Hilton Hotels & Resorts (formerly known as Hilton Hotels) is an international chain of full service hotels and resorts and the flagship brand of Hilton Worldwide.
The original company was founded by Conrad Hilton. As of 2010, there were over 530 Hilton branded hotels across the world in 78 countries across six continents. Hilton hotels are either owned by, managed by, or franchised to independent operators by Hilton Worldwide.
The Hilton Hotels brand remains one of the company's flagship brands and one of the largest hotel brands in the world. The company places marketing emphasis on both business travel and leisure travel with locations in major city centres, near airports, convention centres, and a number of vacation resorts and leisure-oriented hotels in popular vacation destinations around the world.
The company's Hilton HHonors guest loyalty program is one of the largest of its kind and has numerous partnerships with airlines and car rental companies. Some Hilton Hotels feature an Executive Level lounge for HHonors Gold and Diamond members and those willing to pay for Executive Rooms. The lounge is normally located on the highest floor of the hotel building. In addition to Hilton Hotels, the Hilton HHonors membership can also be used at all other Hilton Worldwide brands.
The company has, in recent years taken a pro-active approach to energy efficiency in many of their UK branches. Installing green controls for doors windows and heating to ensure intelligent usage of energy depending whether rooms are let or vacant.
The U.S. branch of Hilton hotels was reunited with the international properties after more than 40 years in February 2006, when United States-based Hilton Hotels Corporation purchased the hotels division of United Kingdom-based Hilton Group plc, which had acquired Hilton's International operations in 1987 (the companies had been separated originally in 1964).