Hilton in the UAE: 36 hotels, a Dubai regional hub and a Marjan Island opening
Editorial
Hilton said in July 2024 that it operates 36 hotels in the UAE, five of them in Ras Al Khaimah, and 80 hotels across 11 brands in the Middle East. The announcement, which introduced a new hotel on Marjan Island, quoted Carlos Khneisser, Hilton’s vice president of development for the Middle East and Africa, saying the company has been operating in Ras Al Khaimah for more than 20 years. Hilton runs its Middle East and Africa operations from a regional hub in Dubai.
The company in brief
Conrad Hilton founded the business in 1919 when he bought the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas. It is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker HLT and is headquartered in Tysons, Virginia. Christopher Nassetta has been president and chief executive since 29 October 2007, and Jonathan Gray of Blackstone chairs the board. Wikipedia puts the workforce at about 182,000 people in 2025.
2025 results
Hilton reported full-year 2025 results on 11 February 2026. Net income was $1,461 million, down from $1,539 million in 2024, and adjusted EBITDA was $3,725 million. Diluted earnings per share were $6.12, or $8.11 on an adjusted basis, according to a Travel Daily News summary. System-wide comparable RevPAR, the revenue earned per available room, rose 0.4% on a currency-neutral basis, and management and franchise fee revenue grew 6.4%.
The development pipeline reached a record 520,500 rooms across 3,703 hotels in 129 countries and territories at the end of December 2025. Hilton opened about 97,000 rooms during the year, a net unit growth of 6.7%. For 2026 it guides to RevPAR growth of 1% to 2%, net income of $1,982 million to $2,011 million and net unit growth of 6% to 7%. Business Traveller reports that the company planned 26 hotel openings in 2026 across the Middle East, Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas.
Hilton Marjan Island Beach Resort and Spa
The new Ras Al Khaimah hotel is being developed with M Hospitality, whose chairman is Mohammed Ruqait. According to the 2024 announcement, it has 350 rooms, made up of 315 king rooms and 35 suites, and six restaurants and bars. It has a spa and wellness centre, a fitness club, tennis courts, a kids club, a 360-degree sky pool overlooking the Arabian Gulf, an executive lounge, four meeting rooms and a ballroom for up to 300 guests. It sits next to Hampton by Hilton Marjan Island, and Hilton said two of its hotels already operate on the island.
That announcement expected the resort to open in the fourth quarter of 2026. One later hotel-openings listing gives 2027, so the date should be confirmed with Hilton before it is relied on.
Abu Dhabi
An Abu Dhabi hotel-openings guide reports that the former Anantara Eastern Mangroves is set to reopen as The Mangroves Abu Dhabi, LXR Hotels & Resorts, with 167 rooms. The same guide says the property had once been planned as a Waldorf Astoria but was moved to Hilton’s LXR brand. No opening date is given. Talentmate has advertised a pastry chef vacancy there, which is listed on this site.
Regional targets
In a 2022 release Hilton said it expected to open nearly 100 hotels in the Middle East and North Africa within five years, almost doubling its UAE portfolio and quadrupling its Saudi Arabia portfolio to nearly 50 hotels in each country. The July 2024 figure of 36 UAE hotels is the most recent count in the sources reviewed.
Where the company came from
Hilton built the Dallas Hilton in 1925, formed Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1946 and bought the Statler Hotels for $111 million in 1954. The group was taken private in Blackstone’s $26 billion buyout in 2007 and returned to the stock market in a December 2013 IPO. In 2017 it spun off Park Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Grand Vacations, and in 2024 it took a majority stake in Sydell Group, the owner of NoMad Hotels.
Hilton lists open vacancies in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah on its LinkedIn page; those listings are shown on the company profile on this site. Figures in this article are as reported by the sources listed below.