Conrad name makes its debut in the USA

The Conrad name made its US debut this week when the Waldorf Towers in New York was renamed the Waldorf Towers - a Conrad hotel.

The conversion of the 180-bedroom hotel, which occupies the 28th to 42nd floors of the Waldorf-Astoria, marks the first move of the joint venture announced last November to expand the Conrad name worldwide as the luxury arm of the Hilton family.

Conrad was established in 1982 as Hilton Hotels Corporation's overseas chain, because the Hilton Group held rights to the Hilton name outside the USA.

The creation of Brussels-based Conrad Hotels, which is owned equally by Hilton Hotels Corporation in the USA and the UK-based Hilton Group, cements the 1997 alliance between the two companies to combine their reservations, sales, marketing and loyalty programmes.

It plans to expand by winning management contracts on newly built hotels and conversions and by using the Conrad name on specific portions of existing Hilton hotels, as in the USA.

There are 13 Conrad hotels in Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia, South America and the USA. A further two, in Bangkok, Thailand, and Jakarta, Indonesia, are scheduled to open in 2002 and 2004 respectively.

by Angela Frewin angela.frewin@rbi.co.uk

Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 7-13 June