Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (HLT) Business

Item 1.        Business

Overview

Hilton is one of the largest global hospitality companies, with 9,158 properties comprising 1,351,351 rooms in 143 countries and territories as of December 31, 2025. Founded in 1919, Hilton has been an innovator in the industry for over 105 years, driven by the vision of founder Conrad Hilton "to fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality." Our premier brand portfolio includes luxury, lifestyle, full service, focused service and all-suites hotel brands, as well as timeshare brands. As of December 31, 2025, we had 243 million members in our award-winning guest loyalty program, Hilton Honors, an increase of 15 percent from December 31, 2024; refer to "—Our Brand Portfolio" and "—Our Guest Loyalty Program" below for additional information on our brands, including Hilton Honors.

We operate our business through: (i) a management and franchise segment and (ii) an ownership segment, each of which is reported as a segment based on (a) delivering a similar set of products and services and (b) being managed separately given its distinct economic characteristics. The management and franchise segment includes all of the hotels we manage for third-party owners, as well as all properties that license our intellectual property ("IP") and/or use our booking channels and related programs, and where we provide other contracted services, but the day-to-day services of the hotels are operated or managed by someone other than us. Revenues from this segment include: (i) management and franchise fees charged to third-party hotel owners; (ii) licensing fees from our strategic partners, including co-branded credit card providers and strategic partner hotels, and Hilton Grand Vacations Inc. ("HGV"); and (iii) fees for managing the hotels in our ownership segment. The ownership segment primarily derives revenues from nightly hotel room sales, food and beverage sales and other services at our consolidated hotels. For more information regarding our segments, refer to "—Our Business—Management and Franchise" and "—Our Business—Ownership" below.

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In addition to our current hotel portfolio, we are focused on the growth of our business by expanding our global hotel network through our development pipeline, which represents hotels that we expect to add to our system in the future. The following table summarizes our development activity:

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(1)Rounded to the nearest hundred.

(2)Represents room additions, net of rooms removed from our system. Net unit growth for the year ended December 31, 2025 was 6.7 percent.

(3)The hotels in our development pipeline were under development throughout 129 countries and territories, including 26 countries and territories where we had no existing hotels, with almost half of the rooms under construction and more than half of the rooms located outside of the U.S. Rooms under construction include rooms for hotels under construction or operating hotels that are in the process of conversion to our system. Nearly all of the rooms in our development pipeline will be in our management and franchise segment upon opening. We do not consider any individual development project to be material to us.

We continue to drive customer loyalty, including participation in our Hilton Honors guest loyalty program, through: (i) our experience in the hospitality industry, which spans more than a century of customer service and entrepreneurship, and continues to evolve to meet the tastes, preferences and demands of our guests; (ii) our strong, well-defined brands that operate throughout the hospitality industry chain scales; (iii) our dedicated and collaborative workforce, built to focus on providing exceptional customer experiences; and (iv) our commercial service offerings. We believe that satisfied customers will generate additional business at our properties, yielding strong overall hotel performance for us and our hotel owners. Strong results at our existing properties will encourage further development of additional hotels under our brands and conversions of existing hotels to our brands with both (i) owners who currently have properties in our system and (ii) new owners who sign management or franchise contracts with us in the future, which further supports our growth and future financial performance. We believe that our existing hotel system and development pipeline, which will require minimal capital investment from us, positions us to further improve and grow our business, allocate capital effectively and meet our customers' demands and preferences in the future.

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Our Brand Portfolio

The goal of each of our brands is to deliver exceptional customer experiences and superior operating performance.

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(1)Excludes 15 unbranded properties with 4,081 rooms, representing approximately 0.3% of total rooms and 509 strategic partner hotels with 23,567 rooms, representing approximately 1.8% of total rooms. Hilton Grand Vacations is inclusive of our timeshare brands: Hilton Club, Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Hilton Vacation Club. HGV has the exclusive right to use our timeshare brands, subject to the terms of a long-term license agreement with us.

(2)These selected competitors exclude lesser-known regional competitors.

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Our Guest Loyalty Program

Hilton Honors is our award-winning guest loyalty program that supports our portfolio of brands. The program generates significant repeat business by rewarding guests with points for each stay at our leased, managed, franchised and timeshare properties, as well as each stay at strategic partner hotels when the stay is reserved through our booking channels, which are then redeemable for free or discounted room nights at our properties and other goods and services. Hilton Honors members can also use points earned to transact with strategic partner hotels as well as many strategic partners, including credit card providers, such as American Express, airlines, rail and car rental companies, Amazon, Lyft and others. Hilton Honors members who book through preferred Hilton channels also have access to instant benefits, including a flexible payment slider that allows members to choose nearly any combination of points and money to book a stay, an exclusive member discount and free standard Wi-Fi. Members also have access to contactless technology exclusively through the Hilton Honors app, where members can check in, choose their room and access their room using Digital Key. The program provides targeted marketing, promotions and customized guest experiences to 243 million members. Affiliation with our loyalty program encourages members to allocate more of their travel spend to our hotels. The percentage of travel spend we capture from Hilton Honors members increases as they move up the tiers of our program. The program is funded by contributions from eligible revenues generated by Hilton Honors members and collected from properties in our system, as well as our strategic partnerships. The funds collected by the Hilton Honors program are subsequently applied to reimburse properties and strategic partners for Hilton Honors points redemptions by Hilton Honors members and to pay for administrative expenses and marketing initiatives that support the program.

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Our Business

As of December 31, 2025, our existing system included the following properties and rooms, by type, brand and region:

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(1)Includes hotels owned or leased by entities in which we own a noncontrolling financial interest.

(2)Includes hotels that are included in our booking channels and participate in the Hilton Honors guest loyalty program through strategic partnership arrangements.

(3)Includes other hotels in our system that are not distinguished by a specific Hilton brand.

(4)Includes properties under our timeshare brands including Hilton Club, Hilton Grand Vacations Club and Hilton Vacation Club.

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Management and Franchise

We manage hotels and license our brands through our management and franchise segment. This segment generates its revenue primarily from fees charged to hotel owners under management and franchise contracts, as well as from fees associated with license agreements, which include arrangements with strategic partner hotels. We grow our management and franchise business by attracting owners and strategic partners to become a part of our system and participate in our commercial services to support their properties. Our management and franchise contracts and license agreements provide significant return on investment for us as we earn and collect fees.

Hotel Management

Our core management services consist of operating hotels under management contracts for the benefit of third parties who either own or lease the hotels and the associated personal property. Often, particularly in the U.S., we employ the individuals working at these locations. Terms of our management contracts vary, but our fees generally consist of a base management fee, which is generally based on a percentage of the hotel’s monthly gross operating revenue, and, when applicable, an incentive management fee, which is generally based on a percentage of the hotel's operating profits, normally over a one calendar year period, and, in some cases, may be subject to a stated return threshold to the hotel owner. In general, the owner pays all operating and other expenses and reimburses any of our out-of-pocket expenses. In turn, our managerial discretion is subject to approval by the owner in certain major areas, including the approval of annual operating and capital expenditure budgets and, in most instances, the appointment of certain key personnel. Additionally, the owners generally pay monthly program fees based on the underlying hotel's sales or usage, as reimbursement for the costs related to our: (i) advertising and marketing programs; (ii) internet, technology and reservation systems; and (iii) quality assurance programs. Owners are also responsible for various other fees and charges, including payments for participation in our Hilton Honors guest loyalty program, training, consultation and procurement of certain goods and services. We also provide owners with property improvement plans that must be satisfied to keep the hotels in compliance with our brand standards, so that they can remain in our hotel system. As of December 31, 2025, we managed 873 hotels with 264,760 rooms, which does not include hotels in our ownership segment.

The initial terms of our management contracts are typically 20 to 30 years. In certain cases, we are both the franchisor and manager of the hotel, when we enter into a franchise contract in addition to the management contract, and, in these cases, we classify the hotel as managed in our system. Extension options for our management contracts are negotiated and vary, but typically are more prevalent in full service hotels. Generally, these contracts contain one or two extension options that are for either five or 10 years and can be exercised at our or the hotel owner's option or by mutual agreement, as specified by the contract.

Some of our management contracts provide early termination rights to hotel owners upon certain events, including the failure to meet certain financial or performance criteria. Performance test measures typically are based upon the hotel’s performance individually and/or in comparison to specified competitive hotels. We often have an optional cure right to pay an amount equal to the performance shortfall, which is measured over a specified period, although in some cases our cure rights are limited.

Franchising

We license our IP, including our brand names, trademarks and service marks, and our operating systems to hotel owners under franchise contracts. We do not own, manage or operate franchised properties, do not employ the individuals working at these properties and do not have any legal responsibility for the employees or the liabilities associated with operating these properties. We conduct periodic inspections of our franchised hotels to ensure that brand standards that we establish are maintained. For newly franchised hotels, including both new construction and conversions of existing hotels outside of our system, we approve the location, as well as the plans for the facilities, to ensure the hotels meet our brand standards. For existing franchised hotels, we provide franchisees with property improvement plans that must be satisfied to keep the hotels in compliance with our brand standards, so that they can remain in our hotel system.

Each franchisee pays us an application, initiation or other fee in conjunction with the inception of a franchise contract. Franchisees also pay a royalty fee, generally based on a percentage of the hotel’s monthly gross room revenue and, in some cases, may also include a percentage of gross food and beverage revenues and other revenues, as applicable. Additionally, franchised properties generally pay monthly program fees based on the underlying property's sales or usage, as reimbursement for the costs related to our: (i) advertising and marketing programs; (ii) internet, technology and reservation systems; and (iii) quality assurance programs. They are also responsible for various other fees and charges, including payments for participation in our Hilton Honors guest loyalty program, training, consultation and procurement of certain goods and services. We also earn

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license fees from agreements with strategic partners, including co-branded credit card providers and strategic partner hotels, and HGV. As of December 31, 2025, including timeshare properties and strategic partner hotels, we franchised or licensed 8,239 properties and resorts with 1,071,304 rooms.

Our franchise contracts typically have initial terms of approximately 20 years for new hotels and approximately 10 to 20 years for hotels converting from hotels outside of our system. At the expiration of the initial term, we may relicense franchise contracts to allow the franchisee to continue using our brand, at our or the franchisee's option or by mutual agreement, for an additional term generally ranging from 10 to 15 years. We have the right to terminate a franchise contract upon specified events of default, including nonpayment of fees or noncompliance with brand standards. If a franchise contract is terminated by us because of a franchisee’s default, the franchisee is contractually required to pay us liquidated damages.

Ownership

As a hotel lessee and operator, we focus on maximizing cost efficiency and profitability of the portfolio by, among other things, maximizing hotel revenues, implementing cost-effective labor management practices and systems and reducing fixed costs. Through our disciplined approach to hotel and asset management, we develop and execute on strategic plans for each of our hotels to enhance their competitive position and invest in renovating guest rooms and public spaces and adding or enhancing meeting and retail space for properties where we believe such investments will improve profitability. As of December 31, 2025, the ownership segment included 46 hotels totaling 15,287 rooms, comprising 40 hotels that we leased, 2 hotels that were each leased by a consolidated variable interest entity ("VIE") and 4 hotels owned or leased by unconsolidated affiliates.

Sustainability and Community Impact

Hilton strives to create long-term value for all our stakeholders and strengthen the resilience of our business while also advancing our positive impact and delivering meaningful guest experiences through our Travel with Purpose strategy. As one of the world’s largest hospitality companies, Hilton recognizes its responsibility to create positive environmental and community impacts across our operations and supply chain to ensure our properties and surrounding communities remain vibrant and resilient for generations of travelers to come. We have established and maintain a governance structure that supports our strategy by overseeing the management of the business in a manner consistent with the best interests of Hilton and our stakeholders.

We continue to make progress towards our Travel with Purpose priorities, including: (i) building opportunities for all of our people; (ii) creating sustainable stays at our hotels; and (iii) strengthening our communities where we live, work and stay. All of this work is underpinned by our commitment to responsible business by operating with accountability, integrity and transparency.

Our efforts are supported by a governance structure that is designed to ensure the priorities are an important part of our business and strategic objectives. Our executive committee receives at least quarterly updates on our Travel with Purpose programs and progress, and one of the three standing committees of Hilton's board of directors also receives quarterly reports on this progress, reviews and assesses our related strategy and makes recommendations to the board and management as appropriate. The board of directors also receives at least annual updates on our Travel with Purpose strategy and impact.

LightStay is our proprietary system for measuring and reporting our progress toward our Travel with Purpose goals. Our properties track energy, water, waste and associated utility cost reduction projects under way, as well as community volunteerism and charitable donations. Robust reports inform our properties of their progress on a regular basis.

The Hilton Global Foundation supports nonprofits and local community organizations that serve as partners to amplify our positive environmental and community impact around the world. The Hilton Global Foundation, created in 2019, is our primary international philanthropic arm and is registered as a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) charitable organization.

More details about our Travel with Purpose goals and our progress toward them are reported annually in our Travel with Purpose Report, available at travelwithpurpose.hilton.com.

Our People: Building Opportunities for All

As of December 31, 2025, we employed or managed approximately 182,000 individuals at our leased and managed hotels and corporate offices. There were approximately 328,000 additional individuals employed by third-party owners working at our franchised properties.

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Human Capital Management

Our human capital management strategy focuses on attracting, developing and retaining the best talent in the industry, and our executive committee reviews talent strategy and succession plans on a quarterly basis to assess current and future talent needs. We want to build a strong employee-centered culture that creates connectivity, camaraderie and trust among all employees, which then supports our employees in delivering positive experiences to guests at our hotels. Hilton's commitment to building strong culture focuses on creating a workplace that offers strong growth opportunities and is driven by purpose. This dedication has earned Hilton global recognition as the 2025 #1 World's Best Workplace by Fortune and Great Place to Work, marking the ninth consecutive year as the top hospitality company in the world. Hilton was recognized as a Great Place to Work in 67 countries in 2025, achieving #1 rankings in 18 markets, including the U.S.

During the year ended December 31, 2025, we continued to see sustained indicators of workforce stability, with retention improving versus last year and hiring volume aligned with normalized business operations. We continue to review our benefits and programmatic offerings to ensure we remain competitive, are investing in our employees' development and well-being and are enhancing our recruiting strategies to tap into new pools of talent.

Compensation and Benefits

Hilton offers competitive pay and benefits to its employees, including a variety of compensation programs and comprehensive benefit programs. We regularly review pay parity across various workforce segments as part of our ongoing talent processes. Through our employee stock purchase plan, eligible employees can purchase Hilton stock through after-tax payroll deductions at a 15 percent discount from the market stock price.

As of December 31, 2025, approximately 25 percent of people employed or managed by us globally and approximately 45 percent of people working in the U.S. were covered by various collective bargaining agreements that generally address pay rates, working hours, other terms and conditions of employment, certain employee benefits and orderly settlement of labor disputes.

Our benefits and programs include paid time off, parental leave, adoption assistance, subsidized health insurance, education assistance, flexible work arrangements and Go Hilton travel programs, which make discounted rooms available to hotel and corporate employees, as well as their families and friends.

Our medical and mental health care programs include a global platform focused on caregiving that provides resources for employee self-care, as well as enabling employees to care for others, including sick, disabled or elderly family members, children and pets; a concierge service supporting eligible employees with logistical and administrative tasks related to caregiving; education, training and resources on substance use disorders to eligible employees; an Employee Assistance Program; and parental and bereavement leave and education resources for expecting and new parents.

We periodically survey our employees to monitor levels of engagement, trust, and management effectiveness, among other targeted topics, and use their feedback to inspire program enhancements and new offerings. We strive to maximize employee retention and minimize attrition with these and other measures. Approximately 32 percent of our U.S. employees have been with Hilton for at least 10 years.

Career Opportunities, Development and Training

We take a broad, long-term and business-aligned approach to develop a dedicated and collaborative workforce to better serve our guests. Our Pathway Programs help foster economic mobility in the communities in which we operate and create a more robust talent pipeline for our business drawing from untapped talent pipelines including veterans, which consists of individuals who have served in the military and the caregivers and spouses of those who have served in the military, as well as people with disabilities, youth and displaced persons.

The advancement of our employees is important to us and we provide them with robust learning and development opportunities, including mentorship opportunities. We are focused on providing opportunities for the internal movement of our employees and the promotion from entry level positions into management positions at our hotels or corporate offices across the organization. Our career development approach emphasizes customized experiences so that employees can follow a training and career path best suited to their goals including a wide array of general business, industry or function-specific technical skills and leadership development courses and programs.

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Our leadership development programs aim to build leadership skills through structured levels of self-paced learning and live facilitated sessions with focus areas of leading self, leading individuals and leading teams. Additionally, our People Leader Essential training offers a self-paced curriculum to employees, with content on key leadership topics, including effective communication, delegation, prioritization, coaching and talent development to support current, new and future people leaders at Hilton. One of our targeted programs for developing General Managers (“GMs”), GM Academy, is centered on nine core GM business capabilities, some of which include leadership and people management, asset management, customer engagement and commercial performance. Additionally, Hilton's global Signature Leadership Development programs and mentorship programs focus on building effective leaders across the enterprise to grow our leadership bench strength. These programs provide opportunities for participants to develop key competencies, network with and learn from senior leaders and enhance business acumen.

Our Hotels: Creating Sustainable Stays

We remain focused on our goal of reducing emissions, water and waste intensity at the hotels we operate. These efforts are supported by utility cost savings measures including building automation system technologies, HVAC controls and turnkey LED lighting, fueled by utility incentives wherever possible, to strengthen the return on investment and deliver cost savings to owners while enhancing the guest experience. We also create resources that will help facilitate the efficient operation of our hotels and take steps to increase our sourcing of renewable electricity at our hotels around the world. Additionally, we continue to implement programs to further reduce waste and to advance sustainable procurement at our hotels.

We partner with our corporate customers to support their sustainability, community impact and responsible sourcing goals. Through our Meet with Purpose offering, we enable our customers, upon request, to quantify the estimated emissions of their events and provide options and guidance to plan more sustainable meetings.

Our Communities: Strengthening Where We Live, Work and Stay

With a presence in 143 countries and territories, we use our global scale to be an engine of opportunity by positively impacting our communities through local support and volunteering, creating learning and career growth opportunities, disaster relief and other economic support initiatives.

During 2025, Hilton and the Hilton Global Foundation supported our hotel teams and surrounding communities through disasters and crises, including the wildfires in Los Angeles, floods in Texas and Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica. This included donating 20 thousand room nights in partnership with American Express to support those impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. Additionally, the Hilton Global Foundation made a series of donations to organizations providing immediate response support, including the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, Community Foundation of the Texas Hill Country and Jamaica's Promise.

During 2025, our employees continued to actively volunteer in their local communities, demonstrating their commitment to creating a positive impact, and reported approximately 1.5 million volunteer hours.

Responsible Business: Operating with Accountability, Integrity and Transparency

Hilton remains committed to combating human trafficking, and we require all hotel-based employees to complete an annual training on identifying signs of trafficking. We partner with Protect All Children from Trafficking (PACT), an organization dedicated to reducing trafficking and exploitation, to help prevent trafficking, and similarly collaborate on human rights initiatives through the World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, World Travel and Tourism Council, American Hotel & Lodging Association ("AHLA") and United Kingdom ("U.K.") Stop Slavery Hotel Industry Network. The Hilton Global Foundation supports the AHLA Foundation's No Room for Trafficking Survivor Fund, which aims to equip community-based organizations to engage and support trafficking survivors.

At Hilton, we prioritize responsible sourcing by requiring suppliers to comply with the standards under our Source with Purpose program, which include integrity and fair dealing, human rights, protecting personal and business information, commitment to the environment and providing a safe and healthy work environment.

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Governance, Ethics and Regulatory Compliance

As a core underpinning of our entire organization, our board of directors oversees our ethics and compliance program, which requires all Hilton employees to conduct themselves at the highest standards with respect to all ethics and compliance matters. Our Code of Conduct establishes a set of global business principles, with our compliance organization, training, risk management and monitoring activities tailored to address unique risks by geography, business line, function and level. The Code of Conduct is supported by robust compliance policies addressing risk areas such as corruption, trade sanctions, insider trading, privacy, confidential information, antitrust and escalation of concerns. An annual legal and compliance training program, which is required for all of our employees, conveys consistent compliance standards across the organization in formats designed to target different knowledge levels, learning styles and functional needs. Our annual training calendar includes mandatory training and supplemental training that is supported by periodic company-wide awareness campaigns highlighting Hilton-specific risks and scenarios.

To help ensure the safety and security of our employees and guests at our properties and corporate offices, we constantly monitor threats and incidents around the world through online tools and external networks and partnerships; support our properties and offices globally with crisis alert communications, crisis plans and area crisis teams; provide employees with safety and security training resources; and conduct safety and security audits annually using a risk-based approach.

Our legal compliance team administers a third-party risk management program so that we understand the qualifications, reputation and associations of third parties with whom we transact, particularly third parties who interface with government officials and third parties who act in Hilton’s name, such as owners of our hotels. The third-party risk management program includes due diligence, education materials for third parties, ongoing monitoring of relationships and appropriate contract audit and termination rights. Our legal compliance team also monitors a comprehensive and confidential reporting tool to assist management and employees in addressing fraud, abuse and other misconduct in the workplace. The Audit Committee of our board of directors receives regular updates from our legal compliance team on third-party risk and information from our confidential reporting tool.

Competition

We encounter active and robust competition as a hotel and resort manager, franchisor and lessee. Competition in the hospitality industry is based on several criteria, generally including: the attractiveness of the facility; location; level of service; quality of accommodations; amenities; food and beverage options and outlets; public and meeting spaces and other guest services; consistency of service; room rate; brand reputation; and the ability to earn and redeem loyalty program points through a global system. Our properties and brands compete with other hotels, resorts, motels, inns and other accommodation rental services in their respective geographic markets or customer segments, including facilities owned by local interests, individuals, national and international chains, institutions, investment and pension funds and real estate investment trusts ("REITs"). We believe that our capabilities as a multi-branded manager, franchisor and lessee of hotels with an associated global, system-wide guest loyalty program and commercial platform help us continue to maintain our position as one of the largest and most geographically diverse hospitality companies in the world.

Our principal competitors include other branded and independent hotel operating companies, national and international hotel brands and ownership companies. While local and independent brand competitors vary, on a global scale, our primary competitors are Accor S.A., Choice Hotels International, Hyatt Hotels Corporation, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott International and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts.

Seasonality

The hospitality industry is seasonal in nature. The periods during which our properties experience higher or lower levels of demand vary from property to property, depending principally upon their location, type of property and competitive mix within the specific location. Based on historical results, we generally expect our revenues to be lower in the first quarter of each year than in each of the three subsequent quarters.

Cyclicality

The hospitality industry is cyclical, and demand generally follows, on a lagged basis, key macroeconomic indicators. There is a history of increases and decreases in the development and supply of and demand for hotel rooms, occupancy levels and room rates realized by hotel owners through economic cycles. The combination of changes in economic conditions and in the supply of hotel rooms can result in significant volatility in results for owners, lessees and managers of hotel properties. The

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costs of running a hotel, including personnel costs, rent, property taxes, insurance and utilities, tend to be more fixed than variable. As a result of such fixed costs, in a negative economic environment, the rate of decline in earnings can be higher than the rate of decline in revenues.

Intellectual Property

In the highly competitive hospitality industry in which we operate, trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos and patents are very important to the success of our business. We have a significant number of trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, patents and pending registrations and expend significant resources each year on surveillance, registration and protection of our IP, which we believe has become synonymous in the hospitality industry with a reputation for excellence in service and authentic hospitality.

Government Regulation

Our business is subject to various foreign and U.S. federal and state laws and regulations, including laws and regulations that govern the offer and sale of franchises, many of which impose substantive requirements on franchise contracts and require that certain materials be registered before franchises can be offered or sold in a particular jurisdiction.

In addition, a number of states regulate the activities of hospitality properties and restaurants, including safety and health standards, as well as the sale of liquor at such properties, by requiring licensing, registration, disclosure statements and compliance with specific standards of conduct. Operators of hospitality properties also are subject to laws governing their relationship with employees, including minimum wage requirements, overtime, working conditions and work permit requirements. Our franchisees are responsible for their own compliance with laws, including with respect to their employees, minimum wage requirements, overtime, working conditions and work permit requirements. Compliance with, or changes in, these laws could reduce the revenue and profitability of our properties and could otherwise adversely affect our operations.

We also manage hotels with casino gaming operations as part of or adjacent to the hotels, which are typically managed and operated by third parties. If we manage and operate the casinos, we employ third-party compliance consultants and service providers and hold and maintain the casino gaming license. As a result, our business operations at such facilities are subject to the licensing and regulatory control of the local regulatory agency responsible for gaming licenses and operations in those jurisdictions.

For additional information on government regulation, including environmental regulations and requirements, refer to "Part I—Item 1A. Risk Factors."

Insurance

U.S. managed hotels and foreign managed and franchised hotels are permitted to participate in certain of our insurance programs by mutual agreement with the hotel owners; however, if they do not participate in our insurance programs, the hotel owners must purchase insurance programs consistent with our requirements. Generally, U.S. franchised hotels are not permitted to participate in our insurance programs, but rather the hotel owners must purchase insurance programs consistent with our requirements. In addition, our management and franchise contracts typically include provisions requiring the hotel owner to indemnify us against losses arising from the design, development and operation of such hotel.

Most of our insurance policies are written with self-insured retentions or deductibles that are common in the insurance market for similar risks, and we believe such risks are prudent for us to assume. Our third-party insurance policies provide coverage for claim amounts that exceed our self-insurance retentions or deductible obligations. We maintain insurance coverage for general liability, property, business interruption, terrorism and other risks with respect to our business for all of our consolidated hotels, and we maintain workers' compensation or equivalent coverage for all of our employees. We are self-insured for health coverages for some of our U.S. and Puerto Rico employees, which include those working at our corporate operations and managed hotels, with third-party insurance protection for costs over specified thresholds.

Where You Can Find More Information

We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available to the public over the internet at the SEC's website at www.sec.gov. Our SEC filings are also available free of charge on our website at ir.hilton.com as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website and the information contained on or connected to that site are not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.