NEW YORK— During an event held this morning at the Hilton New York in Midtown Manhattan, President/CEO Stephen Bollenbach and Dieter Huckestein president/Hilton Hotels Operations, owned and managed, discussed the effects of last week’s terrorist attacks on the hotel corporation and its plans for coping with the crisis. Bollenbach said that while Hilton “is experiencing the worst times [its]ever experienced in [its]hotels,” he still expects business to return to the levels of 1998 and 1999 by the end of November. “As far as the timing for the recovery, in my personal opinion, I think it’s going to be very quick,” he said. “I think it will take 8 to 10 weeks to absorb this shock, but then we’ll see a quick acceleration to get back to the ’98, ’99 levels.” He added that properties in major metropolitan markets, which depend heavily on air travel will be very impacted in the short term, but brands like Hampton Inn, which depend on transient travelers, will most likely not see much of an effect. Bollenbach also stated that he did not see the looming threat of war prolonging the nation’s fear of flying or the downturn in travel. “I think we can fight our wars and live our lives at the same time. The Gulf War is not a good example because we had a massive oversupply of hotels at the time,” he said. He noted that Hilton has no plans to delay any scheduled groundbreakings, but that two timeshare properties, located in Orlando and Las Vegas, have been put on hold. In addition, Hilton has no intention to make any fundamental changes in the operations of the company or the management of it hotels. “We have all of the things we need to continue to operate. We don’t really need another hotel, and we don’t need to buy another brand— we have brands in every price point. We’re going to maintain that business,” he said. Huckestein noted that Hilton will be “beefing up security” at its hotels, which includes mandatory identification checks off all guests checking into its properties. “All employees have been told to be aware and alert of what’s going on at all times,” he added. In addition, the company’s high-profile Waldorf=Astoria hotel in Manhattan is currently limiting access into the property by closing all doors except the Park Avenue entrances. “I think guests are very positive about the new security. They know we’re concerned about their safety,” said Bollenbach.
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