According to Hilton’s latest Trends Report, travelers around the world continue to prioritize great food and beverage experiences. In fact, after accommodations, dining experiences are the next highest budget priority for those planning to travel in 2025. However, this growing interest in dining experiences also brings challenges, such as increased food waste; the World Sustainability Hospitality Alliance reports that the hospitality industry is responsible for three percent of food waste around the world.
As a global leader in hospitality, Hilton is redefining hotel dining across its world-class portfolio of brands and properties. With a focus on creating thoughtful, locally inspired concepts that blend bold creativity with operational scale, Hilton is reshaping the guest experience and setting a new standard for innovation in hospitality while pioneering initiatives aimed to reduce food waste and advancing smarter, more sustainable kitchen practices. With Hilton serving millions of guests across more than 8,600 hotels around the world, the hospitality leader is taking innovative steps and making investments in cutting edge technology to serve up a great dining experience for its guests while reducing waste.
Driven by its Travel with Purpose strategy, Hilton is working on several efforts to not only create a great stay, but also create a stay that guests and diners can feel good about:
First Hospitality Company to Sign the U.S. Food Waste Pact
As the next step in the hospitality leader’s journey to reduce food waste across its operations, Hilton is recognizing Stop Food Waste Day 2025 by announcing that it has joined the U.S. Food Waste Pact, a national voluntary agreement co-led by ReFED and World Wildlife Fund (WWF) with the aim to reduce food waste in the U.S. Hilton is the first hospitality company to commit to the Pact’s “Target, Measure, Act” framework to reduce food waste across its operations, joining industry leaders Amazon Fresh, Walmart, Whole Foods Market and Starbucks.
Partnering with Too Good To Go Across Europe
In Europe, Hilton has partnered with Too Good To Go, a social impact company aimed at combatting food waste by connecting consumers with local vendors that may have surplus, unsold food. Participating hotels in the Too Good To Go marketplace identify surplus food, and pack it into Surprise Bags, listing them on the Too Good To Go app at a reduced price. Local app users can then reserve and pick up the Surprise Bags, ensuring that food is enjoyed rather than wasted. More than 100 hotels across Hilton’s portfolio in Europe are active on the Too Good To Go marketplace, allowing surplus food from Hilton’s restaurants and buffets to be purchased by local community members. To date, the partnership has saved over 150,000 meals, equating to more than 400 tons of CO2e while strengthening community connections.
Leveraging AI to Change Behavior and Identify New Solutions
Recognizing food waste is a significant opportunity for the industry, Hilton has deployed Winnow, an AI-powered food waste management platform, in nearly 200 hotels globally to track, analyze, and cut food waste. This technology is helping kitchens identify patterns, reduce overproduction and rethink traditional service models.
Through campaigns like Green Breakfast and Green Ramadan, Hilton has shown that the powerful combination of technology, responsible sourcing and behavior change can deliver powerful results:
- Green Ramadan: Originally launched in 2023 in the United Arab Emirates, Hilton’s Green Ramadan program was created to address the 25-50 percent increase in food waste generated during religious and social festivities. The program has since expanded into 32 hotels across seven countries in 2024, with results highlighting an over 20% reduction in food waste during the month-long effort. The campaign was launched as a collaboration between Hilton, Winnow and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) West Asia under the Recipe of Change campaign.
- Green Breakfast: Following the success of the Green Ramadan program by Hilton, Winnow and ne’ma, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) National Food Loss and Waste initiative, launched Green Breakfast, a pilot program across 13 UAE hotels, which resulted in a 62% reduction in pre- and post- consumer food waste, equating to serving more than 400,000 meals and preventing almost 726 tons of CO2e emissions across a year. Based on the study, the most surplus items at breakfast included bread and pastry, white eggs, porridge, congee, sambar, shakshuka and baked beans.
Launching Zero Waste Menus
To mark Stop Food Waste Day 2024, four flagship hotels across the United Kingdom launched “Taste of Zero Waste” menus to showcase the potential for more sustainable practices that can be implemented in kitchens of any size. The Taste of Zero Waste menus offered dishes utilizing a range of innovative cookery techniques to showcase the potential for commercial operators to implement simple steps that eliminate or significantly reduce waste, including:
- Root-to-shoot and nose-to-tail cookery: using whole ingredients to eliminate waste – from salmon cheeks to ox heart, to fermenting vegetable stalks, trimmings and peelings to make rich sauces and stocks and using bruised or overripe fruits in cocktails
- Rescuing and repurposing leftover food: helping to significantly reduce waste from breakfast buffets by using items such as pastries, bread, fruit and coffee beans to create mouthwatering puddings
- Pickling: collecting surplus fruit and vegetables otherwise destined to be thrown away and preserving them through pickling
Whether it’s reimagining how meals are served, scaling new technology or empowering team members to drive change in our kitchens around the world, Hilton is committed to creating a more sustainable stay for its guests and a positive impact for the communities where we live, work and travel.
- Hilton has signed two new properties under its flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts and lifestyle Canopy by Hilton brands: Hilton The Point Residences and Canopy by Hilton The Point
- Set to open in 2026, the two hotels will bring Hilton’s world-class hospitality to the Aseer Region
ABHA, Saudi Arabia – Hilton (NYSE: HLT) announced it has signed two hotels under its flagship Hilton Hotels & Resorts and lifestyle Canopy by Hilton brands in Abha city’s iconic The Point development. The properties have been signed with Red Sea Aseer Fund, a fund made up of unitholders from Red Sea Markets and the Tourism Development Fund, and a project developed by SEDCO Development and managed by Saudi Fransi Capital. The announcement follows the signing of Hilton´s Memorandum of Understanding with the Saudi Tourism Development Fund to develop iconic leisure tourism destinations in the Saudi Arabia.
Hilton The Point Residences and Canopy by Hilton The Point will feature a combined total of 250 guest rooms, suites, and residences, paired with state-of-the-art facilities for guests to enjoy. The shared amenities are complete with an indoor pool, fitness centre, spa, multiple dining outlets, and a children´s pool and kids club. The hotels will also be well-positioned to cater for large-scale leisure and business events, with 600 square metres of outdoor event space, a 500-square-metre ballroom, and 250 additional square metres of meeting space.
Work on Hilton The Point Residences and Canopy by Hilton The Point has already received a number of prestigious accolades, particularly for the interior design of the properties, winning "Highly Commended" in the Saudi Commercial Interior Design Awards, Interior Design of The Year: Concept category; "Best Future Concept" in the Commercial Interior Design Awards: Hospitality category; as well as "Highly Commended" in Global RLI Awards, RLI Future Project.
Located in The Point, the hotels will be adjacent to a mixed-use urban centre featuring world-class retail, food, and family entertainment offerings, as well as medical and sporting facilities. Less than 15 minutes from Abha International Airport – and with road networks leading to the surrounding cities of Jeddah, Makkah, Jazan, Riyadh, and Taif – the hotels are set to become a well-connected, frequently-visited urban destination, and position Abha as a leading leisure tourism destination in Saudi Arabia which is targeting 10 million visitors annually.
Commenting on Hilton’s growth in Saudi Arabia, Carlos Khneisser, vice president, development, Middle East & Africa, Hilton, said. “Saudi Arabia’s rapid evolution continues to provide exciting growth opportunities for Hilton, and we’re working with our owners to introduce more award-winning hospitality brands in locations throughout the country. Unlocking and pioneering destinations is part of Hilton’s DNA and these latest signings are strong examples of our diversified growth in up-and-coming, large-scale developments as well as our commitment to grow in secondary cities with our world leading portfolio of brands.”
Commenting on the signings, Mohammed Alawi, chairman of the Executive Committee, Red Sea Markets Co Ltd, said, “Hilton has continued to meet Saudi Arabia’s drive for travel and tourism, and the recent signings of these properties in Abha are strong examples of the company’s commitment to development in secondary cities and to cater towards an ever-evolving tourism demographic and more diversified product offering. We’re thrilled to be partnering on Hilton The Point Residences and Canopy by Hilton The Point and look forward to expanding Hilton’s world-class hospitality to more guests across Saudi Arabia.”
With plans to more than quadruple its presence in Saudi Arabia over the next few years, Hilton is leveraging key real estate developments, including business and leisure travel destinations, to underpin the expansion of its domestic portfolio.
Hilton currently operates 16 hotels in Saudi Arabia with plans to open over 50 new hotels across 10 of its brands, making the country the company’s largest pipeline market in the EMEA region. Projects include the introduction of new brands such as LXR Hotels & Resorts, Canopy by Hilton, Embassy Suites by Hilton, and Hampton by Hilton. The company plans to grow its portfolio in Saudi Arabia to a total of more than 75 properties over the coming years.