The Head of Hilton Talks About How His Business Will Survive
To boost liquidity and reduce corporate expenses, Hilton on June 16 sacked 2,100 corporate staff. It also extended prior worker furloughs, reduced hours, and corporate pay cuts for up to an additional 90 days. Nassetta in March said he’d forgo the remainder of his salary for 2020.
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg
After being named chief executive officer of Hilton Worldwide shortly before the 2008 financial crisis, Christopher J. Nassetta guided the hospitality company through tough times. Now Covid-19 will test the resilience of the turnaround.
Now there’s people in PPE, social distancing, hygiene protocols, hospital cleanliness standards. Some of that will go on, and things that were already happening with technology—the digitization of our business—will accelerate like crazy. We’d already rolled out to almost every hotel in the world digital check-in, digital room selection, and digital key. So on your Hilton Honors app, you already had contactless entry. Of Hilton Honors members, about a third used it. You will see mass adoption of that. And then people won’t go back.