Hilton Hotels were almost 93% occupied throughout the U.S. on the Saturday of Memorial Day Weekend, CEO Christopher Nassetta said in an interview.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta said Tuesday that the company notched a record-breaking number of bookings last Saturday, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
“We had a blockbuster weekend,” Nassetta said. “On Saturday night we were, across the U.S., almost 93% occupied, which is certainly the best since Covid hit.”
Nassetta said summer reservations are surging past what the company’s bookings were in 2019 before the coronavirus pandemic began.
“Our bookings for this summer at this point are higher than we saw in 2019 at the peak,” Nassetta said. “People are getting out, they are feeling safer as vaccination rates go up and it should be a really good summer for travel.”
Airlines are also seeing business pick up.
“There is a sense that there has been a lot of pent-up demand. Seeing that in real bookings with customers buying tickets is very encouraging,” Ben Baldanza, former Spirit Airlines CEO, told CNBC’s “Power Lunch” on Friday.