Hilton Hotels - Paris Hilton’s Family History

You cannot watch television these days without being inundated with news and images of Paris Hilton. She is described as an heiress. But, where did this fortune come from? Let’s look at Paris Hilton’s ties to the Hilton Hotel chain.

Hilton Hotels was an international chain of hotels and resort sites that was founded by Paris’ great grandfather on her dad’s side of the family, Conrad Hilton. Although he had had experience running an inn with his father in New Mexico, the first hotel purchased by Conrad Hilton was the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas. He continued to build and purchase hotels in Texas, at the same time making a reputation as a businessman to be contended with. In 1939, Hilton built his first hotel outside of the State of Texas with the La Posada de Albuquerque in the region of his birth, New Mexico.

The Great Depression affected many of the nation’s most successful businessmen, and Conrad Hilton was no different. In the 1930s Hilton was nearly forced into bankruptcy, in fact he lost several of his hotels. In many of the hotels that were now out of his control he was retained as the manager and through his successful running of those and the hotels he did possess he was able to eventually buy most of them back.

Hilton Hotels became the largest hotel company in the world in 1954 when it purchased the Statler Hotel chain. Conrad Hilton watched his hotel empire expand worldwide during the 1950s and 1960s, becoming the world’s first international hotel chain. The name Hilton was built up to mean the best of the best. The chain catered to early international business travelers as well as Americans vacationing abroad.

Conrad Hilton passed away in 1979 at the age of 91. The chain of hotels he started is now a major corporation, Hilton Hotels Corporation, and continues to be a major force in the international hotel industry.