A Banker Turned Hotelier- The Founder Of Hilton, Conrad Hilton
When you think of hotels, one of the hotels that come to mind is Hilton. The man behind Hilton was Conrad Hilton. Conrad was born on December 25, 1887, in San Antonio, New Mexico. He was the first child of Augustus and Mary.
Conrad started working with his dad as soon he was tall enough to look above the counter, form his mother he learned the power of faith. In 1917 Conrad joined the Army and went to Europe, sadly he received a letter from his mother saying that Augustus has passed aways. He returned to the US with $5000 and decided to buy a bank. After finalizing a deal with a banker he visited the bank but the banker raised the price by $5000 and this made Conrad mad, he went to the hotel he was staying at, Mobley, and approached the owner. He asked him if he could purchase the hotel from him and bought his first hotel for $40,000.
The problem was that he didn’t had $40,000, all he had was $5000. For the remaining amount, he asked his mother, his friends and a bank. When he finally did buy the hotel, he was making $2000 a week, but Conrad was not satisfied. He redesigned the lobby added more rooms for customers. Soon he had made enough money to buy more hotels, and with his experience from his father’s store, he knew how to bargain for the right price. Conrad wanted to generate dollars from every corner of the hotel. He turned lobbies into rooms, he turned closets into gift shops. It was at this time when he came up with a slogan for the hotel; Minimax: Min price for maximum service, later it was changed to Across the nation, in 1925 his chain included 8 hotels.
By 40 Conrad was known for his hotel deals. But then in October 1929, the world had to face the worst economic downturn in history: the great depression. Hilton’s business had to stop growing, in less than a year he lost everything but one Hotel. His empire was wiped out. To save costs from his hotel, he cut back ink from ink wells. He was $500,000 in debt. He had a lease payment of $40,000. There wasn’t enough money for him to feed his family or pay for gas. He managed to set up a meeting with his suppliers and had to borrow gas money from one of his Bell Boy — Eddie. His suppliers became his investors, and Conrad had raised enough money to pay for the upcoming lease. Two weeks later Corand paid Eddie back with an extra $50.
After the depression, Conrad’s business grew stronger, because he didn’t file for bankruptcy he was able to buy more hotels. In 1947 his mother died, to overcome his grief he grilled himself into doing more work. In 1949 Conrad purchased Waldorf Astoria the largest hotel in the world, and in 1954 Conrad purchased the Statler Hotel Company for 111 million dollars, this was the largest real estate transaction at the time.
In 1978 Conrad passed away at the age of 91, Hilton was half a billion-dollar business and had 184 hotels worldwide. Today Hilton is valued at 8.9 billion dollars with over 4800 hotels in the US alone.
Conrad was a man of faith and prayed for world peace. One of his achievements was the “Conrad Hilton Foundation” where they generously help children in the health care sectors. He believed in providing the best experience for customers, Conrad said that his success started with a dream, so do dream but most importantly be enthusiastic and find your talent. Today Hilton can proudly say that they provide a service that works, service that’s meaningful, service that smart, a luxury where you can be yourself. Thanks to Conrad Hilton for taking the first step.
