DoubleTree

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  DoubleTree by Hilton is an American hotel chain with a peculiar claim to fame: a cookie. Not a rewards program, not a luxury amenity, not a record-breaking view. A chocolate chip cookie, handed to every guest at check-in. That tradition, which began in the early 1980s as a gesture reserved only for VIPs, has become the single most recognized thing about a chain that now spans 47 countries and territories. But the cookie is not the whole story. Behind it lies a chain that grew by an unusual method, that survived multiple corporate mergers, and that carries within its portfolio some of the most historically layered hotel buildings in the world. How did a small Arizona inn become one of the fastest-growing brands in the Hilton portfolio? And what does a cookie baked in space have to do with any of it?

• 2. Scottsdale to Scottsdale and Beyond

  ›

  The first Doubletree Inn opened in Scottsdale, Arizona in 1969, on the grounds of Scottsdale Fashion Square. Sam Kitchell built it. For over two decades it operated as an independent brand before a series of mergers began reshaping its identity. In December 1993, Doubletree Hotels Corporation merged with Guest Quarters Hotels Partnership of Boston, and the acquired all-suite properties were rebranded as Doubletree Guest Suites hotels. Four years later, in December 1997, Doubletree merged again with the Promus Hotel Corporation, a move that brought Doubletree under the same roof as Red Lion, Hampton Inn, and Embassy Suites. Then in December 1999, Hilton Hotels Corporation acquired Promus entirely, pulling Doubletree into the newly renamed Hilton Worldwide. The brand spent the next decade quietly expanding, until October 2010, when Hilton Worldwide officially retired the older name and relaunched the chain as DoubleTree by Hilton.

• 3. A Different Growth Strategy

  ›

  DoubleTree has been the fastest growing Hilton brand by number of properties since 2007. That growth did not come from building new hotels from scratch. Brands like Marriott and Sheraton, before its acquisition, traditionally relied on new construction to expand their footprints. DoubleTree took a different path: it recruited operators of other brands to switch flags. The chain offered lower-cost options to help property owners upgrade their buildings while staying within the brand system. This flag-switching approach meant DoubleTree could absorb existing, sometimes historic, properties rather than competing for land and construction budgets. By 2019, the chain counted 587 properties with 135,745 rooms across 47 countries and territories. Of those, 122 properties with 35,122 rooms were managed directly, while 465 properties with 100,623 rooms operated as franchises. The growth continued even through the COVID-19 pandemic years, reaching 677 properties and 154,708 rooms by 2023.

• 4. The Cookie

  ›

  Christie Cookie Company, based in Nashville, has been baking DoubleTree's chocolate chip cookies for over 30 years. The cookies were originally made in the early 1980s for VIPs only. At some point the brand extended the gesture to all arriving guests, and it became the signature ritual the chain is now known for. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, DoubleTree published a home-adapted recipe so that people unable to travel could replicate the experience in their own kitchens. The cookie even left Earth. On the 2nd of November 2019, ISS Commander Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency baked DoubleTree cookie dough inside a prototype oven aboard the International Space Station. It was the first cookie ever baked in space.

• 5. Buildings With Histories

  ›

  Several DoubleTree properties carry histories that predate the brand by decades or centuries. The Brighton Metropole in the United Kingdom was built in 1890 by Alfred Waterhouse, the same architect who designed University College London. Hilton assumed management in 2000, initially designating it a Hilton before rebranding it as a DoubleTree in 2023. In Stoke-on-Trent, the Etruria Hall is a Grade II listed building and the former home of Josiah Wedgwood; it became a DoubleTree in 2020. The Cheltenham property occupies a Regency-era manor called Lilleybrook, originally a private residence converted to a hotel in 1922. In Boston, the Downtown property is housed within the former Don Bosco Technical High School, a Catholic school built for immigrant boys. Hotel Roanoke dates back to 1882 and is owned by Virginia Tech; DoubleTree managed it from 1995 to 2016. The Grand Naniloa Hotel in Hilo, Hawaii is the oldest hotel on the island and received a thirty-million-dollar renovation before joining the DoubleTree family in 2016.

• 6. Labor and Pandemic Pressures

  ›

  On the 31st of October 2024, workers at the San Jose-based DoubleTree secured new labor contracts following a three-day strike in September 2024. The labor action was not isolated. From October to November 2024, workers at DoubleTree's Seattle-area SeaTac location and at its Boston-Cambridge property also waged successful strikes. These disputes arrived in a period already shaped by disruption. The DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Metropolitan New York City, designated a New York City landmark, closed in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. It had originally opened in 1961 as Manhattan's first new short-term accommodation in thirty years, before being rebranded a DoubleTree in 2005. Meanwhile, in Tucson, the Reid Park location, built in 1976, holds the distinction of being the longest continuously operating DoubleTree property in the United States, having operated as a DoubleTree without interruption since its opening, including a period as a DoubleTree Resort into the mid-1980s.