WEBVTT - Chris Nassetta 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:05.280 Before COVID, I used to travel about two hundred days 0:00:05.280 --> 0:00:07.120 a year and stayed in a lot of hotels. Now 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:10.119 beginning to travel again, So I'm always interested in what's 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:12.040 going on in the hotel industry. And I had a 0:00:12.119 --> 0:00:15.080 chance to talk to the head of Hilton Hotels, Christmas 0:00:15.080 --> 0:00:17.919 set about how the industry was suffering during COVID, is 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.640 coming back now and how the industry is really changing 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:25.319 itself to accommodate new demands from its customers. So, of 0:00:25.360 --> 0:00:28.960 all the industries in the United States, probably the lodging 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.560 industry has been the most heavily impacted by COVID. Uh, 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:34.960 you think that's a fair statement. You and the airline 0:00:34.960 --> 0:00:37.760 industry probably, Yeah, I think so. Maybe the cruise industry 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.880 would it would probably top the list, but I think 0:00:40.880 --> 0:00:43.120 we'd be near the top of the list. Yeah, it's 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.880 it's been a difficult couple of years, but things things 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:50.680 are have improved by by by significant margin from where 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:52.839 we were we we started out, you know, in the 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:58.840 first quarter of at you know, eight or ten percent occupancy, 0:00:58.920 --> 0:01:01.560 which we've never you know, I've never never experienced that 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.560 kind of down draft. Um certainly in the foremost forty 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:06.480 years I've been doing this, but at this point we 0:01:06.560 --> 0:01:09.600 are while we're not through COVID, we're not back to 0:01:09.640 --> 0:01:12.319 where we were at the peaks of two thousand nineteen. 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:17.040 We're sort of like still fifteen down and generally trending 0:01:17.640 --> 0:01:22.000 in a positive direction. My guess is when we get 0:01:22.000 --> 0:01:25.080 to the second third quarter of next year, we will 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:30.440 be back to peak levels of of demand similar to nineteen. 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:34.200 What's been really interesting and been well documented I guess 0:01:34.200 --> 0:01:36.800 at this at this point is the leisure business has 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.360 been off the charts. Um. If you look at demand 0:01:40.480 --> 0:01:46.200 for leisure broadly, the rates on leisure, they're already significantly 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.840 higher than the peaks of two thousand nineteen, the business 0:01:49.880 --> 0:01:53.440 segment and the group and the meetings and events segment. 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:55.040 You know, it was on a you know, on a 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.800 slower recovery, which you'd expect, but but but you know, 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.360 building building up some momentum, So you think the worst 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.240 is behind us for the time being. I think the 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:07.320 worst is definitely behind us. So it's not a straight 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:09.919 line up, but I think the worst is definitely As 0:02:10.000 --> 0:02:13.880 COVID was hitting the industry, you had to close hotels 0:02:13.919 --> 0:02:16.560 and lay people off. I assume that was extremely difficult. 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.480 It was. You know, it's interesting that, you know, having 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.160 done this for almost forty years, that we open hotels 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.440 all the time. In fact, at this point we're opening 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.760 more than a hotel a day in the world. Still, 0:02:27.960 --> 0:02:30.320 even during COVID, we've been opening more than a hotel 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.200 a day around the world. But we very rarely close hotels. 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:35.240 So it's something people don't focus on. You know, when 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:38.640 a hotel opens, it's open most of them forever. Like 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.280 you open them up, they hope, but they're open their doors. 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.160 They're open twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. There. 0:02:45.200 --> 0:02:47.320 You know, it's sort of an epicenter of activity, and 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:49.680 you rarely close them. You close them pretty much when 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:52.880 you're gonna tear them down for another use or build 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:56.400 another hotel. So we are not very experienced at closing hotels, 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:59.160 but we gained the experience. But the hard part, uh, 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.160 did you did close hotels? Actually we closed a significant 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:07.240 percentage of the system at some point in time. You know, 0:03:07.320 --> 0:03:12.800 we had probably fifteen hundred of circus seven thousand hotels 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:15.239 that were closed. But the difficult part sort of you 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.960 asked it. The question was the people um hotels were 0:03:19.000 --> 0:03:22.560 closing there. You know, it had a huge impact on 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.960 our frontline team members in the sense of, you know, 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:29.600 necessitating furloughs, reductions and force you know, both both in 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.240 the field and corporately. And so as hard as it 0:03:32.320 --> 0:03:34.600 is to close the hotels, it was really the people's 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:37.360 side of it in the early stages of COVID where 0:03:37.680 --> 0:03:40.200 was heart wrenching. So now that you're coming back, you 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:42.880 have the opposite challenge. You have to open hotels and 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.480 hire employees back. And it's been reported that it's hard 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.080 to get employees to come back for the previous jobs 0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:51.680 were to hire new people you have to pay much more. 0:03:51.760 --> 0:03:54.040 So is that a big challenge for you in reopening hotels? 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:57.000 It is. At this point almost all our hotels are 0:03:57.080 --> 0:04:00.880 open um, but they're not fully staffed. The the the 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.360 single biggest issue that we have is getting labor back 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:08.480 into the hotels broadly, but particularly in certain roles like 0:04:08.640 --> 0:04:13.040 housekeeping in the culinary areas. And while um we've seen 0:04:13.120 --> 0:04:15.920 some easing of that, you know over the last few months, 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.560 we still have a ways to go, and so it's 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:21.680 something we're working very hard on. It's it's a complicated issue, 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:25.240 you know, it's it's part. You know, throughout throughout this 0:04:25.279 --> 0:04:27.800 has been health concerns. People don't want to go to 0:04:27.880 --> 0:04:32.160 places where other people are congregating. It's been significant issues 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.040 on child care, particularly when schools weren't open, people had 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:37.880 nobody to take care of their children. Um, there have 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.760 been government policies that have obviously, you know, compensated people, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.720 you know that we're unemployed in ways that provided some 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:48.760 some distancentives and you you put and then there. To 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:51.440 be honest, there's some people that just have been reevaluating 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:54.400 you know, life and what they want to do, and 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.560 some of the you know, some of some of those 0:04:56.600 --> 0:04:59.479 folks have said, you know, I'd rather go work and 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:02.799 where else rather than you know, clean rooms and other things. 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:06.800 So it's a complex equation that's going to take a 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.360 significant amount of time to sort of work through. We're 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.440 a lot better off than we were even three months ago, 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:14.640 and I think when we wake up over the next year, 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:18.600 we'll be able to get I'm hopeful labor back, you know, 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:20.160 to to be able to do what we did. So 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.520 one of the biggest concerns I assume the industry has 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:25.320 is that people like me have gotten used to using 0:05:25.600 --> 0:05:29.040 zoom and Therefore, instead of traveling across the country around 0:05:29.040 --> 0:05:31.599 the world, I can zoom. Is that a big concern 0:05:31.680 --> 0:05:34.040 that people will say, Look, the Zoom experience is actually 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.800 pretty good, and I don't need to travel. It's not 0:05:36.880 --> 0:05:40.000 a big concern for me. I think, you know, and 0:05:40.040 --> 0:05:42.320 I think the world's figuring this out. I mean a 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.920 year ago, Um, you know, I think people were saying, gosh, 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:49.359 this works, it's so efficient. Maybe I don't need to 0:05:49.400 --> 0:05:51.400 do the things that I was doing. I think a 0:05:51.480 --> 0:05:54.600 year later, as at least everybody I'm talking to is 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:56.760 realize there are real limits to it. I mean, don't 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:00.200 even wrong. It's great technology. We use it and it 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:04.560 has facilitated our ability to continue to communicate during this crisis. 0:06:04.600 --> 0:06:11.479 But there is a a unstoppable force that exists with humans, 0:06:11.520 --> 0:06:15.000 which is humans want to interact with humans, and that 0:06:15.120 --> 0:06:18.159 isn't just for a vacation. Humans need and want to 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:23.120 interact on business, to build partnerships, to innovate, to build culture, 0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:26.520 and they want to congregate the meetings and events business. 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:28.520 They want a network. They want to you know, to 0:06:28.600 --> 0:06:31.919 grow their business, to build relationships, and so I have 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:34.360 no real worries. I mean, every time you know, we've 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.800 sort of as we've been recovering. If you look at 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.720 you know, the minute people start to feel like we're 0:06:40.800 --> 0:06:44.240 through the crisis, the demand for meetings and events, which 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.920 is the longest lead, skyrockets. People are people are dying 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.160 to get out. Okay, let's talk about your own background. 0:06:50.240 --> 0:06:52.920 How you came to be the president CEO. UM. Where 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.480 did you grow up? I grew up right nearby here, Arlington, Virginia. 0:06:56.920 --> 0:06:59.120 And you went to school and high school, to high 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.520 public high school in Arlington, Yorktown high school, went to 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.440 u v A. I ended up at the McIntyre School 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.800 of Commerce, undergraduate business school. Uh. Got out and decided 0:07:09.840 --> 0:07:13.520 I wanted to follow my father and uncle's footsteps and 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.160 being the real estate development business. And ended up working 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:20.800 for one of the biggest developers and and still a 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.360 good friend UH today in the d C. E. R. 0:07:23.400 --> 0:07:26.800 Oliver Carr, and my first job was actually ended up 0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:30.960 being a hotel, which was the Willard Hotel and Office complex, 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.800 So Oliver Carr was it was an individual who built 0:07:33.800 --> 0:07:36.160 a very big real estate company in Washington. See the 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:39.440 company still around. UM. And then you were recruited, I 0:07:39.440 --> 0:07:42.160 guess to go to Mariott, is that right. No, in 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:45.440 between there, I created a private equity business, I know, 0:07:45.520 --> 0:07:49.160 a little teeny one compared to that big behemoth that 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:51.360 you're part of. At the time, you know, this would 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.920 have been in this was the early days a private 0:07:54.960 --> 0:07:58.440 equity generally, certainly real estate private equity. And our view 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:01.480 was that it's there's gonna be massive opportunity as a 0:08:01.520 --> 0:08:04.720 result of the displacement going on in the SNL crisis, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:08.320 just so much inadvertent ownership of real estate on the 0:08:08.320 --> 0:08:11.360 wrong people's balance sheets, and we wanted to get out 0:08:11.520 --> 0:08:13.920 and UH and take advantage of that. So we did so. 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:16.440 For five years, my partner and I went out and 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:19.880 uh I had a fabulous private equity business. We did, 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.640 you know, a lot of deals probably you know, it 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.800 seems like small numbers today, but probably a half a 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.440 billion dollars of deals across the spectrum of hotels and 0:08:28.640 --> 0:08:33.199 office did a lot of tax exempt multi family UH 0:08:33.240 --> 0:08:36.400 in in in our fund, and had a lot of 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:40.520 great partners UM, one of whom was Blackstone, and then 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:44.040 got recruited my partner and I to go to what 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:47.920 was then Host Marriott UM. After after doing that for 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.600 five years, Host Marriott was the real estate arm Marriott Hotel. 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:53.920 Mary had split the company into two parts. One was 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.280 the brand Marriott that operates the hotels and managers HUM. 0:08:57.480 --> 0:08:59.199 The other part was owned the real estate right and 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:01.720 that was Host Mary. I came in as a CEO, 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:04.920 and I became the CEO within four years. My partner 0:09:04.960 --> 0:09:07.679 in our private equity did business, Terry Golden was the CEO. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:10.520 I was CEO. He retired in four years and I 0:09:10.760 --> 0:09:13.600 and UH and I took over. So you're running Host Marriott. 0:09:13.679 --> 0:09:15.960 You did very good job, as I remember it, Um, 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:18.800 I think, So how did you come to Hilton? I 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:21.400 mentioned in my private equity days, I had gotten to 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:24.400 know the Blackstone guys, you know really well, John Schreiber 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.560 then who since retired, but John Gray you know particularly 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:33.080 really well, UM, Steve Schorzman a bit and UM. When 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:35.320 I got to Host. As a result of that relationship 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:37.959 and given their interest in the hotel space, we did 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.079 a bunch of UM transactions to them. So while I 0:09:41.160 --> 0:09:45.480 had known them, I got to know them really really well. 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:48.160 And as a result of that relationship, I guess when 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:51.600 they decided, you know, in July, early late June, early 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:56.079 July of two thousand and seven that they were gonna 0:09:56.400 --> 0:09:59.640 buy Hilton. John Gray Calton said, I've got I've got 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.920 the perfect job for you. We know you, we like you, 0:10:03.240 --> 0:10:05.880 we trust you. We think you've sort of trained your 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.040 whole career to be able to run a company like this. 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.160 I think there's a huge amount of upside and potential this. 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:16.040 This company has been grossly undermanaged and you should come 0:10:16.120 --> 0:10:20.880 do it. Um, And I said, what are you crazy? Um, 0:10:21.000 --> 0:10:24.680 I'm gonna pick up my wife and my six little 0:10:24.760 --> 0:10:28.240 daughters at this time, and we're gonna move to Beverly Hills, California. 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.520 And you know, I famously said like, well, we're gonna 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.080 be like the Beverly Hillbillies out You know, I don't 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.520 see that the set is on on Rodeo Drive, but 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.479 those who know John Gray know that he's very persuasive. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.360 And the truth is, as I stepped back from it, 0:10:43.120 --> 0:10:44.679 and as I talked to my wife, who was an 0:10:44.679 --> 0:10:48.120 equal partner in the decision, we realized how many chances 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.240 in your life are you going to have where it's 0:10:51.240 --> 0:10:53.960 a counterparty like Blackstone, who you know really well, who 0:10:54.000 --> 0:10:57.920 you trust. It's a business that you know but has 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:03.640 massive opportunity, and it meeting and it suits your skill set, um, 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:05.960 and those things just don't come together that often. And 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:08.840 so eventually I decided we would be pick up and 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:10.800 be the Beverly Hill bill As and we moved. So 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:13.600 Hilton was a publicly traded company. Blackstone bought her for 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:16.720 roughly billion dollars. Some people thought it was a pretty 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:19.960 high price at the time. You come in to manage 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:22.080 the large amount of debt and so forth, and you 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:26.560 moved your six young daughters all the way out to California, 0:11:26.760 --> 0:11:29.920 and then, um, the Great Recession comes and all of 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:32.440 a sudden, the debt from the leverage buyout seems to 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.120 be burdensome. Were you worried that the deal wasn't gonna 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.160 work at all and it might go bankrupt? David, I 0:11:38.160 --> 0:11:40.840 I slept like a baby. I slept for two hours. 0:11:41.040 --> 0:11:44.280 I woke up, cried, slept for another two hours, woke 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:47.400 up and cried. Kidding, no, you know, the truth is 0:11:47.440 --> 0:11:49.920 there were some tense moments at the you know, at 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:52.600 the beginning of the Great Recession, but we never lost faith. 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.480 Like John and I particularly is the two that sort 0:11:56.520 --> 0:11:59.440 of put our heart and soul into making this thing work. 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:01.920 John Gray and I we we knew we had a 0:12:02.000 --> 0:12:06.439 really good strategy. We were building a world class team. 0:12:06.520 --> 0:12:08.960 And you know, I'm a big believer in a steady 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.040 hand on the wheel. What goes down will come up. 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:14.319 You know, don't panic. If you've got a strategy, work 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:17.520 the strategy, adapted to the times, and and you know 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.199 you'll get to the other side. And we did. So 0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:21.920 we don't have as much gray hair as I do. 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:25.439 But you get any hairs, I might question that you 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.920 Did you get any gray hairs from this experience? Definitely? 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:29.920 I definitely did, but I found it. You know, I 0:12:30.360 --> 0:12:32.679 definitely got more gray hairs. And I'm not gonna say, like, 0:12:33.080 --> 0:12:35.679 you know, it didn't stress me out on occasion, but 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:37.840 I love a challenge. I mean, the truth is, I 0:12:37.880 --> 0:12:39.880 had a really great job running HOST, and I love 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.479 the company and the people and the board was incredible 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:45.120 to me. And so why did I leave. I wanted 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.679 a bigger challenge and you know, something that was more 0:12:47.720 --> 0:12:51.920 global and needed fixing. And so the reality is the 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:54.239 Great Recession. While it was hard and it was stressful, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:58.240 it was also an opportunity to sort of stretch myself 0:12:58.480 --> 0:13:01.800 and and to you know, fix it and to really 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:04.360 push myself to get to the other side. So black 0:13:04.400 --> 0:13:07.520 Stunt ultimately injected some more money into the deal and 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:10.480 they bought some debt back at a discounted The bottom 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:12.800 line was they ultimately took a public or you took 0:13:12.800 --> 0:13:14.920 a public and it turned out to be one of 0:13:14.960 --> 0:13:17.640 the most successful, if not the most successful buyouts in history. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.120 I think Blackstone made about a fourteen or fifteen billion 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.440 dollar profit when what I'm told and when you took 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:26.319 the company public, um you did at a certain price. 0:13:26.360 --> 0:13:28.080 But today I think the price is up about SI 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:32.559 stock is up about so you must be pretty happy, 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:36.600 right think. So we we, you know, did our job 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.080 for Blackstone and their investors, and they, you know, they 0:13:40.200 --> 0:13:43.040 made a great profit, you know, out of what looked 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.600 like a difficult set up during the Great Recession. And yeah, 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:47.960 anybody that is that bought the stock and we when 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.520 we went public and held it has done exceptionally well. 0:13:51.760 --> 0:13:54.080 So c e o s today are under a lot 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.880 of pressure to speak out on publicly controversial issues, civil 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.920 rights issues, voting rights issues, other things. Do you feel 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.199 as a CEO that you should be speaking out? Is 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:08.000 that good for your shareholders or stakeholders. It's a really 0:14:08.080 --> 0:14:12.439 complicated issue and it always has been. But as the representatives, 0:14:12.440 --> 0:14:14.920 the most senior representative of the company, for for the 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:17.760 company effectively through me, to have a you, it has 0:14:17.800 --> 0:14:21.320 to be directly connected to our purpose. So I'm constantly 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:26.080 looking at the convergence of what is good for society 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:29.000 but is also good for our business, and and looking 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.800 at that point of overlap and making sure that we're 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:35.400 focused in those areas. So here's the thing again, in 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:38.560 my humble opinion, today's world, everybody wants to have an 0:14:38.560 --> 0:14:43.200 opinion on everything and do everything. Last I checked focus 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:46.360 and discipline matter, and so we've picked sort of three 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:52.040 areas that are most in important to us. Diversity and inclusion, 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:54.280 which is clearly a huge part of our business. We 0:14:54.280 --> 0:14:59.680 serve a mentally diverse customer base, immensely diverse team member 0:14:59.720 --> 0:15:03.920 pop relation. So you know, that's a really important area 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:06.680 of work and that I do speak out on. On 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:08.960 the social side, youth. You know, one of the biggest 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:11.680 issues in the world today is that was a problem 0:15:11.720 --> 0:15:15.120 before COVID. It's only gotten worse as youth unemployment. We 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:18.120 need young people desperately to want to get into our business. 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:22.240 So it's it's uh, definitely in that convergence. And then 0:15:22.280 --> 0:15:24.440 the environmental side of it. You know, if we don't 0:15:24.440 --> 0:15:26.880 have destined, if we don't take care of our destinations 0:15:26.880 --> 0:15:29.160 around the world, there is no travel business. And so 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:32.200 that is directly you know, taking care of the environment 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:35.320 and and attending to climate issues. Not only can we 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:38.000 have a big impact on it, but it's it's immensely 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:42.040 important to the to the future opportunities and traveling towards him. Now, 0:15:42.120 --> 0:15:44.240 your company was started more than a hundred years ago, 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:45.880 a little bit more than a hundred years ago, by 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.880 Conrad Hilton. He's famous for many things. He built this company. 0:15:49.920 --> 0:15:51.760 But I was told at one time he made a 0:15:51.840 --> 0:15:55.200 famous statement about the most important thing in the hotel business. 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:56.880 Can you tell us what that was? He did? I 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:59.640 I wasn't alive to see it, but he was. He 0:15:59.760 --> 0:16:02.360 was famous in the time, and he ended up on 0:16:02.440 --> 0:16:05.240 the Johnny Carson Show on more than one occasion at 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:07.960 one point. And as it goes, I've seen the clips, 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.160 so it's not legend. Johnny Carson said, all right, Connie, 0:16:11.240 --> 0:16:15.520 he went by Connie, Um, you're the biggest hotel man 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.680 on earth. Could you just give everybody in the audience 0:16:18.680 --> 0:16:20.320 one piece of advice. He said, if I could give 0:16:20.360 --> 0:16:23.360 you one piece of advice, I would say, please keep 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.000 your your shower curtain inside the shower because otherwise it 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:28.680 was going to leak out and the water was going 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.400 to damage the hotel. So do you ever commune with 0:16:31.480 --> 0:16:34.120 Conrad Hilton? You ever getting messages from heaven from him? 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:36.800 You're doing a good job protecting my name. I haven't, 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:39.440 but I do have his bust right next to my office. 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:41.960 When we moved out of Beverly Hills, UM, we had 0:16:41.960 --> 0:16:46.000 all sorts of paraphernalia that you know that was related 0:16:46.040 --> 0:16:48.240 to the history of the company, most of which I 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:51.200 sent to the Conrad Hilton Museum at the at the 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:53.880 University of Houston because I thought it would be great 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:55.920 for them. The catalog didn't have it. The one thing 0:16:55.960 --> 0:16:58.320 I did keep was his bust, which I keep very 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:01.280 close by my office. I did so I didn't know 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.840 Conrad personally. I did meet his son, Baron Um, who 0:17:04.920 --> 0:17:08.840 ran the company for for over forty years UM and 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:12.080 was very close to his father Um, and they, you know, 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:15.960 at least talking to Baron, he was quite proud of 0:17:16.000 --> 0:17:18.159 what we had done. With the company and suggested to 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:21.680 me Conrad would have been as well. Well. Conrad Hilton 0:17:21.720 --> 0:17:24.240 was very famous, and Barren Hilton was very famous, But honestly, 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.800 the most famous person with the last name Hilton is 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:30.800 Paris Hilton. Harris is she involved in the company she had. 0:17:31.119 --> 0:17:34.720 More recently, we've been working with Paris on the marketing 0:17:34.760 --> 0:17:38.120 side of it. We're working with her. She just got 0:17:38.240 --> 0:17:41.480 married and she's on her honeymoon and we're helping sponsor 0:17:41.560 --> 0:17:44.640 the honeymoon, and so we we have been doing, um 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.400 some work more more recently. When I was growing up 0:17:49.080 --> 0:17:51.680 a blue collar family, we couldn't afford to go to Hilton. 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.840 Hilton was the ultimate brand in those days, and we 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:55.680 were lucky if we go to, say a holiday inn 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:59.360 or something like that. Um Over the years, Hilton name 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:03.960 hasn't yet been seen as maybe as ultimately elite as Ritz, 0:18:04.040 --> 0:18:07.320 Carlton or four Seasons. Is that a fair statement in 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.760 some respects? Yeah, it is, and my choice if you 0:18:09.800 --> 0:18:13.679 go back fifty years ago, Hilton was probably the leading 0:18:13.840 --> 0:18:17.320 pioneering luxury brand on Earth. But as time went on 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:21.520 and as we learned that segmentation mattered in the business, 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:24.880 and that the customers had these different needs. We really 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:30.080 tried purposefully to make Hilton a four star brand to 0:18:30.200 --> 0:18:33.640 allow for other things above it. So your ultimate luxury 0:18:33.640 --> 0:18:36.879 brand is that Waldorf Historia, that's Waldaver Sto. Luxury brands 0:18:36.920 --> 0:18:40.320 are Water water for Historia, Conrad and alex Are. You're 0:18:40.359 --> 0:18:43.199 in a Conrad as it turns out today, but the 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.320 very highest end of luxury for us is his Waldor. 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:50.520 Then Conrad and alex Are is a collection of luxury, 0:18:50.560 --> 0:18:53.320 historic luxury hotels. Now in New York City, there's the 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.159 famous initial waldorfer Historia which has been under construction and 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.399 rehabilitation for a few years. Um, you don't own it, 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:02.679 but you're going to manage it. I presume isn't going 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:05.760 to open in my lifetime. Well, let me correct one thing. 0:19:05.840 --> 0:19:08.880 That is not the original Waldorf story. The original water 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:14.040 for story was was put together as a consequence of 0:19:14.080 --> 0:19:19.880 the Astor two members of the Astor family feuding that 0:19:20.119 --> 0:19:22.639 had two hotels that were on the site of what 0:19:22.800 --> 0:19:25.800 is today the Empire State Building. And the way they 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.600 settled the feud was they one hotel was the Walter 0:19:28.720 --> 0:19:31.280 if the other was the Astoria, and they settled the 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:34.200 feud by connecting them with what they called Peacock Alley, 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:37.840 and it became famously the Waldorf Storia, New York. That 0:19:37.960 --> 0:19:41.359 was in the late eighteen hundreds. They ultimately sold it 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:44.840 to what got redeveloped as the Empire State Building and 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:47.639 where the current water story is was built during the 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:51.840 Great Depression and opened the nineteen and is under massive 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:57.080 redevelopment um and should open reopen as what I think 0:19:57.080 --> 0:19:59.040 will be the best luxury hotel in New York in 0:20:00.200 --> 0:20:03.240 with four hundred rooms and you know, about the same 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:07.600 amount of high end luxury apartments. So there's another rumor 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.920 going around about another Walldorf story. It's rumored in Washington, 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:14.600 see where we are now at the Trump Hotel um 0:20:14.640 --> 0:20:17.600 which had its challenges, which has been reported and sold 0:20:17.640 --> 0:20:20.520 to somebody, and that you Hilton will manage it as 0:20:20.520 --> 0:20:22.960 a wal Dover Storia. Can you comment on that. I've 0:20:23.000 --> 0:20:25.600 read that same rumor, but no, I can't comment. I 0:20:25.640 --> 0:20:29.119 have a very strict rule. I'll comment when something is 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:33.080 And so the rumors are justified in the sense that 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:35.720 there's there's a lot of work and discussion going on, 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.080 but nothing is done. Now there's a new phenomenon that's 0:20:39.160 --> 0:20:42.400 now not that new called airbnb. What what is that? 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:44.960 And when it came along, the hotel industry kind of 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:46.720 shrugged it off a bit. But is it a real 0:20:46.720 --> 0:20:48.479 competitor to you? And are you going to be in 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.960 that business? UM? I do not think it's a real 0:20:52.000 --> 0:20:54.800 competitor to us. So if you think about what we do, 0:20:55.000 --> 0:20:58.240 it's something different than what they do, and I think 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:03.800 we coexist with them quite well. We deliver a high quality, 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:07.400 consistent product with the amenities wrapped in service, with all 0:21:07.400 --> 0:21:12.119 the technology loyalty, and people pay us generally a big 0:21:12.200 --> 0:21:14.719