Hilton Drops Franchise After it Refuses Rooms for ICE Agents
Photo Credit: Exterior view of Hampton Inn, Lakeville, Minneapolis, a hotel caught up in a dispute with DHS. Hilton
Skift Take
Hilton apparently decided it needed to move swiftly to guard its national brand reputation.
Hilton said Tuesday it had removed a Hampton Inn in the Minneapolis area from its franchise system after the hotel refused service to a person wanting to book rooms for law enforcement officers — despite saying a day earlier that the issue had been resolved.
“The independent hotel owner had assured us that they had fixed this problem,” Hilton said in a statement Tuesday. “A recent video clearly raises concerns that they are not meeting our standards and values. As such, we are taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems.”
As of Tuesday morning, the hotel is listed as “sold out” for several future dates, suggesting Hilton had halted bookings through its system. As of Tuesday afternoon, Hilton had removed the listing from its site and app.
Hilton’s decision followed a video posted on X early Tuesday that shows a front desk representative at the Hampton Inn Lakeview in Minnesota telling a visitor that the property would not accept reservations for Department of Homeland Security or agents involved in immigration work.
Earlier Monday, DHS accused Hilton of canceling reservations for ICE officers. Hilton issued a statement that the property was independently owned and operated and that its management company had apologized and promised to comply with Hilton’s nondiscrimination policies. “Hilton hotels serve as welcoming places for all,” the company said in a statement.
“We are also engaging with all of our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again,” a Hilton spokesperson said Tuesday.
The franchisee’s management company, Everpeak Hospitality, issued this statement on Monday on its website before the video: “Everpeak Hospitality has moved swiftly to address this matter as it was inconsistent with our policy of being a welcoming place for all. We are in touch with the impacted guests to ensure they are accommodated. We do not discriminate against any individuals or agencies and apologize to those impacted.”
Department of Homeland Security’s Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin responded to the management company’s statement that it was “in touch with impacted guests” on X, saying around 7 pm Eastern on Monday that her agency hadn’t “heard anything from them.”
