Which Hotel CEO Was Highest Paid In 2024? ($28 Million)

Recently, I covered US airline CEO compensation for last year, since proxy statements have been filed in the past couple of weeks. Curiosity got the best of me, so I also had a look at CEO compensation for the major hotel chains, just for fun.

Honestly, it’s not quite as interesting as at the airlines, but I figure some others are curious as well, so here’s a quick rundown…

Comparing pay among major hotel group CEOs

So, how were the CEOs of the major hotel groups compensated in 2024? They certainly weren’t Bonvoyed, I’ll tell you that! Here’s a high level rundown, and I’ll also include 2023, for comparison. Here are the total compensation amounts for the three CEOs of Hilton, Hyatt, and Marriott (the publicly traded, US-based groups that are probably most interesting to OMAAT readers):

• Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta earned $28.0 million in 2024, compared to $26.6 million in 2023
• Marriott CEO Anthony Capuano earned $21.9 million in 2024, compared to $22.7 million in 2023
• Hyatt CEO Mark Hoplamazian earned $16.6 million in 2024, compared to $20.8 million in 2023

It’s important to emphasize that while the above are the amounts of the total compensation, the structure of this varied by company, so we’re not talking about all cash compensation here.

As you can tell, Hilton’s Chris Nassetta was the highest paid CEO. His $28 million in compensation included a $1.3 million base salary, $3.2 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, $5.8 million in options awards, and $17.3 million in stock awards.

I find airline industry economics much more interesting

Obviously I cover topics about both the airline and hotel industry. While I love staying up to date on hotel loyalty programs, new openings, etc., the finance side of things just isn’t as interesting to me as in the airline industry.

That’s simply because the hotel business is a bit easier (which isn’t to say it’s easy, but just as a relative matter). The major hotel groups have stable business models and take an asset-light approach, so they’re just taking a cut on hotel revenue, along with some other revenue streams (like loyalty). So profitably doesn’t vary wildly year-to-year, unlike with airlines, where they can make billions one year, and lose billions the next year.

As you can see, there’s a bit more consistency in year-to-year pay among hotel CEOs vs. airline CEOs. It’s interesting to note that in 2024, Hilton was significantly more profitable than in 2023, while that wasn’t the case for Hyatt and Marriott.

For hotel CEOs, the focus is always on growth. At Marriott, they’re looking for any opportunity to take a cut on someone going to sleep. Who knows, maybe they’ll add mattress stores to Marriott Bonvoy soon. Meanwhile Hyatt has of course been on an all-inclusive kick, as its focus for expansion, along with an effort to expand limited service conversion properties. Hilton seems to be mostly flying under the radar, largely pursuing organic growth.

Bottom line

You can sleep well at night knowing that your hotel CEOs are all raking in eight figures. Hilton’s CEO is the top paid, followed by Marriott’s CEO, followed by Hyatt’s CEO. I don’t think there’s anything terribly surprising here (well, at least for Americans — many foreigners are shocked when they find out how well paid CEOs of publicly traded companies are in the US).

Are you surprised by these hotel CEO compensation numbers?