Hilton's extended stay portfolio hoping to tap into traveling workforce

In This Article:

Before travelers accelerate full-speed into the summer season, Hilton unveils its latest extended stay brands to cater to traveling workers and price-sensitive consumers. Hilton CFO Kevin Jacobs joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the banking impact on loan conditions and hotel development, 4th of July travel demand, luxury brands, and how the hotel industry is considering AI adoption.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: With hospitality brands facing a more cost conscious consumer this summer, Hilton is doubling down on the value traveler. The hotel chain recently announced its first budget-friendly option with rooms ranging from $85 to $100 a night. Hilton CFO Kevin Jacobs joins us now alongside Yahoo Finance's Executive Editor Brian Sozzi. Thank you for joining us this morning. So talk about this move and what kind of travel you're trying to cater to right now.

KEVIN JACOBS: Yeah, sure, Rachelle. First of all, thanks for having me here. It's great to be here in the studio with you all. Yeah, this travelers-- we're really trying to access this $300 billion workforce traveler market, you know, along with other customers, of course, who want extended stay hotels. And we're really thinking of this brand more as a short-term apartment than a traditional extended stay hotel. So think average length of stay of 20 plus nights and a customer that's still looking for value, but, you know, at the mid-- in the mid-scale chain scale category.

So a little bit lower price than our other extended stay brands, but really just trying to tap into this workforce traveler, whether it's traveling doctors or-- doctors and nurses, or construction workers, or anybody who really this trend that's sort of been accelerated during COVID of people moving around a lot and working more remotely. We think these people can come in and they can stay, you know, whether it's 30, 60, 90 days or more. And they can come in and have some of the conveniences of a hotel and not really needing to do all the things you have to do to set up your apartment when you move into a new apartment. So a little bit more convenient, a little bit more like a hotel, but really tapping into this market of people that want to stay a little longer.

BRIAN SOZZI: Staying on this theme, Kevin. How has the pandemic changed your company overall? Of course, now we see a position-- a brand being positioned like this. But it has to have impacts throughout your organization, right?

KEVIN JACOBS: Yeah. I think it's-- all at once, it's changed it sort of not at all meaning in terms of the core strategy of the business. If you think about, you know, these great now 22 brands that-- you know, great products and services, reliable and friendly experiences, and people that want to move around. And then you sort of filter through all of the trends that got accelerated during COVID, whether that's people valuing experiences more than hard goods. I think that's something that was going on before COVID and just got accelerated a little bit more during COVID. I think blended stay occasions and trips, you know, whether it's a work trip that then blends into a leisure trip on the weekends.