Conrad Hilton: the great life of a great man

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Conrad Hilton is a world famous entrepreneur from America who founded the Hilton hotel chain. The Hilton Hotels Corporation owns hotels around the world. Mr. Hilton brought the hotel business to a whole new level of development. Today, this man's ideas are world norms.

There is constant debate and talk about Hilton's huge fortune. And the great-granddaughter of billionaire Paris Hilton regularly stirs up rumors about the life of her famous great-grandfather.

Birth and first attempts at entrepreneurship

Conrad Hilton was born on December 25, 1887. It happened in the American city of San Antonio, New Mexico. The boy was born in the family of a grocery store director. After graduating from high school, the guy went to college. There he mastered the speci alty of a mining engineer. After graduating from a higher educational institution, young Conrad returned to his father's house and began to help his father in his store. But soon Konrad's father became a deputy, and the future entrepreneur became his assistant.

Conrad Hilton went to the front likethe First World War had just begun. He was demobilized in 1918, and after that he decided to live an independent life. Konrad became interested in business, which became his priority occupation. Hilton opened a bank, but after a short period of existence, it went bankrupt. After that, the man tried several more times to create such institutions, but all his attempts were unsuccessful.

The birth of the hotel business

In 1919, Conrad Hilton happened to be at the Mobley Hotel in the small town of Cisco, Texas. For this establishment, the name "hotel" was too loud. The institution looked more like a rooming house than a decent hotel. It was here that Hilton got the idea to go into the hotel business: he acquired Mobley, and a year later, under his strict guidance, every meter of the hotel began to make a profit. Konrad increased the number of beds, and in the lobby he placed glass cases with various small items, such as razors, magazines, and more.

The new business began to develop successfully. A year later, the entrepreneur bought several more hotels. In 1925, he organized his first own hotel, the Dallas Hilton. Then he began to receive offers to manage hotels throughout Texas. Now the rapid growth of Conrad's financial well-being begins: every year he opens one hotel.

His company grew bigger and bigger, even successfully overcoming the crisis that took place in the 30s of the last century. During this time, Conrad learned to managebusiness in conditions of financial instability. Now the Hilton hotels were all over America. The businessman built his own hotels and bought them from competitors.

Development of Hilton Hotels Corporation

American entrepreneur Conrad Hilton founded the Hilton Hotels Alliance in 1946. This hotel chain has become the largest in the United States. The company's turnover grew to such an extent that in 1949 Hilton managed to buy the Waldorf-Astoria - the most luxurious hotel in New York. In the same year, 1949, the first hotel outside of America was opened. She was based in Puerto Rico.

By the early 1960s, Hilton Hotels had become the most technologically advanced hotel chain on the planet. At that time, the network consisted of a hundred hotels around the world. Conrad Nicholson Hilton himself has gained the status of a multimillionaire. His business continued to grow. The modern Hilton hotel chain has approximately a thousand establishments located in different countries of the world.

The life of a hotel king in retirement

Conrad Hilton, whose photo can be seen in our article, retired from managing the company in 1966. At that time he was 78 years old. His post was inherited by his son Barron. Hilton was chairman of the board of directors until the last moment of his life. Having retired, Conrad Nicholson became actively involved in charity work and began speaking to student audiences. In addition, he created a Catholic foundation, which he named after himself. The businessman also financedUniversity of Houston College of Restaurant and Hotel Management. Hilton.

Hilton Legacy

Conrad Hilton (the biography is summarized in our material) left behind a huge fortune. But this is not all his legacy: it was this entrepreneur who brought the hotel business to a new level of development. Hilton's ideas are the worldwide norm today. It was Konrad who became the founder of the hotel division system according to the "star" principle. He also came up with the idea of a "standard set of services" that applies to all hotels in the chain.

Konrad was the first to start selling essentials in hotel lobbies. The system of discounts in hotels was also developed by Hilton. For the first time, all the attributes of a modern hotel appeared in Hilton hotels: automatic locks installed in the doors of rooms, air conditioners and much more.