Hilton Hotels’ interest in space started way back in 1959 when Barron Hilton, son of the founder and an aviation enthusiast who could fly everything from planes to hot air balloons, mooted the idea of opening a lunar hotel. Hilton’s initial idea was the Orbiter Hilton, a space lab with 14 levels, designed to accommodate 24 people. It was intended for short trips into space, for stopovers on the way to the moon or another planet.
Swap a sea view for a space view
Hilton went as far as printing out promotional reservation cards for customers to reserve a hotel room on the moon and mocked up what it thought would be the room key of the future during their press launch. “They came up with a sleek-looking key, but what we’ve actually been using as hotel keys for the last 25 years or so – the key card – was really beyond their comprehension,” says Dr Mark Young, who oversees the Conrad Hilton archive at the University of Houston.
