Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf signs Hilton Worldwide hotel deal

If you stay at any of the Hilton Hotels & Resorts, DoubleTree by Hilton or Embassy Suites Hotels in North America, South America and Central America you will find only one brand of coffee and tea in each room.

Hilton Worldwide, one of the world’s largest hotel chains, has signed an exclusive agreement with Los Angeles-based Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf to provide the coffee and tea in the sealed packets that guests find in their room starting this summer.

If you are a fan of Starbucks or Seattle’s Best, don’t fret. The agreement won’t push out any coffee outlet that already operates in the hotels’ lobbies or restaurants.

“This is a way to shake things up for our guests without removing any walls,” said Jim Holthouser, executive vice president, global brands, for Hilton Worldwide.

One reason for the agreement, he said, is that Hilton will save money buying in bulk.
Holthouser wouldn’t say how much the hotel chain would save but he noted that guests at the three major hotel brands drink more than 100,000 cups of in-room coffee per day.

“You are talking about going through a whole lot of this stuff,” he said.

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