977, Hilton Hotels acquired it for $ 35 million controlling stake shares). The corporation also includes three- and four-star hotels of the British chain Stakis and the Scandinavian Scandic Hotels AB.

Of all the titles given to him by newspapermen, the founder of the hotel empire loved the French name of his profession, hotelier, the most. The famous hotelier passed away in 1979, but until the last day he retained the post of chairman of the board of directors. Only in 1966, on the eve of his 80th birthday, Conrad Hilton allowed himself to part with another post - the presidency, leaving it to his son Barron. Journalists noted that, along with the construction of hotels, Conrad Hilton succeeded in another construction - his family clan: by now, eight children of “Papa Conrad” and almost a hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living and healthy (and some are doing business) in the world .

His autobiography Be My Guest has become a reference book for a generation of hoteliers in many countries. Because the author, who inherited double pedantry from his Norwegian father and German mother, created a whole methodological manual on the topic “how to extract maximum profit from a minimum area or volume.”

standard luxury

The corporate motto of the company: "Guaranteed luxury with affordable service of high standard quality" attracts a wide variety of clients to its hotels - from crowned heads, business leaders and cultural and show business stars to simple married couples belonging to the middle class. As American journalists wrote, Conrad Hilton was the first to understand what has become a commonplace in the service industry today: both millionaires and people with average incomes are equally in need of real comfort and unobtrusive, but ubiquitous service, and both of them are ready to stop together for this. in the same hotels.

And the main thing that brought success to the Hilton hotel chain was innovation in the field of service and marketing. The corporation was the first to install specialized souvenir and gift kiosks (Hilton Country Store). For the first time, all rooms were equipped with such common devices today as air conditioning, direct dial telephone, multifunctional programmable alarm clocks, automatic entry doors. In 1994, Hilton became the first hotel chain in the world to have all properties equipped with automatic opening, closing, locking and blocking of entrance doors. And since 1959, the company began to open specialized hotels at airports, which offered the appropriate package of services for air passengers and flight crews of airlines. Another innovation was the reward system for regular customers - the Hilton Honors program, as well as the system of a nationwide club resort vacation. Then a revolution in the hotel services market was made by a joint project of sea cruise holidays with the Festival Cruise company.

In addition, the Conrad Hilton Company was the first in its business sector to introduce and widely disseminate a franchise system, for which a subsidiary, Hilton Inns, was created in 1965. Over time, this system was adopted by all Hilton competitors, while the company of Conrad Hilton itself today operates under franchising agreements with 1352 hotels.

Virtual booking

But the main innovations of the Hilton hotel chain saw the light after his death - when the world entered the electronic era. Following the precepts of the founding father, his followers were the first to be able to occupy all the profitable niches that opened up, mainly due to the fact that work on the "electronization" of Hilton hotels and related infrastructure began long before the emergence of the now well-known concepts - e-business and IT technologies. . Today, competitors are forced to rush through stages of technological restructuring that Hilton has long since passed. Back in 1973, Hilton Hotels was the first in the world's hotel business to introduce the Hiltron information and reference system - with its help, the client could remotely obtain information about availability and book rooms along with rail and air tickets. The effectiveness of this system turned out to be above all expectations - it successfully worked for 26 years, and only in 1999 it was replaced by a more modern one - the Central Reservations System (CRS or Hilstar), which united more than 500 hotels around the world.

In 1985, the corporation began operating another system - the marketing Answer*Net, which connected all regional offices and hotel complexes in the United States into a single network. And a decade later, the first in the industry opened the Internet portal www.hilton.com and, with the support of American Express, its own Hilton Optima credit card system.

In 2002, Hilton's empire became one of the initiators of the creation of a unified network booking system WorldRes, which, in addition to Hilton itself, included the resources of two other leading players in the field of resort and hotel business - Accor and Six Continents.

Finally, the company recently successfully announced another innovative service solution - WLAN access based on Symbol Technologies wireless switches. This communication complex was first tested in the Frankfurt Hilton Hotel and immediately gained popularity with the administration and customers.

Roulette Hotel

But, perhaps, the most unexpected and controversial innovation was the active and systematic integration of Hilton's hotel business into a neighboring area - the gambling industry.

This alliance began in the late sixties, when two unusual hotel– Las Vegas Hilton and Flamingo Hilton. Unlike all others built earlier, they were also gambling establishments. Prior to that, hotels in Las Vegas were built separately, casinos were built separately. And only Conrad Hilton, for all his piety, came up with a bold idea: to combine living in the "city-roulette" with the main local pastime - the game. This implied an additional system of service and various bonuses for customers. For example, restaurants and bars were placed right in the gambling halls, and each new guest was given free gambling chips for a certain amount.

The innovation was so successful that in 1987, as a result of a series of transactions, Hilton International merged with the British industrial group Ladbroke Group, whose main activity was just casinos, bookmakers, lotteries and sweepstakes. The association later became known as the Hilton Group.

The British gaming empire did not become the dominant division in the Hilton Group, but it certainly saved hotel business during the most severe crisis associated with the main tragedy of the new century - the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001. After them, for the entire global hotel business (as well as air passenger, tourism, and many others), the era of relative prosperity of the late 1990s was replaced by a period of decline. And for someone - and a complete collapse.

For some, but not for the Hilton Group, she once again demonstrated a rare insight, having managed to acquire a saving magic wand in the form of the mentioned gambling business. Because it quickly became clear that natural and man-made crises and catastrophes in society lead to the fact that people are less willing to travel, fly on planes and stay in hotels, but the craving for gambling in such times, on the contrary, only intensifies! Which, in general, is natural - when everything is unstable in the world, there is a growing hope to increase one's well-being with the help of fortune.

In the early years of the new millennium, the Hilton Group's hospitality sector suffered losses, but profits from another division - gambling and betting - made it possible not only to cover them, but also to increase profits in 2003 by almost $ 2 million compared to the previous year. The Hilton Group's total sales in 2003 were approximately $16 billion, of which only 19% came from Hilton International's hotel division.

Conrad Hilton family

Daughter - Francesca.

03.01.1979

Conrad Hilton
Conrad Nicholson Hilton

American Entrepreneur

Founder of the Hilton hotel chain

American entrepreneur. Founder of the Hilton hotel chain.

Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, USA. The boy grew up in the family of a grocery store manager. After graduating from college in 1908, he entered the institute, where he received the profession of a mining engineer. Returning home, Konrad helped his father in the store, and when the latter was elected a deputy, he was his assistant.

With the outbreak of World War I, Hilton volunteered for the front. After demobilization in 1918, he began an independent life. Doing business became his main interest. Soon he created a bank that went bankrupt. Further, Hilton made several more attempts to create banks, but to no avail.

By chance in 1919 he came to small town Cisco, Texas, where he stayed at the Mobley Hotel, which was more like a rooming house. Some observations prompted Hilton to enter the hotel business, and Conrad decided to buy this hotel.

Within a year, Conrad had made every meter of his hotel earn by increasing the number of beds and placing glass showcases at the entrance with the necessary little things: newspapers, magazines, razor blades, toothbrushes and more. The new Hilton business went well. Just a year later, he acquired three more hotels, and in 1925 the Dallas Hilton, Conrad's first own hotel, opened.

Soon Hilton began to receive invitations from all over Texas to build and manage hotels. Further, his fortune was already growing with a progression of one hotel per year. The empire expanded, and Conrad even managed to get through the Great Crisis of the 1930s with minimal losses. During this period, the entrepreneur learned to support his business during a period of economic instability, and soon hotels with his name could be found throughout the country. Hilton not only built its own, but also gradually outbid competitors' hotels.

In 1946, the Hilton Hotels Corporation was established. This hotel chain became the largest in the United States, and the corporation's turnover grew so much that in 1949 Conrad was able to buy the most luxurious hotel in New York, the Waldorf-Astoria, realizing his old dream. That same year, the first hotel outside America opened in Puerto Rico.

As a result, by the 1960s, Hilton Hotels became the most technologically advanced hotel chain in the world, with about a hundred hotels worldwide, while continuing to grow, and Conrad himself became a multimillionaire.

In 1966, at the age of 78, Konrad retired from the management of the corporation, passing the presidency to his son Barron, but remained chairman of the board of directors until the last day. "In retirement" he took up charity work, and he also liked to speak to students. Hilton also organized a Catholic foundation in his name and provided a college of hotel and restaurant management at the University of Houston.

The famous hotelier, the maestro of the hotel business, Conrad Hilton died on January 3, 1979 in the city of Santa Monica, USA. The funeral was held in a quiet, family circle.

The businessman left behind not only a huge fortune. Hilton brought the hotel business to a completely new stage of development, and his initiatives have now become world standards. It was Konrad who was the first to introduce the system of gradation of hotels according to the “star” type and the concept of “standard set of services”, which is the same for all the hotels of the company, and was the first to open the practice of selling essential items in hotel lobbies, developed a system of discounts.

Conrad Hilton family

First wife - Mary Barron (married in 1926).
Three sons - Nicholas, Barron and Eric.

Second wife - Zsa Zsa Gabor (married in 1942), actress.
Daughter - Francesca.

Third wife - Marie Franziska Kelly (married in 1976).