It is now all know that there are a chain of hotels with the same name and the same as the level of service throughout the world - be it London, Paris, Moscow or the Cayman Islands. But the first hotel chain has created an American Conrad Hilton, who gave all of its hotels own name and offered them a standard set of services. It was he who first coined hotels assign "stars" (similar to brandy) and first started trading in the lobby of their hotel to all, that you may need clients.
Conrad Hilton was born on December 25, 1887 in the town of San Antonio on the southern United States, in a respected family of immigrants from Europe. His father, August, immigrated from Norway, and his mother, Marie, - from Germany. In San Antonio family owned department store. In the late nineteenth - early twentieth century, things went very well - my father had built a solid house with a dozen bedrooms - for all households. The welfare of the family thoroughly shaken in 1907, when the first serious economic downturn. Sales volumes fell in the store, my father had to lay off all salaried employees - but it did not allow the family to exist normally. At the family council decided to try to take the guests of the rooms - the time was suitable, many thousands of people in search of a better life traveling around the country. Every evening, twenty Conrad went to the local station, where to look for potential customers to the "family" hotel. For a room with half board took only $ 1 - it was a "fair" price, so the lack of lodgers were not. This business has helped Hilton survive times of recession and maintain a store that with the revival of the economy once again became profitable.After raising funds on the stock exchange the Hilton empire has become the most successful hotel chain.
While he owns 9 hotels valued at $ 51 million, his business employs more than 10,000 people from California to New York. Fund raising and expansion of business in a few years bring the Hilton is a very serious personal success. In 1949 he bought his dream luxury hotel Waldorf-Astoria in New York. Many years before, he always carried a photo of the hotel. In 1954, the position of the company further strengthened, in October the record at the time transaction 9 hotels Statlera - one of the first U.S. hotel magnates, including a huge unfinished hotel rooms by 1000 in Dallas, which was completed in January 1956 year.
By the beginning of the 1960s, "Hilton" has become the "tech" hotel chain in the world and its extension has encountered obstacles. By the end of 1960 at the Conrad was about 40 hotels in the United States and as many outside. "Hilton" was a natural affiliation London, Rome, Caracas and Barbados. In 1964, Hilton noted all the "overseas" assets of the company Hilton Group, which from now on shall be entitled to the Hilton brand outside of the U.S. and Mexico.
Conrad himself away from the management of the company in 1966 at age 78. Control passed to his son Barron. A year later published the autobiography of Conrad Hilton, "Be my guest." After that, he devoted himself to the joys of a happy old man's quiet a multimillionaire. For example, Conrad loved to speak to students at the opening of the hotel business faculties. He also organized a Catholic foundation named after and generously distributed prizes. In the three years before his death, Hilton married a third time. He died on January 4, 1979 in Dallas, where he once built his first "Hilton". He was then 91 years old.
All his property by will Conrad wrote to a charity Hilton Foundation. And his son Barron spent another nine years to contest the last will of his father. So the control of the U.S. part of the Hilton empire still belongs to his family.