Hilton continues to grow its portfolio with its first luxury cruise and adding more design and lifestyle brands. Hilton Honors members will be among the first to benefit.
Graduate by Hilton is one of the newest brands in the Hilton portfolio. Representing many of these college-town hotels, Hilton has put together its own marching band, consisting of accomplished student musicians from college bands across its network of properties.
Hilton is one of the world’s biggest hospitality companies, and its evolution as a brand continues to follow the trends of the traveling public. Younger and more varied demographics are looking for differentiation in design and price point, as well as attention to what is important socially from sustainability to the needs of the neighborhood where hotels are located.
To meet that interest, Hilton continues to roll out new offerings, brands and even a new cruise on the Nile. Many of these updates and initiatives were unveiled this spring to travel advisors and industry leaders at the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai.
The hospitality brand is known for innovations in hospitality. It launched the first multi-hotel reservations platform in 1948 and the first airport-hotel concept in 1959. And this year, it continues to expand its offering.
Entering the cruise space
A cabin rendering aboard the new Waldorf Astoria Nile River Experience debuting in 2026
In a surprise move, Hilton will launch a Nile River sailing under its Waldorf Astoria brand. Starting next year, passengers can take four-to-six night journeys to visit Luxor and the Valley of the Kings, among other famous ancient Egyptian landmarks.
Named the “Waldorf Astoria Nile River Experience,” the five-deck, 29-cabin ship will mirror the upscale experience found at its namesake brand’s hotels around the world. And brand-loyal Waldorf Astoria guests can expect the same amenities you might find in a land-based hotel, including a spa, restaurants serving local fare and even Peacock Alley (the luxe lounge with signature clock unique to each destination at every Waldorf Astoria).
The sailing will be operated by a third party, “Middle East for Nile Cruisers,” but will follow the same high standards for which the brand is known. And travelers can earn and redeem their Hilton Honors points for the trip.
Building partnerships with relevant brands
“Stay Like McLaren Racing” suite at The Trafalgar St. James London, Curio Collection by Hilton
Like many travel brands, Hilton has been leaning heavily into the travel partnership space. This means that Hilton is looking to tie up with brands that its Hilton Honors members find relevant, which adds value to the program.
One of those recent partnerships is with McLaren Racing. Hilton Honors members could bid their points to attend popular racing events, and they could even stay in a McLaren-themed hotel suite at The Trafalgar in London during the British Grand Prix.
These types of tie-ups have only grown since the pandemic when hotel stays were down. “Hotel brands looked to form new partnerships to engage with customers even when they were not staying in one of their rooms,” says Ryan Smith, news managing editor for UpgradedPoints.com.
AutoCamp Joshua Tree National Park
New to Hilton Honors is AutoCamp where guests can stay in glamping-style accommodations like Airstream vans, cabins and tents while earning and redeeming Hilton points. Locations are in or near national parks and help Hilton to tap into the growing demand for outdoor experiences, especially in summer.
“Hilton is increasingly seeking partnerships that allow them to expand their portfolio without the costs or timeline associated with building hundreds of new hotels,” adds Smith.
The main reception and amenity area for AutoCamp at Zion National Park
Cross-brand partnerships like these, says Smith, help hospitality companies and their loyalty programs to become more like “lifestyle brands” rather than just hotels to consumers.
Other partnerships are designed to appeal to peoples’ interest in health and wellness like dedicated sleep stories available to guests via meditation app Calm and in-room fitness content from Peloton.
“Alliances between lodging brands and other established consumer trademarks allow for cross-promotion and the ability to leverage each other's marketing channels and customer bases to increase visibility and expand reach to wider audiences,” says Daniel Lesser, president and CEO of LW Hospitality Advisors. “These types of collaborations can inspire an emotional connection between their brand and consumer identities.”
Individual hotels, too, are getting creative. Tempo by Hilton Times Square has a new literary tourism package that includes complimentary best sellers chosen by independent East Village bookstore Book Club Bar and several literary-inspired cocktails at the hotel’s Highball Lounge to enjoy during their stay.
Adding brands to its well-known portfolio
Hampton by Hilton partnered with Paris Hilton for a limited-time Sparkling Strawberry Hampton Waffle in 2024.
Its hotel portfolio includes iconic brands from luxury names like Waldorf Astoria to mid-scale hotels like Hampton by Hilton, now the largest hotel brand in the world with more than 350,000 rooms in 43 countries. Hampton was the first hotel in its category to offer complimentary breakfast, a move other hotel chains in that price point have since followed.
So prolific is its Hampton brand that it has more hotels than any other in the Hilton portfolio. Part of what made it popular with consumers was its breakfast, which over recent years has been upgraded to include things like Chobani yogurt smoothies, egg white frittatas and more flavors for its cult-like favorite, make-it-yourself waffle machine. Last year, it even partnered with Paris Hilton to add a limited-time sparkling (with edible glitter) strawberry waffle to its lineup, which was also available for purchase to take home.
The lobby lounge of a Graduate by Hilton hotel
One of the newest brands for Hilton Honors members is Graduate by Hilton with properties in college towns across America. Its differentiating factor of academia and college sports-inspired design is bespoke to each campus. There isn’t any other hospitality brand that uniformly follows a similar design model.
And some of its existing brands like Tru and Spark by Hilton are expanding outside of the U.S., especially in Asia and the Middle East. This year alone, 14 Tru by Hiltons will open in Vietnam, bringing the total number of Hilton Honors hotels in its pipeline there to 29. According to travel industry website Skift, this is part of Hilton’s strategy to grow its footprint in the profitable segment of mid-market hotels.
(l to r) Mohammed Almusbahi, director, Al Musbah Group, and Amir Lababedi, managing director, Development, Middle East & North Africa, Hilton. The hospitality brand will have 100 open or in-pipeline properties in Saudi Arabia this year.
This year, Spark by Hilton will make its Middle East and Africa debut in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, where Hilton will eventually have 100 properties in the kingdom.
“Hilton’s expertise in both luxury and lifestyle, paired with its track record in scaling brands, makes for an exciting opportunity.”
-Sydell founder and CEO Andrew Zobler
NoMad Hotels, one of the brands from hotel developer Sydell Group, will open a new property in Singapore by early 2027, bringing the newly added Hilton brand’s presence to southeast Asia. Hilton acquired a controlling interest in Sydell last year and has plans to expand the NoMad lifestyle brand to as many as 100 properties worldwide.
Canopy by Hilton has made its debut in South Africa with Canopy by Hilton Cape Town Longkloof this summer with most rooms facing Table Mountain, Lion’s Head or Signal Hill.
Hilton food and beverage upgrades
Known for the invention of famous menu items like the piña colada (created at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan) and the Waldorf salad (created at Waldorf Astoria New York), Hilton’s culinary programming continues to evolve.
Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert De Niro’s Nobu brand have opened restaurants at two Hilton-family hotels this year including Grand Wailea, a Waldorf Astoria Resort in Maui and Hotel del Coronado in southern California (part of Hilton’s Curio Collection and LXR Hotels & Resorts brands).
The regional menu at DoubleTree's new piebird concept restaurant
A new dining concept is coming to DoubleTree by Hilton hotels with the inauguration of “piebird,” its new Americana-style restaurant that will begin opening at numerous DoubleTree properties. The first two that will open will be at the brand’s hotels in Nanuet, New York this fall and Asheville, North Carolina by the end of next year with more to follow. On the menu are dishes like chicken pot pie, tomato jam grilled cheese, biscuits and gravy, and regional dishes that lean into local options from Tex-Mex to southern comfort food.
And when it comes to food and sustainability, the Green Breakfast program from Hilton, which is now in place in more than a dozen hotels across the United Arab Emirates, is a meaningful change that could revolutionize the problem of restaurant food waste. It was originally tested during the extensive “iftar” evening buffets served at hotels during Ramadan.
Gentle signage reminds diners to take only what they can eat to help avoid food waste.
While maintaining creative buffet presentations, some areas replace large serving dishes with individually plated portions by using artificial intelligence to determine the best serving size. Guests can take as many as they like, but typically take only what they think they can eat, helping to avoid waste. In other areas, signage along the buffet and in the restaurant helps to provide “behavioral nudges,” which also helps consumers feel like they are part of eco-friendly and social change.
Over the years, Hilton’s breakfast research showed that bread and pastries represent one of the largest portions of food waste. Other items most commonly left over include porridge, congee, sambar, shakshuka and baked beans.
It was inspired from the brand’s Green Ramadan program, where its traditional iftar buffet dinners are grandiose affairs. Scaled across 45 hotels in 14 countries in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, it brought about a 20% reduction in food waste.
“Through this pilot project, we were able to learn and gather data on consumer behavior so we can build awareness and take meaningful action scalable at hotels and across the industry. We hope this initiative will inspire the sector to source locally and reduce food waste.”
-Emma Banks, vice president, F&B strategy & development, EMEA, Hilton
Today, Hilton has achieved a 62% reduction in pre- and post- consumer food waste (the equivalent of more than 400,000 meals), which has kept almost 726 tons of CO2e emissions from entering the environment.
Some of the dishes crafted using zero-food-waste recipes at Hilton properties in the UK. Plans are in place to scale this across other hotels in the future.
It has also developed a new zero-waste food menu starting at four hotels in the United Kingdom. This involved repurposing leftover food from buffets like pastries, fruit and coffee beans to make tasty puddings or pickling fruit and vegetables. Many of the restaurants’ sauces and stocks were made using vegetable stalks, trimmings, peelings and bruised fruits that are not attractive enough to display.
The newly designed cocktail lounge attire for staff at Waldorf Astoria New York
Even hotel staff are seeing exciting changes. The newly reopened Waldorf Astoria New York worked with British designer Nicholas Oakwell to rethink what an iconic hotel uniform should look like. His designs mix contemporary boldness with retro style, which are sure to make these some of the most head-turning hotel uniforms in town.
After all, this is the hotel where room service was first invented in the 1930s. And that’s a fitting update for such a key market like New York where Hilton can show off its latest moves to a global audience.
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