The idea that ICE agents are rogue actors in the government has taken another odd turn.
This week, reports surfaced that a privately-owned Hilton-branded property in Minnesota canceled reservations for federal agents operating in the area.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and the rest of the Trump administration went ballistic, which resulted in Hilton's corporate leadership getting involved, yielding an unfavorable outcome for the property's owner-operator.
Reports started popping up on Monday that a Hampton Inn, operating under the Hilton banner, had canceled reservations made by ICE agents.
The administration’s DHS account on X posted, “When officers attempted to book rooms using official government emails and rates, Hilton Hotels maliciously CANCELLED their reservations. This is UNACCEPTABLE.”
It continued, “Why is Hilton Hotels siding with murderers and rapists to deliberately undermine and impede DHS law enforcement from their mission to enforce our nation’s immigration laws?”
Hilton corporate soon got involved in the matter.
Hilton investigated the situation and quickly realized that the location involved was an independently-owned property.
Now, I can tell you, as someone who is a former hotel manager for Hilton, the brand does not play games when it comes to policy.
The company immediately posted, "We have been in direct contact with the hotel, and they have apologized for the actions of their team, which was not in keeping with their policies.”
Everpeak Hospitality, which is the company that operates the hotel, added, "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."
The apology apparently was not enough for Hilton, which is not surprising.
On Tuesday, Hilton announced that it is "taking immediate action to remove this hotel from our systems,” which I take to mean that Hilton is pulling its branding from the property, which is a huge deal.
The statement continued, "Hilton is – and has always been – a welcoming place for all. We are also engaging with all our franchisees to reinforce the standards we hold them to across our system to help ensure this does not happen again."
If Hilton ended its affiliation with this property, it can no longer operate as a Hampton Inn, and it would have to either seek a relationship with another brand, such as IHG, which operates Crown Plaza and Holiday Inn properties, among others, or it would have to go the independent route, which is very difficult. I would hate to be in the shoes of the front desk manager or staffer who decided to go rogue and cancel ICE agent reservations, as they have just cost their owners millions in revenue that the Hilton flag would have brought.
