Hilton ranks No. 1 on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For — Europe 2026 list, displacing logistics giant DHL, with 92% of its U.K. employees rating the company a great place to work against a 54% average for a typical U.K. organization.

The ranking, produced with Great Place to Work, draws on anonymous employee survey data and reviews of benefits programs. Hilton claims the top European spot while it rolls out AI in back-office and customer-facing roles and operates an AI trip-planning chatbot on its website — technology the company frames as an enhancement rather than a replacement for staff.

"Nothing is a substitute for the human touch, and our team members appreciate that," Steve Ryan, senior vice president of HR for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Hilton, told Fortune. "We talk openly about using technology to enable even more focus on the guest experience, so I think that helps to allay fears."

Why the labor math favors headcount

Hilton's people-first positioning tracks a hard sector constraint. World Economic Forum research projects demand for travel and tourism workers will exceed supply by more than 43 million people by 2035.

Ryan credits purpose-driven programming for Hilton's ranking. Under the "travel with purpose" program, employees take part in community projects — litter picking, river-bank cleaning, CV-writing help for young people. Employees logged 1.8 million volunteering hours in 2025.

"People want to feel they're part of something bigger and that they're having a positive impact on the company and the wider community," Ryan said. "Our ability to demonstrate that is a real competitive advantage."

How Hilton is standardizing benefits across markets

Ryan's current priority is consistency in perks and benefits, which vary by country. Recent moves include:

• The care hub, an upgraded employee assistance program offering guidance on caring for elderly relatives, children and mental health. Launched first in the U.S., it now covers staff across Europe and the Middle East with country-specific pages in 17 regions.
• Discounted gym memberships and wellbeing apps, extended to 10 additional countries in the region over the past year.
• A global travel benefit giving employees, friends and family heavily discounted stays at Hilton hotels — which Ryan calls one of the most popular perks.
• An employee exchange program for cross-property roles and cultural placements, with 1,400 participants since 2023.

Can culture scale with 329 hotels in the pipeline?

The bigger test is growth. Hilton has 329 hotels under construction or in development, and each opening requires building culture from the ground up.

"We're opening hotels at quite a pace and, when you open a new hotel, you have to build the culture from scratch," Ryan said.

Getting that right, he argues, is what drives retention: "Culture is the reason so many people stay with us and develop successful careers." With the sector's worker shortfall widening toward 2035, Hilton's ability to replicate that culture at opening pace will determine whether its staffing model holds.