What Hilton CEO Says About Currency Depreciation, New Elite Status, and Personalized Accommodations

“I’ve never been more excited about this business than I am today,” Hilton President and CEO Chris Nassetta recently told a group of reporters at the reborn Waldorf Astoria New York, the hotel that literally invented luxury hotels. [hospitality] world,” he said).

In the interview, Nassetta provided a brief overview of Hilton’s future, including its strategy for acquiring new brands and forging new major partnerships, as well as thoughts on Hilton Honors, new hotels in the pipeline, and even a potential new venture for the company: student housing.

Here are the highlights travelers should expect (and not expect) from Hilton and its Hilton Honors loyalty program in the coming months.

Related: How to Earn Hilton Honors Points: From Hotel Stays to Credit Card Spending

The future of Hilton Honors: New status and Nassetta’s take on devaluation

Late last year, Hilton Honors launched a new elite level, Diamond Reserve, while also introducing a faster path to Gold and Diamond status in 2026.

“Our highest tier, Diamond, has millions of members. It’s really difficult to reliably deliver customized in-property benefits to that many people in a distributed system in 115 countries,” Nassetta said.

As more travelers achieve top-tier status, Hilton now aims to provide a more authentic VIP experience for its most loyal guests. “That’s why we created a higher level [Diamond] — with a much smaller team, we can confidently do more customization,” Nassetta said.

But as TPG has pointed out before, getting into the Diamond Reserve isn’t easy; members must complete 40 stays or 80 nights and spend $18,000 in annual qualifying spend to qualify. Both Gold and Diamond levels have lower threshold requirements.

Also last year, Hilton Honors members were shocked by multiple devaluations at top hotels, with room rates at some beloved hotels and resorts soaring to as high as 250,000 points per night.

“As far as devaluation goes, there’s no news here and we’re not planning anything,” Nasesta said. The CEO was quick to add that redemptions “are not free” and that Hilton pays individual hotel fees for redeemed award nights. He said inflation has caused room costs to rise over the past five years and he doesn’t think the program has adjusted. “We’ve absorbed it,” he noted, “but you can’t absorb it forever.”

We don’t know if we’ll see another shocking depreciation in 2026, so now is the perfect time to remind people that the best thing to do is not hoard points and miles – according to TPG’s own expert Ben Smithson, the sooner you spend your points and miles after you earn them, the more value you’re likely to get.

Technology is front and center at Hilton

Hilton wants its technology experience to make its guests feel like a complete ecosystem, help plan the perfect dream trip, deliver a superior experience during their stay, and help capture guests’ attention after their stay, providing them with more curated and personalized experiences for their future travels.

Nassetta said artificial intelligence will be key to the plan, but added that only Hilton will succeed because the company has spent years building a solid foundational system that can scale as technology changes (especially at the rapid pace we’re seeing now). Hilton sees its technology infrastructure as a solid advantage.

Nassetta explained that these tools may eventually “crack the code on real-time problem solving” and provide data points that can help hotels address issues before they occur, reducing friction for both guests and hotel staff.

When it comes to Hilton Honors, information is power—the more Hilton knows about member preferences, the more personalized experiences it can provide guests. While the full suite of customized experiences may be reserved for top Diamond Reserve members, Nassetta suggests the tools will provide some kind of customized experience for all members, whether that’s automatically assigning you your preferred room type or categorizing your previous culinary experiences and creating customized offers around food.

New brands may be paused

Over the past few years, Hilton has been busy acquiring hotel brands like NoMad and Graduate Hotels, and forming strategic partnerships with other brands like Small Luxury Hotels (SLH) and nature-focused AutoCamp. It has also created a new outdoor range, the Outset Collection, and a new brand focused on apartment-style accommodation.

But before doing more business, Nassetta said he’s slowing down. “I put the brakes on just a little bit just to make sure that all the births we’ve seen in past couples [of] years old” became “an outstanding constructive contributor to society.”

He did say “never say never” while pointing to areas of opportunity that still exist. “But I don’t see any of that coming. I think what you’re going to see from us is organic. And I think it’s most likely to be in lifestyle and lifestyle adjacencies.”

Hilton may be taking a brand on a new path

These “lifestyle adjacencies” could lead to Hilton-branded Graduate Hotels entering a new business entirely: student accommodation, as well as smaller hotel versions that are easier to replicate and potentially cheaper for owners.

“So I talked about a brand under the Graduate brand, maybe even targeting ‘undergraduates’ in smaller college towns,” Nassetta joked, adding that Hilton clients and landlords have also shown interest in furnished student apartments in the university market tied to the Graduate brand.

bottom line

While only time will tell what this year actually looks like for Hilton Honors loyalists, the company’s CEO says it’s likely to be a quiet year, at least when it comes to currency devaluations, surprise brand launches or strategic partnerships. This may also be the year we finally see a major hospitality player fully integrate into the technological advancements that are reshaping society. And, will student housing enter the loyalty realm this year for college students and their families? We will continue to follow up.

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