Hilton CMO Mark Weinstein Steps Down After 16 Years

After 16 years, Mark Weinstein is stepping down as Hilton’s Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Luxury Brands. 

Announcing his plans to “check out of Hilton” on LinkedIn, Mark said working at the company – which he first joined in 2010 as a Senior Director of Global Customer Marketing Project Management Centre of Excellence – had given him “experiences that far surpassed my wildest imagination”.

“Places, projects and roles so big and transformative I never even thought to dream of them,” he said. “Team Hilton, thank you for teaching me more about hospitality, creativity, branding, marketing, loyalty, and humanity than I knew there was to learn.”

The company is yet to announce a replacement Chief Marketing Officer. 

Brand platforms and loyalty programmes

Mark has held several senior leadership positions within Hilton over the years – including time as Vice President of the Hilton Honors loyalty programme, which he helped grow from 25 million members to 250 million members globally. 

As Chief Marketing Officer, he also led the launch of ‘Hilton. For the Stay’ – its first ever global brand platform, still used today.

At the time of the launch, Mark said: “With ‘Hilton. For the Stay,’ we are more fully connecting our external customer marketing to our purpose – staking our rightful claim that Hilton owns the Stay. 

“The idea of the Stay was incredibly natural to Hilton, and yet no one else was talking about it.

“As others tout the generic virtues of travel, minimise the role of the hotel and the hotel team members and romanticise the destination, through our platform and the campaign it inspires, we’re reminding travellers that ‘It Matters Where You Stay’ and boldly affirming ‘Hilton. For the Stay.’”

The brand platform, the company has said, is designed to elevate the role of hotels themselves in hotel marketing – rather than focusing on travel marketing cliches.

Advertising creative for this campaign is designed to have a fun and relatable tone to it, which the company says marks a break from the “formulaic” approach traditionally seen across the industry. 

“We turned Hilton Honors into a club for all guests,” Mark said. “Built ‘Hilton. For the Stay’ into a platform disrupting a sea of sameness with breakthrough, distinctive creative. 

“Harnessed the power of partnerships. And together, to make all of that possible, we built an incredible team.

“I once believed nothing was more fulfilling than doing great work. It turns out I was wrong. Enabling great people to do great work is far more rewarding.”

Leadership shifts at Hilton

This move follows a series of leadership shifts at Hilton. 

According to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Chris Silcock, President of Global Brands at the company, is planning to retire in the first quarter of 2027 after more than 17 years with the company. 

Laura Fuentes, currently the company’s Chief Human Resources Officer and Head of Supply Management, is set to become Chief Brand Officer, while Chris Wilroy, Hilton’s Chief Commercial Officer, is set to join the executive committee in order to prepare the company for this change. 

Who are Hilton’s key partners? 

• Google: Hilton has announced that travellers will be able to discover Hilton through AI Mode in Google Search, where they can explore properties and compare options as part of a conversational planning experience in this newly introduced hotel booking feature. Travellers can also now incorporate Hilton Honors Points into their stay searches within AI Mode.
• Calm: Calm and Hilton have an exclusive partnership that addresses consumers’ preference for wellness. The partnership integrates Calm’s award-winning content into Hilton’s proprietary Connected Room Experience technology to provide guests with access to guided meditations, sleep stories, calming soundscapes and mindfulness exercises directly from their in-room TV. 
• OpenAI: In this partnership, customers can add Hilton’s plugin to ChatGPT, which brings Hilton property information directly into the conversations users are having with ChatGPT. Once added, users can ask Hilton-specific questions, explore hotel recommendations and learn more about hotels, before being redirected to the Hilton website to book.
• Anthropic: Hilton is developing a Claude Connector, designed to bring property images, details and pricing into Claude, which the company says will give travellers helpful context as they make decisions on where to stay.