hospitalitystyle.com

(January 2009) posted on Thu Jan 22, 2009 EST

Hilton Hotels Corp. has announced plans to relocate its global headquarters - and several hundred employees - from Beverly Hills, Calif., to the Washington, D.C., metro area by the third quarter of this year. The company said it is considering locations in Maryland and Virginia.

Hilton said the decision is part of an ongoing business reorganization, and follows a rigorous review of its corporate operations and locations. "After careful consideration of both the needs of our business and the impact on our organization, we identified the greater Washington, D.C., metropolitan area as the best market for our business and the right decision for our future," said Christopher Nassetta, president and ceo. "Relocating will significantly reduce our operating expenses and position Hilton in a more central location from which to operate a global business, ease coordination across our organization and better enable us to execute on strategic opportunities."

The Washington area is already home to two other major hotel chains: Marriott International (Bethesda, Md.) and Choice Hotels International (Silver Spring, Md.). "Washington is becoming the hotel capital of the world," Frederick Malek, chairman of the Annapolis, Md.-based Thayer Lodging Group and former president of Marriott Hotels, told The Washington Post in its story about Hilton's planned move.